Windows Server pricing and licensing
Find reference pricing for Windows Server 2025. For specific pricing, please contact your Microsoft reseller.
PRICING
Windows Server pricing and licensing overview
Choose from two primary editions of Windows Server based on the size of your organization, as well as virtualization and datacenter requirements.
| Windows Server 2025 Standard Edition 3 | Windows Server 2025 Datacenter Edition 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Features | ||
| Maximum RAM |
|
|
| Can be used as virtualization guest | Yes; 2 virtual machines, plus one Hyper-V host per license | Yes; unlimited 4 virtual machines, plus one Hyper-V host per license |
| Virtual OSE / Hyper-V isolated containers | 2 | Unlimited |
| Windows Server Containers | Unlimited Windows containers and up to two Hyper-V containers | Unlimited Windows containers and Hyper-V containers |
| Storage replica | 1 partnership and 1 resource group with a single 2TB volume | Unlimited |
Payment options
Traditional licensing or pay as you go
In addition to above licensing options, customers without unlimited virtualization can now use pay as you go to scale up with additional machines to meet capacity bursts or temporary needs.
- Connect to Azure Arc to transact
- $33.58 per CPU core / month; $0.046 / hour
- Pay only for what you need
Take the next step with Windows Server
Find a partner
Connect with partners
Find a partner to help with your Windows Server upgrade or Azure migration project.
Licensing
Learn more about Windows Server licensing
Find additional licensing resources and FAQs on our licensing site.
Azure Hybrid Benefit
Learn how to save when you migrate Windows Server or SQL Server to Azure
Save when you move to Azure by applying existing Windows Server licenses with Software Assurance.
- [1]Pricing is shown in USD and may vary from country to country. Please contact your Microsoft representative for a quote.
- [2]CALs are required for every user or device accessing a server. See the Product Use Rights for details.
- [3]Datacenter and Standard edition pricing is for 16 core licenses
- [4]Unlimited virtualization is not available through pay-as-you-go for on-premises Azure Arc enabled servers. This new pay as you go offering is purchased on a per-instance basis. Learn more about pay as you go.