Security monitoring is a necessity today — but it is also one of the fastest-growing cost items in the cloud. Microsoft Sentinel has become one of the most widely used SIEM and SOAR tools, but many customers, after the first months of operation, have discovered that data ingest costs can be substantial and hard to predict.

That is exactly why Microsoft introduced commitment tiers — a model that brings price certainty and better predictability for security teams.

What Commitment Tiers in Sentinel Are

In the classic pay-as-you-go mode you pay exactly for the volume of data Sentinel processes each day (in GB). The commitment model works differently:

  • You choose a daily data volume (e.g. 50 GB, 100 GB, 500 GB)
  • You pay a fixed price for that volume every day
  • If you exceed the volume, the overage is charged at the standard rate

From October 2025, Microsoft has also made a new 50 GB commitment tier (in preview) available, opening the door for smaller organisations as well.

Why Commitment Tiers Are Interesting

1. Cost predictability — Security budgets are usually fixed. Commitment tiers allow stable monthly planning.

2. Lower unit price — With a commitment you get a better price per GB compared to standard PAYG. The difference can be 15–30%.

3. Better FinOps visibility — A commitment motivates teams to optimise data ingest — filter out noise and configure appropriate retention policies.

When Commitment Pays Off

The commitment model makes the most sense when:

  • you have a stable or only slightly fluctuating log volume,
  • you have been running Sentinel long-term (more than 3–6 months),
  • you are monitoring multiple data sources (Azure, M365, firewalls, identity, endpoints),
  • you want to optimise your FinOps strategy in the area of security services.

How to Activate a Commitment Tier

  1. Navigate to Azure Portal → Microsoft Sentinel → Settings → Billing and pricing
  2. Select Commitment tier and choose the level
  3. Confirm the change — activation takes a few minutes
  4. Monitor usage via the Cost analysis panel

How We Approach It with Clients

  1. We measure current ingest (average GB/day)
  2. We evaluate variability
  3. We recommend a suitable commitment tier (with a 10–15% buffer)
  4. We set alerts for when the commitment is approached
  5. We monitor the effect — after one month we compare actual costs against the PAYG model

The result? Most clients on a commitment tier save 20–30% per month without having to reduce logging.