Hey everyone! There are a few upcoming changes regarding the billing experience for all Azure Artifacts customers. Here are the notable differences:
Billing will begin November 1st!
For organizations created prior to May 2019, we are pushing back the timeline to start charging for packages from October 5th to November 1st, 2020. This will give you more time to set your feed retentions and play with the new storage drilldown features! 😊GB ==> GiB
Our previous features and documentation refer to artifact storage in gigabytes (GB), even though on the backend all values have always been calculated in gibibytes (GiB). To be more accurate going forward, we are changing all documentation, pricing, and the Artifacts UI to reflect this. There is no impact or change to your usage numbers, or amount billed. This is merely a cosmetic change.
Charging for packages-only 📦
Previously, all packages and symbols were counted in your Azure Artifacts billed cost. We will be deferring billing of symbols to a later time, and you will be billed for packages-only, starting immediately. This will include all packages (npm, NuGet, Python, Maven, and Universal Packages), including those stored from upstream sources. Just a heads up that you may see your bill decrease, and any future billing changes will also be communicated well ahead of time.
Unified pricing model
Again, you may recall seeing in-product and via email that organizations created prior to May 2019 will shift from per-subscription pricing to per-storage usage pricing. This switchover will begin October 5th 2020 November 1st, 2020. All customers from that point on will all be consolidated onto the same per-storage usage pricing model, and only charged for packages.
Automatic billing tier switchover
Previously, within the Organization Settings ==> Billing tab, you were able to select from 6 different usage tiers for Azure Artifacts. We will be changing this to only have two options, “Up to 2 GiB free” and “No limit, pay for what you use”. You will be switched over to the new tier setting corresponding with the below table:
| Current Setting | New Setting, come October 5 2020 |
|---|---|
| Up to 2 GB Free | Switched to: Up to 2 GiB Free |
| Up to 12 GB | Switched to: No limit, pay for what you use |
| Up to 52 GB | Switched to: No limit, pay for what you use |
| Up to 102 GB | Switched to: No limit, pay for what you use |
| Up to 1002 GB | Switched to: No limit, pay for what you use |
| No limit, pay for what you use | Stay on: No limit, pay for what you use |
No action is necessary on your end, these changes will happen automatically.
Usage limits and blocking upon upload 🛑
After October 5th, 2020:
-
If you have previously set usage tiers: As you will be transitioned onto the “No limit” tier, it is possible that you will go over your previously set usage limit. So it’s important you keep an eye on this! However, your total billable storage will be for packages-only. There’s also upcoming work on content and features around storage optimization and Artifacts best practices, so stay tuned.
-
If you are set to and over the free 2 GiB limit tier: You will be blocked from making additional uploads on packages, with the following error message:
"Artifact cannot be uploaded because max quantity has been exceeded or the payment instrument is invalid. https://aka.ms/artbilling for details." -
To unblock your workflows, you need to update your usage tier to “No limit, pay for what you use”. This can take up to an hour to take effect. Setting your usage tier appropriately ahead of time can also help to ensure zero downtime. You can rest assured that your content will stay safe and available in the meantime.
Coming up next
All of these changes will take effect starting in October, and no direct action will be needed.
Keep watching this blog space for more posts on how to optimize your artifact storage, as well as a preview of our new storage drilldown feature, which will be available in the next few weeks!
And as usual, definitely leave a comment below if you have any questions or need any help! 😊
@Helen thank you for the detailed article. This is immensely helpful in understanding what happened to our organization today as we resumed business operations out of the weekend into November.
Do you have any plans to lower or continue lowering the price of your storage? Azure Artifacts are ludicrously priced.
I’m assuming the new storage drilldown feature will cover this feature request? https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/idea/1152290/show-artifact-sizes.html
Hey Eduan. The new feature is going to drill down into the total amount of stored packages at a per-feed (organization scoped and project scoped) and per-project level. We have future plans to show down to the individual package and version, though for now we just are enabling people to know which feeds in particular to take action on.
Is the per-package drilldown feature going to be a public preview, or does each org need to opt-in?
I ask because currently, our org is way over the free 2GB, and without a per-package report, it's impossible for us to tell where the usage is coming from. Even once we have that information, it'll take us at least a month to clean it all up.
IMO, the free grace period should be extended until the per-package usage...
Hey SN. So the drilldown feature is going to be in public preview, so no need to opt-in. Also to confirm, that's going to show you down to a feed-level or project-level rather than at the package level. We're actually aiming for GA next week, which would give 2 weeks... technically the free grace period has lasted over a year. 😅
We suggest cleaning up your feeds or setting retention policies when you get a chance....