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Cloud AI Pricing

Azure OpenAI Pricing 2026:
GPT-5.4 Family & PTU Enterprise Costs

Azure OpenAI Service pricing for 2026 — GPT-5.4 family token pricing, Provisioned Throughput Units (PTU), and how Azure compares to OpenAI direct. Enterprise AI cost guide with compliance and data residency considerations. Last verified: 2026-04-01.

11 min read·Updated April 2026
October 2026 update: Azure OpenAI prices on this page were last verified in April 2026 and refer to OpenAI models that have since been succeeded by the GPT-6 family (GPT-6 Astra, GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Luna). Check the Azure OpenAI pricing page for current per-model rates before budgeting. As of 2 October 2026 the Azure pricing page lists GPT-6 Astra, GPT-6 Sol, GPT-6 Luna and GPT-6.1 Sol, but shows their prices as still being processed for publication. Prices below are as last verified in April 2026. See our current AI API price comparison.
Azure OpenAI Key Facts
Same
pricing as OpenAI direct
$0.20/M
GPT-5.4 nano input
PTU
provisioned throughput option
99.9%
SLA uptime guarantee

Azure OpenAI Pay-As-You-Go Pricing 2026

Azure OpenAI token pricing matches OpenAI's direct API pricing for the GPT-5.4 family:

ModelInput / 1M tokensOutput / 1M tokensContext
GPT-5.4$2.50$15.001M tokens
GPT-5.4 mini$0.75$4.50128K tokens
GPT-5.4 nano$0.20$1.25128K tokens
GPT-4o (legacy)$2.50$10.00128K tokens
GPT-4o mini (legacy)$0.15$0.60128K tokens
text-embedding-3-large$0.13N/AN/A
Whisper (speech-to-text)$0.006/minN/AN/A

These are April 2026 rates for the GPT-5.4 family. For new projects, Azure now lists the GPT-6 family — compare with OpenAI's direct rates (GPT-6.1 Sol $2/$10, GPT-6 Luna $0.10/$0.50 per 1M tokens) once Azure publishes its prices.

Azure Provisioned Throughput Units (PTU)

For high-volume, latency-sensitive workloads, Azure offers Provisioned Throughput Units — reserved capacity billed hourly or monthly:

PTU ModelApprox. monthly cost/PTUThroughput per PTUBest for
GPT-5.4 PTU~$2,500/PTU/month~100K tokens/minEnterprise, >5M tokens/day
GPT-5.4 mini PTU~$500/PTU/month~500K tokens/minHigh-volume production, consistent latency
GPT-5.4 nano PTU~$150/PTU/month~2M tokens/minVery high-volume simple tasks

PTU break-even: If you're spending >$2,500/month on GPT-5.4 pay-as-you-go AND need guaranteed low latency, PTU is worth evaluating. Below this threshold, pay-as-you-go is cheaper and more flexible.

Azure OpenAI vs OpenAI Direct: Which to Choose?

FactorAzure OpenAIOpenAI API Direct
Token pricingIdentical to OpenAI directIdentical to Azure
Data residencyEU, US, Asia regionsUS-based servers
GDPR / HIPAA complianceFull enterprise complianceEnterprise plan required
SLA guarantee99.9% uptime SLABest effort
Private networking (VNet)VNet integrationNot available
Model availabilitySlight lag behind OpenAILatest models first
Azure customersOne bill, Azure credits applySeparate billing

Hidden Costs in Azure OpenAI

  • Egress costs: Transferring data out of Azure regions incurs standard Azure egress charges ($0.05–$0.09/GB)
  • Azure API Management: If using APIM as a gateway, adds $0.035/10K calls
  • Content Safety: Azure Content Safety filtering adds ~$1–3/1K transactions if enabled
  • Storage for fine-tuning: Fine-tuned models incur storage costs ($0.023/GB/month)

Cost Example: Enterprise Chatbot (500K conversations/month)

  • Average conversation: 800 tokens in + 500 tokens out = 1,300 tokens
  • Total: 400M input + 250M output tokens
  • GPT-5.4: $1,000 + $3,750 = $4,750/month
  • GPT-5.4 mini: $300 + $1,125 = $1,425/month
  • GPT-5.4 nano: $80 + $313 = $393/month
  • Model selection saves $4,357/month choosing nano over GPT-5.4

Calculate Your Azure OpenAI Costs

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