I'm looking to figure out the expected costs of sending sign-in and audit logs to an Azure Monitor Log Analytics Workspace before I dive in. Specifically, I'd like to know if downloading the past 30 days of logs and checking the size of the CSV file would give a good ballpark idea of the log volume that would be billed, especially since it will be set up with the default 31-day retention. Also, is there any free log collection volume available before charges kick in with the pay-as-you-go plan? I understand that configuring alerts can add extra costs depending on the frequency, but our alerts won't trigger every month. What's the best way to predict log volume without committing to a plan?
4 Answers
If you're really concerned about costs, cap your ingestion and run it for a while to gauge the volume. There are calculators, but until you enable it, you'll be in the dark.
There's actually a cost estimation feature in the log analytics group. It’s worth checking out after you’ve enabled it for a couple of days to see consistent log rates and projected costs.
One approach is to set a daily ingestion limit for your workspace. Enable the integration and monitor it for a week. You'll get to see how your log volume varies—mornings usually have a spike. Honestly, spending too much time estimating can cost more than just paying for a few days of logs. If you find daily costs too high, then sustaining that level long-term might not be feasible.
For about 100 users and workstations, we spend roughly 50 GBP monthly on sign-in logs, with 20-50GB ingested each month. The first 5GB is free, which can help you control costs while still getting useful data. Just sharing this as a reference!
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