Auto-shutdown can reduce unnecessary running hours for a development or test VM. Choose a time when the workload can safely stop.
Plan the schedule
Check the application’s working hours, scheduled jobs, and dependencies with its owner. Plan how the VM will be started when it is next needed. Avoid testing shutdown while someone is using the VM.
Configure auto-shutdown
- In the Azure portal, open the intended Virtual machine.
- Under Operations, select Auto-shutdown.
- Set the option to On.
- Choose the shutdown time and review the Time zone. Microsoft documents UTC as the default.
- If needed, enable Send notification before shutdown and enter an email address or webhook URL.
- Select Save.
Verify the first scheduled shutdown
Reopen the settings to confirm the saved time and notification destination. After the first scheduled run, check the VM’s power state and confirm the application stopped as expected.
Understand the cost limits
Stopped and Stopped (Deallocated) have different billing implications. A stopped but allocated VM is still billed for instance usage. A deallocated VM releases its host allocation and is not billed for instance usage, but disks and some networking resources can continue to incur charges.
Review the resulting state and ongoing costs rather than assuming shutdown makes the entire deployment free.
