Customers can reserve a fixed number of virtual machines in advance, for one year to three years for both the Windows and Linux operating systems. Azure provides up to a 72 percent discount on these virtual machines based on a pay-as-you-go pricing model. Although there is an upfront commitment, there is no obligation to use the instances. These reserved instances can be canceled at any point in time. This offering can even be clubbed with the Azure Hybrid Benefit scheme to further reduce the cost of these virtual machines.