Cloud Computing: You’re Probably Paying Double for Azure Storage

Did you know the hidden defaults are silently draining your cloud budget every month? Azure Storage has this sneaky little default — it’s meant to be helpful, but in practice? It’s a silent money vacuum.

Let’s Talk About the Default That No One Mentions: RA-GRS

When you create an Azure Storage account, Microsoft tries to be helpful. By default, they pick something called RA-GRS:

Read-Access Geo-Redundant Storage
Sounds secure and fancy.
You might think, “Cool, it’s got backups across regions. Good to have.”

You’re paying extra to store your data in TWO different Azure regions — and to keep them synchronized 24/7.

And unless you’re running mission-critical, global applications, you don’t need it.

Here’s What That Looks Like in Real Life

Let’s say you upload 1 TB of data.

With RA-GRS:

You’re paying to store 1 TB in your primary region.
And another 1 TB in a paired secondary region.
And you’re billed for the replication bandwidth between them.

So you’re not just storing — you’re duplicating and syncing. Every month. Like a leaky faucet behind the walls.

But it’s only a few cents per GB per month. Yeah… until you’ve got logs, blobs, backups, and images piling up like digital hoarders. Then suddenly it’s hundreds — sometimes thousands — per month in storage costs alone.

The Real Gotcha: Egress Charges Between Regions

Say your app is running in West US, but your storage account is in East US. Even if you’re in the same country, cross-region traffic counts as egress.

That means

Every time your app pulls files, logs, or images from that storage , you’re paying for bandwidth.
At per-GB prices that seem small… until your logs spike or a backup script goes rogue.

This is how you get slapped with a $1,400 bandwidth line item on your Azure bill and have no idea why.

But we need redundancy

RA-GRS is helpful when it’s needed. But here’s the uncomfortable truth:

90% of workloads don’t need geo-redundancy.

Dev/test environments? Nope.
Internal tools? Probably not.
Static blob hosting for images? Again, probably not.

In fact, for many apps, Locally Redundant Storage (LRS) is plenty. It stores 3 copies of your data within the same data center region. It’s still resilient. And it costs significantly less.

How to Check (and Fix It) Right Now

Here’s how to make sure you’re not leaking money:

Go to the Azure Portal.
Navigate to Storage Accounts.
Click into one and go to Configuration.
Check the Replication setting — if it says “RA-GRS,” you’ve got work to do.

You can’t downgrade replication on existing accounts — so

Create a new storage account with LRS.
Migrate your data using AzCopy, Azure CLI, or Storage Explorer.
Swap over your services and kill the old account.

Sounds like a hassle? Maybe — but how much are you overpaying every month to avoid doing it?.

One More Hidden Cost: Snapshot and Backup Replication

Even if you use LRS, if you have Azure Backup or Site Recovery targeting those blobs — surprise! Your backup vault might be using GRS by default.

Yes, backups also have replication settings. And yes, you might be paying extra twice — once for your live storage and again for your backups.

Azure isn’t trying to scam you — but it’s certainly not helping you. Azure gives you options. But it defaults to expensive, under the guise of “resilience.”

If you don’t slow down and check, you’ll be left wondering why your cloud bill is bloated and out of control.