Azure Advisor is Microsoft's built-in recommendation engine. It analyses your usage patterns and suggests optimisations across cost, security, reliability, and performance.
The Cost recommendations alone can be worth thousands. And it's free.
Accessing Azure Advisor
- Search for "Advisor" in the Azure portal
- Click on "Cost" to see cost recommendations
- Or go directly: portal.azure.com → Advisor → Cost
You can also access it via CLI:
az advisor recommendation list --category Cost
What Advisor Catches
Right-Sizing VMs
Advisor identifies VMs with low CPU utilisation (typically under 5% average over 7 days) and recommends smaller sizes or shutdown.
Reserved Instance Opportunities
Based on your usage patterns, Advisor calculates potential savings from Reserved Instances and recommends specific purchases.
Unused Public IPs
Public IP addresses that aren't attached to anything still cost money. Advisor flags these.
Idle Load Balancers
Load balancers with no backend pools or no rules configured.
Unused VPN Gateways
ExpressRoute and VPN gateways with no connections.
SQL Database Right-Sizing
Azure SQL databases that are over-provisioned for their actual load.
What Advisor Misses
Advisor is good, but it's not complete:
Orphaned disks: Until recently, Advisor didn't flag unattached managed disks. This is improving but still inconsistent.
Storage tier opportunities: Advisor doesn't analyse blob access patterns to recommend tiering (Hot → Cool → Archive).
Tag-based analysis: Advisor can't tell you that your dev environment is running 24/7 when it should be shut down overnight.
Cross-resource analysis: If you have a VNet with no VMs attached, Advisor might not flag it.
Competitive pricing: Advisor won't tell you that your specific workload would be cheaper on spot instances or a different region.
Using Advisor Effectively
Review Weekly
Make Advisor review part of your weekly routine. New recommendations appear as your usage patterns become clearer.
Filter by Subscription/Resource Group
In large environments, filter down to manageable chunks. Don't try to tackle everything at once.
Validate Before Acting
Advisor's recommendations are based on metrics, not context. That "underutilised" VM might have low CPU but still be doing critical work. Check with owners.
Track Progress
Advisor shows potential savings. Track what you actually implement and the real savings achieved.
Export to Excel
Click "Download as CSV" to get recommendations in spreadsheet format. Useful for sharing with stakeholders or tracking over time.
Advisor Score
Advisor now includes a percentage score for each category. A score of 100% means you've addressed all recommendations.
This is useful for:
- Tracking progress over time
- Comparing across subscriptions
- Setting targets ("Get Cost score to 80% by end of quarter")
Beyond Advisor
Advisor is a starting point, not a complete FinOps solution. For thorough cost optimisation, you also need:
- Detailed usage analysis - 30-90 days of data, not just 7 days
- Business context - Which workloads can be changed vs. which are fixed
- Architectural review - Could this workload be re-architected for better cost efficiency?
- Policy enforcement - Preventing waste before it happens
- Continuous monitoring - Not just point-in-time recommendations
This is where working with a FinOps specialist adds value. We use Advisor as input, but our analysis goes much deeper.
Want a more thorough analysis than Azure Advisor provides? Our free savings snapshot includes everything Advisor catches plus the things it misses.