- Article
Applies to: ✔️ Linux VMs ✔️ Windows VMs ✔️ Flexible scale sets ✔️ Uniform scale sets
Azure Virtual Machine (VM) sizes are designed to provide a wide range of options for hosting your servers and their workloads in the cloud. Sizes are categorized into different families and types, each optimized for specific purposes. Users can choose the most suitable VM size based on their requirements, such as CPU, memory, storage, and network bandwidth.
This article describes what sizes are, gives an overview of the available sizes and shows different options for Azure virtual machine instances you can use to run your apps and workloads.
Tip
Try the Virtual machines selector tool to find other sizes that best fit your workload.
VM size and series naming
Azure VM sizes follow specific naming conventions to denote varying features and specifications. Each character in the name represents different aspects of the VM. These include the VM family, number of vCPUs, and extra features like premium storage or included accelerators.
VM naming is further broken down into the 'Series' name and the 'Size' name. Size names include extra characters representing the number of vCPUs, type of storage, etc.
| Category | Description | Links |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Basic categorization by intended workload. | General purpose Compute optimized Memory optimized Storage optimized GPU accelerated FPGA accelerated |
| Series | Group of sizes with similar hardware and features. | Enter the 'Series' tab here. |
| Size | Specific VM configuration, including vCPUs, memory, and accelerators. | Enter the 'Size' tab here. |
Name structure breakdown
- Series
- Size
Here's a breakdown of a 'General purpose, DCads_v5-series' size series.
1 Most families are represented using one letter, but others such as GPU sizes (ND-series, NV-series, etc.) use two.
2 Most subfamilies are represented with a single upper case letter, but others (such as Ebsv5-series) are still considered subfamilies of their parent family due to feature differences.
3 If no feature letter for a CPU is listed, the series uses Intel x86-64 CPUs. If the CPU is AMD, it's listed as a. If the CPU is ARM based (Microsoft Cobalt or Ampere Altra), it's listed as p.
4 There can be any number of extra features in a size name. There could be none (Dv5-series) or there could be three (Dplds_v6-series).
5 Version numbers only appear in the size name if there are multiple versions of the same series. If you're using the first version of a series (HB-series, B-series, etc.) it's often not included in the size name.
Note
Not all sizes will have subfamilies, support accelerators, or specify the CPU vendor. For more information on VM size naming conventions, see Azure VM sizes naming conventions.
List of VM size families by type
This section contains a list of all current generation size series with tabs dedicated to each size family. Each group has a 'Series List' column with a linked list of all available size series, These links will bring you to the family page for that series, where you can find detailed information on each size in that series or go to the series' page for a list of sizes in that series.
To learn more about a size family, click the 'family' tab under each type section. There you can read a summary on the family, see the workloads it's recommended for, and view the full family page with specifications for all series in that family.
General purpose
General purpose VM sizes provide balanced CPU-to-memory ratio. Ideal for testing and development, small to medium databases, and low to medium traffic web servers.
- Family list
- A family
- B family
- D family
- DC family
| Family | Workloads | Series List |
|---|---|---|
| A-family | Entry-level economical | Av2-series Previous-gen A-family series |
| B-family | Burstable | Bsv2-series Basv2-series Bpsv2-series Previous-gen B-family series |
| D-family | Enterprise-grade applications Relational databases In-memory caching Data analytics | Dpsv6-series and Dplsv6-series Dpdsv6-series and Dpldsv6-series Dalsv6 and Daldsv6-series Dpsv5 and Dpdsv5-series Dpldsv5 and Dpldsv5-series Dlsv5 and Dldsv5-series Dv5 and Dsv5-series Ddv5 and Ddsv5-series Dasv5 and Dadsv5-series Previous-gen D-family series |
| DC-family | D-family with confidential computing | DCasv5 and DCadsv5-series DCas_cc_v5 and DCads_cc_v5-series DCesv5 and DCedsv5-series DCsv3 and DCdsv3-series Previous-gen DC-family |
Compute optimized
Compute optimized VM sizes have a high CPU-to-memory ratio. These sizes are good for medium traffic web servers, network appliances, batch processes, and application servers.
- Family list
- F family
- FX family
List of compute optimized VM size families:
| Family | Workloads | Series List |
|---|---|---|
| F-family | Medium traffic web servers Network appliances Batch processes Application servers | Fasv6 and Falsv6-series Fsv2-series Previous-gen F-family |
| FX-family | Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Large memory relational databases Medium to large caches In-memory analytics | FX-series |
To learn more about a specific size family or series, click the tab for that family and scroll to find your desired size series.
Memory optimized
Memory optimized VM sizes offer a high memory-to-CPU ratio that is great for relational database servers, medium to large caches, and in-memory analytics.
- Family list
- E family
- Eb family
- EC family
- M family
List of memory optimized VM sizes with links to each series' family page section:
| Family | Workloads | Series List |
|---|---|---|
| E-family | Relational databases Medium to large caches In-memory analytics | Epsv6 and Epdsv6-series Easv6 and Eadsv6-series Ev5 and Esv5-series Edv5 and Edsv5-series Easv5 and Eadsv5-series Epsv5 and Epdsv5-series Previous-gen families |
| Eb-family | E-family with High remote storage performance | Ebdsv5 and Ebsv5-series |
| EC-family | E-family with confidential computing | ECasv5 and ECadsv5-series ECas_cc_v5 and ECads_cc_v5-series ECesv5 and ECedsv5-series |
| M-family | Extremely large databases Large amounts of memory | Msv3 and Mdsv3-series Mv2-series Msv2 and Mdsv2-series |
| Other families | Older generation memory optimized sizes | Previous-gen families |
To learn more about a specific size family or series, click the tab for that family and scroll to find your desired size series.
Storage optimized
Storage optimized virtual machine (VM) sizes offer high disk throughput and IO, and are ideal for Big Data, SQL, NoSQL databases, data warehousing, and large transactional databases. Examples include Cassandra, MongoDB, Cloudera, and Redis.
- Family list
- L family
List of storage optimized VM size families:
| Family | Workloads | Series List |
|---|---|---|
| L-family | High disk throughput and IO Big Data SQL and NoSQL databases Data warehousing Large transactional databases | Lsv3-series Lasv3-series Previous-gen L-family |
To learn more about a specific size family or series, click the tab for that family and scroll to find your desired size series.
GPU accelerated
GPU optimized VM sizes are specialized virtual machines available with single, multiple, or fractional GPUs. These sizes are designed for compute-intensive, graphics-intensive, and visualization workloads.
- Family list
- NC family
- ND family
- NG family
- NV family
List of GPU optimized VM size families:
| Family | Workloads | Series List |
|---|---|---|
| NC-family | Compute-intensive Graphics-intensive Visualization | NC-series NCads_H100_v5-series NCCads_H100_v5-series NCv2-series NCv3-series NCasT4_v3-series NC_A100_v4-series |
| ND-family | Large memory compute-intensive Large memory graphics-intensive Large memory visualization | ND_MI300X_v5-series ND-H100-v5-series NDm_A100_v4-series ND_A100_v4-series |
| NG-family | Virtual Desktop (VDI) Cloud gaming | NGads V620-series |
| NV-family | Virtual desktop (VDI) Single-precision compute Video encoding and rendering | NV-series NVv3-series NVv4-series NVadsA10_v5-series Previous-gen NV-family |
To learn more about a specific size family or series, click the tab for that family and scroll to find your desired size series.
FPGA accelerated
FPGA optimized VM sizes are specialized virtual machines available with single or multiple FPGAs. These sizes are designed for compute-intensive workloads. This article provides information about the number and type of FPGAs, vCPUs, data disks, and NICs. Storage throughput and network bandwidth are also included for each size in this grouping.
- Family list
- NP family
List of field programmable gate array accelerated VM size families:
| Family | Workloads | Series List |
|---|---|---|
| NP-family | Machine learning inference Video transcoding Database search and analytics | NP-series |
To learn more about a specific size family or series, click the tab for that family and scroll to find your desired size series.
High performance compute
Azure High Performance Compute VMs are optimized for various HPC workloads such as computational fluid dynamics, finite element analysis, frontend and backend EDA, rendering, molecular dynamics, computational geoscience, weather simulation, and financial risk analysis.
- Family list
- H family
- HC family
- HX family
List of high performance computing optimized VM size families:
| Family | Workloads | Series List |
|---|---|---|
| HB-family | High memory bandwidth Fluid Dynamics Weather modeling | HB-series HBv2-series HBv3-series HBv4-series |
| HC-family | High density compute Finite element analysis Molecular dynamics Computational chemistry | HC-series |
| HX-family | Large memory capacity Electronic Design Automation (EDA) | HX-series |
To learn more about a specific size family or series, click the tab for that family and scroll to find your desired size series.
Learn platform sizes content
- For information about pricing of the various sizes, see the pricing pages for Linux or Windows.
- Want to change the size of your VM? See Change the size of a VM.
- For availability of VM sizes in Azure regions, see Products available by region.
- To see general limits on Azure VMs, see Azure subscription and service limits, quotas, and constraints.
- For more information on how Azure names its VMs, see Azure virtual machine sizes naming conventions.
REST API
For information on using the REST API to query for VM sizes, see the following:
- List available virtual machine sizes for resizing
- List available virtual machine sizes for a subscription
- List available virtual machine sizes in an availability set
Benchmark scores
Learn more about compute performance for Linux VMs using the CoreMark benchmark scores.
Learn more about compute performance for Windows VMs using the SPECInt benchmark scores.
Other size information
List of all available sizes: Sizes
Pricing Calculator: Pricing Calculator
Information on Disk Types: Disk Types
Next steps
Learn more about how Azure compute units (ACU) can help you compare compute performance across Azure SKUs.
Check out Azure Dedicated Hosts for physical servers able to host one or more virtual machines assigned to one Azure subscription.
Learn how to Monitor Azure virtual machines.
