Microsoft Foundry (Azure AI Foundry)
Build, ground, and manage AI models and agents on Azure; each service is billed separately.
At a Glance
Microsoft Foundry (Azure AI Foundry) is an AI tool for Agent & RAG frameworks (category: Development & Code). Free access: Free trial. Documented: 6 plans with prices and limits.
- Category
- Agent & RAG frameworks
- Paid from
- 10 / 50 USD / per 1 million input/output tokens (GPT-6 Astra Standard Global (Short Context))
- Free Option
- Free trial
- Plans
- 6
- Sources
- 8 verified sources
Category: Development & Code · Agent & RAG frameworks
Features
Models, Agent Service, and your data sources in one Azure platform. Microsoft Foundry was previously Azure AI Foundry. There is no single platform price: model, context, deployment, and additional services determine cost. Astra examples are USD list prices, not the cheapest entry. Provisioned Throughput is an alternative capacity booking, not a mandatory surcharge on Standard calls. Search, storage, and networking can cost extra.
Privacy commitments for models sold by Azure do not automatically cover every third-party offer. Global can process requests worldwide; Data Zone confines processing to its zone. No training without permission or instruction does not mean stateful services or abuse monitoring store no data.
- Models, Agent Service, and your data sources in one Azure platform
- Governance, access controls, and evaluation; compliance still depends on configuration
- Standard consumption or separately booked Provisioned Throughput capacity
- Astra example prices distinguish Global and US Data Zone, and short and long context
Prices and plans
| Tier | Price | Period | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Azure trial credit | free | 30 days | USD 200 Azure trial credit for new customers, valid 30 days Excludes Marketplace offers; not a permanent free Foundry plan |
| GPT-6 Astra Standard Global (Short Context) | 10 / 50 USD | per 1 million input/output tokens | Up to 272,000 input tokens Cache read / cache write: 1 / 12.5 USD Astra example prices distinguish Global and US Data Zone, and short and long context |
| GPT-6 Astra Standard Global (Long Context) | 20 / 75 USD | per 1 million input/output tokens | Over 272,000 input tokens: rate applies to the entire request Cache read / cache write: 2 / 25 USD Astra example prices distinguish Global and US Data Zone, and short and long context |
| GPT-6 Astra Standard Data Zone (US) (Short Context) | 11 / 55 USD | per 1 million input/output tokens | Up to 272,000 input tokens Cache read / cache write: 1.1 / 13.75 USD Astra example prices distinguish Global and US Data Zone, and short and long context |
| GPT-6 Astra Standard Data Zone (US) (Long Context) | 22 / 82.5 USD | per 1 million input/output tokens | Over 272,000 input tokens: rate applies to the entire request Cache read / cache write: 2.2 / 27.5 USD Astra example prices distinguish Global and US Data Zone, and short and long context |
| GPT-6 Astra Provisioned Throughput | contact sales | usage-based | Alternative to Standard; booked capacity is charged even without calls Hourly billing or monthly/annual reservation; Astra PTU amounts are not listed The Astra announcement gives US Data Zone a 10% premium over Global PTU prices; confirm a specific quote |
Prices per vendor, excl. taxes/VAT where applicable.
Limits
For Astra, more than 272,000 input tokens triggers long-context rates for the entire request. Cache reads and writes have separate rates. Quotas and model availability depend on deployment and region. Azure's USD 200 credit for 30 days is for new customers only and excludes Marketplace offers; it is not a permanent free Foundry plan.
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FAQ
Is Microsoft Foundry (Azure AI Foundry) available for free?
Not permanently. What is published is a time-limited free trial.
Where is the vendor of Microsoft Foundry (Azure AI Foundry) based?
Microsoft is based in the USA. Regardless of that location, data processing and privacy terms are governed by the vendor's own contract.
How is Microsoft Foundry (Azure AI Foundry) billed?
Microsoft Foundry was previously Azure AI Foundry. There is no single platform price: model, context, deployment, and additional services determine cost. The listed price examples are USD list prices, not necessarily the cheapest option. Provisioned Throughput is an alternative capacity booking, not a mandatory surcharge on Standard calls. Search, storage, and networking can cost extra.
What plans does Microsoft Foundry (Azure AI Foundry) offer?
The catalog documents 6 plans with price, billing period, and included features.
Is Microsoft Foundry (Azure AI Foundry) currently available?
Microsoft Foundry (Azure AI Foundry) is still active: platform named Microsoft Foundry. Azure AI Foundry is its previous name.
How we compare
We compare free access, paid entry, plan limits, features and the listed official sources. Unsourced figures stay marked as not published.
Only confirmed entries appear in the catalog. Prices, plans and limits come from listed official vendor pages. Missing figures stay marked as not published. Search results are ordered by Task match by default; category and task lists are alphabetical. Both can be switched to Free access first; neither is a quality ranking. The vendor page always wins.
Edited and checked by the AI Compare Ninja team
Sources
All details regarding plans, limits, and features are based on official vendor documentation and the primary sources verified below.
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/ai-foundry
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/gpt-6-astra-frontier-intelligence-for-work-now-generally-available-in-microsoft-foundry/
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/concepts/manage-costs
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/foundry-models/concepts/models-sold-directly-by-azure
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/responsible-ai/openai/data-privacy
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/purchase-options/azure-account
- https://devblogs.microsoft.com/foundry/whats-new-in-microsoft-foundry-oct-nov-2025/
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/azure-openai/
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