Microsoft Announcement: Changes to Azure Reserved VM Instances – Effective 1 July 2026

Posted: May 21st

Author: Fergal Quigley

Microsoft has announced important changes to Azure Reserved VM Instances (RIs) that will impact both new purchases and renewals.

From 1 July 2026, selected Azure VM series will no longer be eligible for Reserved Instance (RI) purchase or renewal.

The following VM series are affected:

1-year RIs ending: Av2, Amv2, Bv1, D, Ds, Dv2, Dsv2, F, Fs, Fsv2, G, Gs, Ls, Lsv2
1-year and 3-year RIs ending: Dv3, Dsv3, Ev3, Esv3

After this date, no new reservations or renewals will be available for these VM families. See full Microsoft announcement here: May 2026 Partner Center announcements

Impact for customers with affected Azure VM RIs:

Existing RIs will continue to provide discounted pricing until their expiry date.
Once an affected RI expires, the workload will automatically revert to pay-as-you-go pricing if no action is taken.
Auto-renewal will not apply to impacted VM series after 1 July 2026.

Recommended actions:

Review your customers’ RI estate to identify impacted VM series
Assess upcoming RI expiries ahead of 1 July 2026
Utilise the MWH Reporting Portal to self-service review customer Azure consumption and RI utilisation MWH Reporting | Home
Plan migration to supported VM series in line with Microsoft’s Retired VM Sizes Migration Guide: Retired VM Sizes Migration Guide – Azure Virtual Machines | Microsoft Learn
Consider alternative options such as Azure Savings Plans for Compute (where appropriate)

Next steps:

The Azure Team in MicroWarehouse are available to support you with:

Identifying impacted customers and subscriptions
Advising on migration and optimisation pathways

Please contact your MWH Account Manager or Azure Team for guidance or support.