{"rid":"storage/azure-blob-storage-always-free-tier","card":{"rid":"storage/azure-blob-storage-always-free-tier","eid":"microsoft","topic":"storage","slug":"azure-blob-storage-always-free-tier","provider":"Azure Blob Storage always-free tier","url":"https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/pricing/free-services","domain":"microsoft.com","category":"iaas","tier":null,"verdict":"fails-quota","vorder":6,"grp":"rejected","confidence":"reported","binding":"per-object-cap","identity_kind":"card","identity_basis":"stated","needs_card":1,"needs_phone":0,"needs_id":0,"needs_institution":0,"country":null,"crypto":null,"interfaces":"s3-compatible,rest,rclone","egress_metered":1,"per_object_bytes":5000000000,"retention_days":null,"verified_at":"2026-10-21T00:00:00.000Z","verified_basis":"inherited","checked_on":"2026-10-21","stale_on":"2026-11-04","n_evidence":3,"usd_month":null,"usd_per_tb_month":null,"summary":"5 GB LRS hot block storage, with 20,000 read and 10,000 write operations per month, free for 12 months. Azure Files: 100 GB LRS hot/cool/transaction-optimize...","duplicate_of":null,"n_unknown":5},"record":{"topic":"storage","slug":"azure-blob-storage-always-free-tier","provider":"Azure Blob Storage always-free tier","url":"https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/pricing/free-services","category":"iaas","free_tier":{"stated":"5 GB LRS hot block storage, with 20,000 read and 10,000 write operations per month, free for 12 months. Azure Files: 100 GB LRS hot/cool/transaction-optimized, 12 months. Archive Storage: 10 GB LRS, 12 months.","unit":"GB","metered_on":"stored-bytes","source_url":"https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/pricing/free-services","read_on":"2026-10-21","notes":null},"per_object_cap":{"stated":"5 GB cap","bytes":5000000000,"source_url":"https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/pricing/free-services","notes":"not stated"},"retention":{"stated":"not stated","source_url":"https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/pricing/free-services","notes":"not stated"},"egress":{"terms":"Metered. 'First 100 GB/Month' egress free, then $0.087/GB from North America/Europe. 1 TiB/day of serving would be ~$80/day. Fails the egress filter hard unless fronted by a CDN with an origin-pull exemption.","metered":true,"free_allowance":"100 GB per month"},"interface":["s3-compatible","rest","rclone"],"interface_detail":"s3","tooling":"rclone backend 'azureblob' (Tier 1, md5, R/W); any S3-compatible SDK is NOT usable - it's the native Blob REST API; AzCopy, Azure Storage Explorer, azure-storage-blob Python SDK","chaining":"Per-account 5 GB and accounts require a credit card for verification; the always-free grant is per Azure subscription. N subscriptions x 5 GB is not a serious multiplier and each needs billing verification.","limits":[{"kind":"request-rate","value":"10,000 write operations per month","source":"https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/pricing/free-services"},{"kind":"per-object-cap","value":"5 GB cap","source":"https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/pricing/free-services"}],"limits_note":"5 GB cap; 12-month expiry on the Blob allotment (Azure's page labels Blob '12 months' despite the 'always free' framing elsewhere - treat as trial); 5 PiB max per storage account is irrelevant at 5 GB.","identity_cost":{"kind":"card","detail":"derived from the record's prose, not from an identity field, and no signup was executed: mized, 12 months. Archive Storage: 10 GB LRS, 12 months. Card required; overage silently bills at pay-go rates once the 12-month window lapses because the account is not auto-suspended. Per-","country":null},"reliability_note":"Card required; overage silently bills at pay-go rates once the 12-month window lapses because the account is not auto-suspended.","confidence":"reported","confidence_note":"One page read moves it to documented.","evidence":[{"url":"https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/pricing/free-services","date":"2026-10-21","proved":"'Blob Storage ... 5 GB locally redundant storage (LRS) hot block with 20,000 read and 10,000 write operations' / '12 months'; 'Azure Files ... 100 GB of LRS transaction optimised, hot, and cool files' / '12 months'; 'Archive Storage ... 10 GB LRS storage' / '12 months'"},{"url":"https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/bandwidth/","date":"2026-10-21","proved":"'First 100 GB/Month' free, then '$0.087 per GB' from North America/Europe; 'Azure already offers the first 100 GB/month of egressed data for free'"},{"url":"https://rclone.org/overview/","date":"2026-10-21","proved":"Azure Blob listed as a Tier 1 rclone backend, md5, R/W"}],"verdict":"fails-quota","verified_at":"2026-10-21T00:00:00.000Z","notes":"5 GB LRS hot block storage, with 20,000 read and 10,000 write operations per month, free for 12 months. Azure Files: 100 GB LRS hot/cool/transaction-optimized, 12 months. Archive Storage: 10 GB LRS, 12 months.","extras":{"dead_end":{"failure_class":"quota","why":"5 GB LRS hot block storage, with 20,000 read and 10,000 write operations per month, free for 12 months. Azure Files: 100 GB LRS hot/cool/transaction-optimized, 12 months. Archive Storage: 10 GB LRS, 12 months.","retry_when":null,"first_recorded":"2026-10-21"}},"binding":"per-object-cap","binding_note":"the per-object cap sets the shard size and therefore the object count; it bounds the total more tightly than any headline quota"},"claims":[{"path":"$.free_tier.stated","kind":"free-quota","num":5,"unit":"GB","per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.limits[0].value","kind":"limit:request-rate","num":null,"unit":null,"per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"unparsed"},{"path":"$.limits[1].value","kind":"limit:per-object-cap","num":5,"unit":"GB","per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"}],"unknown":[["$.extras.dead_end.retry_when","process"],["$.free_tier.notes","process"],["$.per_object_cap.notes","not-extracted"],["$.retention.notes","not-extracted"],["$.retention.stated","not-extracted"]],"history":[],"drift":[]}