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Cost Optimization for ACS

Ongoing cost management is vital to ensure communication services stay within budget while meeting performance requirements.

graph TD
    Analyze[Analyze Usage] --> Budget[Set Budgets]
    Budget --> Optimize[Optimize Channels]
    Optimize --> Alert[Set Alerts]
    Alert --> Review[Review and Adjust]

Day-2 Cost Monitoring

ACS follows a consumption-based pricing model, meaning you pay for what you use across SMS, Email, Chat, and Calling.

Budget Alerts Setup

  1. Use Azure Cost Management to create a budget for your ACS resource.
  2. Configure budget alerts at 50%, 75%, and 90% of your budget.
  3. Use the Azure CLI to list your current usage and costs: 
    az consumption usage list --resource-group my-rg --top 10

Usage Analysis Queries

Analyze ACS consumption patterns with Kusto (KQL) in Log Analytics:

Query Description
ACSBilling Sum of billing units per operation.
ACSSmsUsage Count of SMS messages sent and received.
ACSEmailUsage Count of email messages sent and delivery status.

Right-sizing Communication Channels

To optimize your ACS costs:

  • SMS: Use 10-digit long code (10DLC) for high-volume SMS.
  • Email: Use Azure Managed Domains for development and custom domains for production.
  • Chat: Minimize the number of participants per thread to reduce message volume.
  • Calling: Use VoIP calling where possible instead of PSTN.

See Also

Sources