Azure Artifacts billing changes coming October 2020

[Microsoft]

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!

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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!

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