Azure cost waste. Found in minutes.
We identified £8,400 per month in avoidable Azure spend during a 20-minute script run for a financial services client. Their annual Azure bill dropped from £400k to £179k after the engagement.
What it finds
Six categories of avoidable Azure spend, each with a typical monthly saving range based on mid-market Azure estates.
| Waste category | What it looks for | Typical monthly saving |
|---|---|---|
| Idle compute | VMs running at under 5% CPU for 14+ days | £200 – £4,000 |
| Orphaned disks | Managed disks unattached to any VM | £50 – £800 |
| Oversized resources | VM SKUs with headroom for at least 2 size reductions | £100 – £2,500 |
| Unused public IPs | Static public IP addresses not associated with a resource | £10 – £200 |
| Dev/test resources left running | Resources in dev/test resource groups with no stop schedule | £50 – £1,200 |
| Reserved instance opportunities | On-demand VMs running 24/7 with no reservation coverage | £200 – £5,000 |
Prerequisites
- PowerShell 7 or later
- Az PowerShell module or Azure CLI installed and authenticated
- Reader role on the target subscription
- No elevated permissions required — read-only throughout
Install and run
Free access. Enter your details to reveal the installation script and instructions instantly.
Access granted
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You can review the repository and full documentation on GitHub: Sentinel Waste Finder Repository.
To run the audit, open PowerShell 7+ in an environment authenticated to Azure (Az module or Azure CLI) and execute:
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Westgate-Sentinel-Consulting/sentinel-waste-finder/main/Get-SentinelWasteFinder.ps1" -OutFile "Get-SentinelWasteFinder.ps1"
.\Get-SentinelWasteFinder.ps1Example output
Sentinel Waste Finder v1.0 — Azure Cost Audit
Subscription: Contoso Production (a1b2c3d4-...)
Run completed: 2026-04-07 10:32:11 UTC
Top 3 findings:
Idle compute — 4 VMs identified
Estimated saving : £1,840 / month
Orphaned disks — 11 disks (1.8 TB) unattached
Estimated saving : £310 / month
Reserved instance — 6 VMs on-demand, 24/7 runtime, no coverage
Estimated saving : £2,100 / month
Total indicative monthly waste: £4,250
Full results written to: waste-finder-20260407-103211.jsonEstimates use Azure list pricing at the time of the run. Your billed cost may differ due to reserved instances already in place, enterprise agreements, and negotiated rates. Use the output as a direction of travel, not a billing forecast.
15 – 25%
Avoidable spend in a typical Azure estate
Most of it is invisible without tooling. Orphaned disks, idle VMs, and unplanned dev/test runtime accumulate quietly between billing cycles.
Free tool vs WGC-AZF
| Sentinel Waste Finder (free) | WGC-AZF engagement |
|---|---|
| Indicative waste estimate by category | Prioritised savings roadmap |
| Resource-level findings | Rightsizing recommendations |
| Estimated GBP saving per area | Reservation and commitment strategy |
| Free after a short enquiry | Implementation support included. Book a call |
If your estimated waste exceeds £1,000 per month, the WGC-AZF engagement typically pays for itself within the first billing cycle after implementation.
See what your Azure estate is carrying
Request access, run the script when you are ready, then book a call if the numbers are worth acting on.
Typical output: quantified savings, governance fixes, and a 30/60/90-day FinOps roadmap.
Disclaimer
Sentinel Waste Finder produces indicative estimates based on read-only Azure API queries at list pricing. It is not a formal cost audit and should not be used as a contractual commitment or billing forecast. Actual savings depend on your specific agreement, existing reservations, and implementation choices.