Look up and compare Azure service pricing using the Azure Retail Prices API. Use this skill whenever the user asks about Azure costs, pricing, rates, or wants to compare prices across regions or services — even if they don't say "pricing" explicitly. Trigger for questions like "how much does a D2 v2 VM cost?", "cheapest region for Azure SQL", or "compare storage prices between eastus and westeurope".
Fetch and compare live Azure service pricing using the bundled scripts that call the Azure Retail Prices API.
Always use the bundled npm script for price lookups and comparisons when terminal execution is available.
DO NOT call the Azure Retail Prices API directly. You can only use the script to call the API.
All scripts live in ./scripts/ and run via npm:
# List sample service names (discover what's available)
npm run --prefix ./scripts get-prices
# Get prices for a service in a region (default region: eastus)
npm run --prefix ./scripts get-prices -- "Virtual Machines" eastus
The script accepts two positional arguments:
"Virtual Machines", "SQL Database", "Storage", "Azure Cosmos DB"eastuseastuswestus2westeuropesoutheastasiaWhen called with no arguments, it prints a sample of available service names.
The npm commands below are the preferred execution path for this skill and should be used instead of direct API calls whenever command execution is available.
Run the script with the service name and region. Present results in a readable table.
To compare prices across regions, run the script multiple times — once per region — then combine the results into a comparison table. For example, to compare Virtual Machines prices across three regions:
npm run --prefix ./scripts get-prices -- "Virtual Machines" eastus
npm run --prefix ./scripts get-prices -- "Virtual Machines" westus2
npm run --prefix ./scripts get-prices -- "Virtual Machines" westeurope
Then join the results by SKU name to show a side-by-side comparison table with columns for each region.
Run prices for the target service across several common regions and sort by price. Common Azure regions to compare:
eastus, eastus2, westus2, centralus (US)westeurope, northeurope, uksouth (Europe)southeastasia, eastasia, japaneast (Asia-Pacific)If the user isn't sure of the exact service name, run the script with no arguments first to get a sample of available names, then use the closest match.
If command execution is unavailable, use the local script implementation as the behavioral reference, then fall back to public pricing sources only as needed. In that case, explicitly tell the user that script execution was unavailable before presenting results.
Present pricing results as markdown tables. For comparisons, use a format like:
| SKU | East US | West US 2 | West Europe |
|---|---|---|---|
| D2 v2 | $0.10/hr | $0.11/hr | $0.12/hr |
| D4 v2 | $0.20/hr | $0.22/hr | $0.24/hr |
Highlight the cheapest option per row when doing comparisons. Include the currency and unit of measure.