az-scout-plugin-network-cost 2026.4.14

az-scout plugin for Azure VNet peering cost estimation

az-scout-plugin-network-cost

An az-scout plugin that estimates Azure VNet peering costs between two regions. It helps teams evaluate multi-region architectures by showing that global VNet peering cost is predictable and typically not a blocker.

What it does

The plugin computes monthly and annual VNet peering costs based on live pricing from the Azure Retail Prices API. It supports:

• Global VNet peering (cross-region) — rates vary by Azure billing zone
• Same-region VNet peering — flat intra-region rates
• Bidirectional traffic — separate A→B and B→A volumes with per-direction cost breakdown
• Billing zone detection — automatically maps regions to Zone 1 (NA/Europe), Zone 2 (Asia Pacific), or Zone 3 (South America/Middle East/Africa)
• Same-region vs. global comparison — shows the delta between both pricing models

Pricing data

Prices are fetched from the public Azure Retail Prices API (no authentication required):

GET https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices
  ?$filter=serviceName eq 'Virtual Network'
       and currencyCode eq 'USD'
       and priceType eq 'Consumption'

The plugin filters on four VNet peering meters: Intra-Region Ingress, Intra-Region Egress, Inter-Region Ingress, and Inter-Region Egress. Results are cached in-memory for 1 hour (configurable via NETWORK_COST_CACHE_TTL env var). If the API is unreachable, hardcoded fallback rates are used.

Features

UI tab

A "Network Cost" tab in the az-scout web interface with:

• Region selectors (grouped by billing zone)
• Traffic inputs in TB/month per direction
• Scenario toggle (global vs. same-region peering)
• Summary cards: monthly cost, annual cost, cost per TB
• Per-direction breakdown table (outbound/inbound rates and costs)
• Same-region vs. global delta comparison
• Pricing source indicator and explanatory notes

API routes

Mounted at /plugins/network-cost/:

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/v1/estimate	Estimate VNet peering cost (accepts EstimateRequest, returns EstimateResponse)
GET	/v1/regions	List all known regions grouped by billing zone

MCP tool

One tool registered on the az-scout MCP server, available in AI chat:

Tool	Parameters	Description
estimate_peering_cost	source_region, target_region, traffic_ab_gb, traffic_ba_gb, same_region	Estimate VNet peering cost between two Azure regions

The tool is also surfaced in the default chat mode via a system prompt addendum.

Setup

cd az-scout-plugin-network-cost
uv pip install -e .
az-scout  # plugin is auto-discovered

Project structure

src/az_scout_network_cost/
├── __init__.py          # NetworkCostPlugin class + entry point
├── models.py            # Pydantic models (EstimateRequest, EstimateResponse, DirectionBreakdown)
├── pricing.py           # Pricing engine (zone detection, direction cost, full estimation)
├── price_fetcher.py     # Azure Retail Prices API client (fetch, cache, fallback)
├── routes.py            # FastAPI routes (/v1/estimate, /v1/regions)
├── tools.py             # MCP tool (estimate_peering_cost)
└── static/
    ├── css/network-cost.css          # Styles (light + dark theme)
    ├── html/network-cost-tab.html    # UI fragment (loaded at runtime)
    └── js/network-cost-tab.js        # Tab logic (region loading, estimation, rendering)

How it works

1. On startup, az-scout discovers the plugin via the az_scout.plugins entry point.
2. The plugin registers its API routes, MCP tool, static assets, and UI tab.
3. The tab JS loads the HTML fragment into #plugin-tab-network-cost.
4. Region selectors are populated from GET /v1/regions (grouped by billing zone).
5. The user selects source/target regions, traffic volumes, and scenario.
6. Clicking "Estimate Cost" sends a POST /v1/estimate request.
7. The pricing engine fetches rates from the Azure Retail Prices API (or cache/fallback), computes per-direction costs, and returns a full breakdown with notes.

Cost calculation

For each traffic direction, cost = outbound (source side) + inbound (destination side). Total = A→B cost + B→A cost.

• Global peering: outbound rate from the source region's billing zone, inbound rate from the target region's billing zone
• Same-region peering: flat $0.01/GB for both ingress and egress

Configuration

Environment variable	Default	Description
NETWORK_COST_CACHE_TTL	3600	Pricing cache TTL in seconds

Quality checks

CI runs lint and tests on Python 3.11–3.13. Run locally:

uv run ruff check src/ tests/
uv run ruff format --check src/ tests/
uv run mypy src/
uv run pytest

CI/CD

• CI (.github/workflows/ci.yml): Lint + tests on push/PR to main (Python 3.11–3.13).
• Publish (.github/workflows/publish.yml): On version tags (v*) — builds, creates GitHub Release, publishes to PyPI via trusted publishing (OIDC).

Versioning

Version is derived from git tags via hatch-vcs. Tags follow CalVer: v2026.2.0, v2026.2.1, etc.

License

MIT

License

MIT

Disclaimer

This tool is not affiliated with Microsoft. All capacity, pricing, and latency information are indicative and not a guarantee of deployment success. Spot placement scores are probabilistic. Quota values and pricing are dynamic and may change between planning and actual deployment. Latency values are based on Microsoft published statistics and must be validated with in-tenant measurements.