Azure Pricing Calculator not listing AKS available instance SKUs

CHUNSIK KIM 1 Reputation point Microsoft Employee
2026-07-03T07:45:32.49+00:00

Azure Pricing Calculator doesn't seem to reflect latest supported instance SKUs hence unavailable to select v6 instance SKUs.

Any reason for this?

Azure Kubernetes Service
Azure Kubernetes Service

An Azure service that provides serverless Kubernetes, an integrated continuous integration and continuous delivery experience, and enterprise-grade security and governance.

0 comments

3 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. CHUNSIK KIM 1 Reputation point Microsoft Employee
    2026-07-03T07:52:06.1433333+00:00

    It shouldn't be about how and why. It needs to be about when to avoid cumbersome lookup every time when there's a need and it may trigger people have wrong perception: not available for the selection on the pricing calculator hence it must be not supported.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Sujitha Lakkireddy 0 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-07-03T12:09:14.63+00:00

    Hi CHUNSIK KIM,  

    Thank you for your question and for using Microsoft Q&A.  

    The Azure Pricing Calculator is an estimation tool and may not always reflect the latest VM SKUs immediately after they become available in Azure services. Newer VM generations, including v6 SKUs, can sometimes experience a delay before they are surfaced in the calculator catalog.  

    Additionally, SKU availability can vary based on factors such as:

    • Regional availability of the VM SKU.
    • Subscription eligibility and quota considerations.
    • Capacity and inventory constraints within specific regions or availability zones.  

    To verify whether a specific v6 SKU is currently supported for AKS in your target region, you can use the following command: az aks list-vm-skus --location <location> --query "[].name" --output table

     

    To include all regional SKUs, including those that may not currently be available to your subscription:

    az aks list-vm-skus --location <location> --all --query "[].name" --output table

     

    If the v6 SKU appears in the AKS-supported SKU list but is not available in the Azure Pricing Calculator, this is generally due to differences in catalog publication and update cycles between Azure services and the Pricing Calculator. References

     

    Thanks & Regards,
    Sujitha

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments

  3. AI answer

    2026-07-03T07:45:46.96+00:00

    Azure Pricing Calculator and AKS-supported VM SKUs are maintained by different systems and don’t always update in lockstep. As a result, newer VM families or versions (such as v6 SKUs) can be:

    • Supported and deployable for AKS in a region, and
    • Visible via AKS/compute SKU listing commands,
    • But not yet exposed as selectable options in the Azure Pricing Calculator UI.

    To see which SKUs are actually supported for AKS in a given region (including newer v6 sizes), use the AKS SKU listing feature instead of relying on the calculator:

    1. Ensure prerequisites:
      • Azure CLI ≥ 2.85.0
      • aks-preview extension installed and updated: 
             az extension add --name aks-preview
     az extension update --name aks-preview
    2. List AKS-supported VM SKUs in a region: 
         LOCATION=eastus
   az aks list-vm-skus --location $LOCATION --query "[].name" --output table
    3. Optionally filter for a specific family or version (for example, v6 D-series): 
         az aks list-vm-skus --location $LOCATION --size d --query "[].name" --output table
      Or restrict to zone-capable SKUs: 
         az aks list-vm-skus --location $LOCATION --zone --query "[].{name:name,zones:join(', ', locationInfo[0].zones)}" --output table

    If a v6 SKU appears in az aks list-vm-skus for the region but not in the Pricing Calculator, it indicates a lag or gap in the calculator’s catalog, not that the SKU is unsupported by AKS. In that case, use a similar SKU that is present in the calculator to approximate cost, or build a custom estimate using the per-VM pricing for that SKU family.

    Also note that az aks list-vm-skus reflects SKUs supported by AKS in the region but doesn’t account for subscription-specific quota or real-time capacity; deployment can still fail with capacity or “SKU not available” errors even if the SKU is listed.

    References:

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

    Was this answer helpful?

Your answer

Answers can be marked as 'Accepted' by the question author and 'Recommended' by moderators, which helps users know the answer solved the author's problem.