specification: FinOps Framework
specificationVersion: '1.0'
schema: https://www.finops.org/framework/
alignedWith:
  framework: FinOps Foundation Framework
  frameworkUrl: https://www.finops.org/framework/
  dataSpec: FOCUS
  dataSpecVersion: '1.3'
  dataSpecUrl: https://focus.finops.org/focus-specification/v1-3/
provider: Azure Pipelines
providerId: microsoft-azure-pipelines
publisherName: Microsoft Corporation
serviceCategory: Developer Tools / CI-CD
created: '2026-05-04'
# Provenance stamped 2026-08-11: this artifact was written by the API Evangelist
# bulk sweep dated 2026-05-04, not harvested from the provider. See roadmap#35.
method: generated
modified: '2026-05-05'
reconciled: true
tags:
  - Automation
  - Build
  - CI/CD
  - Deployment
  - DevOps
  - Pipelines
  - FinOps
  - FOCUS
description: FOCUS-aligned FinOps for Azure Pipelines — billed per parallel job (concurrency)
  per month rather than per build minute. Two SKUs (Microsoft-hosted at $40/job/month and
  self-hosted at $15/job/month) plus free grants. Optimization centers on right-sizing
  parallel-job count to actual queue depth, since over-provisioning concurrency is the
  primary waste mode.
sources:
  - https://azure.microsoft.com/pricing/details/devops/azure-devops-services/
  - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/licensing/concurrent-jobs
  - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/agents/pool-consumption-report
billingModel:
  pricingCategory: Subscription (per Parallel Job)
  billingFrequency: Monthly
  billingCurrency: USD (settlement varies)
  chargeCategories:
    - Usage
    - Purchase
    - Tax
    - Adjustment
    - Credit
  chargeFrequency: Recurring
focusColumns:
  ServiceName: Azure Pipelines
  ServiceCategory: Developer Tools
  ProviderName: Microsoft Azure DevOps
  PublisherName: Microsoft Corporation
  InvoiceIssuerName: Microsoft Corporation
  PricingCategory: Subscription
  PricingUnit: parallel-job-month
  BillingCurrency: USD
  ChargeCategory: Usage
meters:
  - name: hosted_parallel_jobs
    description: Microsoft-hosted parallel job concurrency purchased.
    unit: parallel-job-month
    aggregation: max
    dimensions:
      - organization
      - billing_subscription
  - name: selfhosted_parallel_jobs
    description: Self-hosted parallel job concurrency purchased.
    unit: parallel-job-month
    aggregation: max
    dimensions:
      - organization
  - name: hosted_minutes_consumed
    description: Microsoft-hosted agent minutes used (informational; not billed under parallel-job
      plan, but exposed via Pool consumption report).
    unit: minute
    aggregation: sum
    dimensions:
      - pipeline
      - agent_image
      - project
  - name: queue_depth
    description: Average queued-job time per pool, used to size parallelism.
    unit: minute
    aggregation: avg
    dimensions:
      - pool
      - hour_of_day
  - name: legacy_minutes
    description: Per-minute usage for grandfathered customers ($0.05 / $0.01 tiers).
    unit: minute
    aggregation: sum
    dimensions:
      - tier_band
principles:
  - name: Visibility
    description: Pool consumption report (Org Settings > Agent pools > Analytics) graphs
      concurrent-running vs queued jobs over 30 days. Pull the same data via the Pipelines REST
      API into BI. Cost Management surfaces parallel-job line items in FOCUS-aligned exports.
  - name: Allocation
    description: Tag pipelines with cost-center via pipeline variables and aggregate via REST
      API. Multi-org billing under one Azure subscription centralizes parallel-job spend across
      consuming teams.
  - name: Optimization
    description: Right-size parallel jobs to peak queue depth (rule of thumb 1 job per 4–5 devs).
      Move long-running jobs to self-hosted ($15 vs $40). Use caching (artifact, package, Docker
      layer) to shorten build duration. Disable scheduled pipelines on idle branches. Take
      advantage of free public-project grant for OSS.
  - name: Accountability
    description: Project Collection Administrators own parallel-job procurement. Set Cost
      Management budgets at the Azure subscription with alerts at 80/100% of monthly target.
      Quarterly review of utilization vs purchased capacity.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com
    url: https://azure.microsoft.com/services/devops/pipelines/