# Underutilized Azure Savings Plan Due to Overly Narrow Scope

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# Underutilized Azure Savings Plan Due to Overly Narrow Scope

## Explanation

This inefficiency occurs when an Azure Savings Plan is scoped too narrowly relative to where eligible compute usage actually runs. When usage is spread across multiple subscriptions or fluctuates significantly (for example, development and test workloads that are frequently stopped and started), a narrowly scoped Savings Plan may not consistently find enough eligible usage to consume the full commitment. As a result, part of the committed hourly spend goes unused while other eligible workloads outside the scope continue to incur on-demand charges.

Azure supports broader scoping options-such as Management Group or Shared scope-that allow the commitment to be applied across a larger pool of eligible compute. Selecting an overly restrictive scope can therefore directly drive underutilization, even when sufficient total usage exists across the tenant.

## Relevant Billing Model

Azure Savings Plans apply a fixed hourly commitment against eligible compute usage within the configured scope. If eligible usage within that scope is insufficient or intermittent, part of the commitment remains unused while additional compute may still be billed at on-demand rates elsewhere.

## Detection

- Review whether Savings Plan utilization remains consistently below full consumption over time

- Assess whether eligible compute usage is distributed across multiple subscriptions or organizational boundaries

- Identify patterns of fluctuating usage (such as non-production workloads) that may prevent steady commitment consumption within a narrow scope

- Evaluate whether unused commitment coincides with eligible on-demand compute running outside the Savings Plan's scope

## Remediation

- Broaden the Savings Plan scope to include additional eligible subscriptions where appropriate

- Use Management Group scope when commitments should stay aligned to a specific line of business while still covering multiple subscriptions

- Use Shared scope when maximizing utilization across the entire tenant is the primary objective

- Reassess scope configuration whenever organizational structure or workload distribution changes

## Relevant Documentation

[https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cost-management-billing/savings-plan/scope](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cost-management-billing/savings-plan/scope)

[https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cost-management-billing/savings-plan/overview](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cost-management-billing/savings-plan/overview)

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## At a glance

Reference

CER-0289

Cloud provider

Azure

Service

Azure Virtual Machines

Category

[Compute](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/service-category/compute)

Inefficiency type

Commitment underutilization due to scope configuration

## Contributed by

- Aaran Bhambra 

### Aaran Bhambra

FinOps Engineer / DevOps Engineer @ WTW

[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaran-bhambra/)

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