Possible to request a refund for Azure CosmosDB usage?

Azure does not typically offer refunds for usage charges incurred, including those related to Azure Cosmos DB. However, if you believe there has been an error or if you're experiencing unexpected charges, you can reach out to Azure support to discuss your situation. They may be able to provide guidance or assistance based on your specific circumstances.

Regarding your concerns about the lab experiments:

• Cleanup Procedures: It's important to check the lab documentation for any cleanup steps. If the lab does not provide clear instructions on resource management, this can lead to unexpected costs.
• Provisioned Throughput: The choice of provisioned throughput settings in the lab may be intended to simulate real-world scenarios, but it can lead to high costs if not monitored closely. It's advisable to adjust these settings based on your actual needs.
• Free Tier Usage: The free tier is available for Azure Cosmos DB, but it must be explicitly enabled when creating an account. If the lab did not use the free tier, it may be due to the account setup or configuration.
• Safeguards: While Azure provides tools for monitoring and managing costs, it is ultimately the user's responsibility to manage resources effectively. Setting up alerts for spending can help mitigate unexpected charges in the future.

For further assistance, consider reviewing Azure's cost management features to monitor and control your spending more effectively.

References:

• Plan and manage costs for Azure Cosmos DB
• Understand how the reservation discount is applied to Azure Cosmos DB

Hello Yoong Han,

For queries related to billing & refund create a service request they will contact you via email or call to resolve it. below are the steps.

1. Click the below click for Help + Support -> Create a Support Request

https://portal.azure.com/?#blade/Microsoft_Azure_Support/HelpAndSupportBlade

Type billing.

In Contact Support, create support request

Fill in Problem description.

Click Next button in Recommended Solution

In Additional details add your problem description and in File Upload containing the detailed screenshot of the error you are facing.

In Preference contact method select either Email or Phone.

Click Review+Create and click Create button

Your support ticket will be created and a mail will be sent.

You can track the support ticket in Azure portal using Help + Support, Recent Support tickets

Let me know if you have further questions we would be happy to help you!!

Hi @Yoong Han

Thanks for contacting to Microsoft QA, below are detailed mitigation steps on your questions

The lab scripts automatically provision Azure Cosmos DB with an autoscale throughput of 4,000–100,000 RU/s, do not use Free Tier, and create new resource groups without clearly informing the learner. This led to unexpectedly high daily costs during a simple learning exercise involving only ~10K documents.

Why are there no cleanup scripts?

Because the lab design assumes the learner will manually clean up resources, but the documentation is unclear. Proper cleanup steps were not included or explained, leading to leftover resource groups and active workloads.

Why use 4k–100k RU/s when ~500 RU would be enough?

This appears to be a legacy or overly aggressive configuration meant to simulate high‑throughput workloads. However, for small datasets and teaching purposes, this range is unnecessary and results in extremely high consumption costs.

Why wasn’t Free Tier used?

The lab scripts automatically create accounts using default settings. Free Tier requires explicit selection at account creation, which the script does not do. As a result, students unintentionally incur charges.

Why are there no safeguards for learners?

The lab does not implement:

• resource locks
• cost alerts
• free‑tier defaults
• throughput safety limits
• clear warnings
• cleanup automation

This makes accidental cost accumulation easy, especially if the lab is run multiple times.

What does provisioning 4k–100k RU/s achieve for a 10K‑record lab?

Practically nothing meaningful for learning. The workload size does not justify such throughput. It only inflates cost without improving the educational outcome.

What happens when the lab is executed multiple times?

Each run:

• creates new Cosmos DB accounts / databases
• provisions high‑throughput autoscale
• incurs fresh daily cost (≥ USD 30/day)

Repeating the lab multiplies the cost linearly, with no safeguards.

Why did it cause high charges?

Because:

• Autoscale 4k–100k RU/s is expensive
• No free tier was used
• No cleanup removed the provisioned resources
• Resource group creation wasn’t clearly communicated

Even a few hours at high RU/s can accumulate significant charges.