Azure Virtual Network

About Azure Virtual Network

Azure Virtual Network is Microsoft's foundational private networking service for Azure. It gives organizations an isolated address space where virtual machines, Kubernetes clusters and other supported Azure resources can communicate using private IP addresses. It also provides the network foundation for connecting Azure workloads to on-premises environments, other virtual networks and selected Azure platform services. This page focuses on Azure Virtual Network itself rather than related products such as Azure Virtual Network Manager, VPN Gateway, ExpressRoute, Private Link or Azure Firewall.

What does Azure Virtual Network provide?

Azure Virtual Network lets teams create private network boundaries inside Azure using address spaces and subnets. Resources placed in a virtual network can communicate with each other using private addressing, while administrators can decide how those resources reach the internet, other Azure networks and on-premises systems.

Microsoft describes Virtual Network as the fundamental building block for private networking in Azure. It supports common network design concepts familiar from traditional datacenters, including IP addressing, subnets, routing and traffic filtering. This makes it useful for infrastructure teams that want cloud networking without abandoning established network design principles.

How do subnets, routing and traffic controls work?

A virtual network can be divided into subnets so workloads can be separated by function, security requirement or operational ownership. Azure provides system routes by default, and administrators can add custom route tables when traffic needs to follow a specific path, such as through a network virtual appliance.

Traffic filtering is normally handled with network security groups and related Azure networking controls. The practical design question is not only whether two resources can communicate, but whether they should. Teams should plan address ranges, subnet boundaries, route ownership and security rules before large deployments because changing network structure later can affect many dependent resources.

How does Azure Virtual Network connect to other Azure networks?

Virtual network peering connects two virtual networks so resources can communicate using private IP addresses across the Microsoft backbone. Microsoft supports both regional peering and global peering between supported Azure regions. Peering is useful for hub-and-spoke designs, shared services and environments where separate application networks still need controlled connectivity.

Peering is not transitive. If network A is peered with network B and network B is peered with network C, that does not automatically create direct connectivity between A and C. Architects need explicit peerings or a routing design that intentionally provides transit. Peered networks also need nonoverlapping IP address spaces.

How does Azure Virtual Network connect to on-premises environments?

Organizations can extend on-premises networks into Azure through services such as VPN Gateway and ExpressRoute. Virtual Network provides the Azure-side network boundary those connections attach to. This supports hybrid designs where applications, identity systems, databases or management services remain split between datacenters and Azure.

The connectivity service itself is separate from Virtual Network. Buyers should therefore distinguish the free virtual network resource from billable services such as VPN Gateway, ExpressRoute and other network appliances. Hybrid network planning should include route propagation, DNS, security, resilience and failover rather than treating the connection as a single tunnel.

How does Azure Virtual Network integrate with Azure platform services?

Microsoft supports several ways to connect virtual networks to Azure platform services. Service endpoints can extend the identity of a virtual network to supported Azure services. Azure Private Link can provide private access to specific service instances through private endpoints. Some Azure services can also deploy dedicated resources directly into a virtual network.

These options solve different problems. Service endpoints keep traffic on the Azure backbone while still using the service's public endpoint model. Private Link gives a service instance a private endpoint in the virtual network. Teams should choose based on isolation requirements, DNS design, service support and operational complexity rather than assuming every private access pattern is interchangeable.

How much does Azure Virtual Network cost in September 2026?

Pricing checked on September 7, 2026 against Microsoft's official Azure Virtual Network pricing page. Microsoft states that creating and using an Azure Virtual Network is free of charge, and data transfer within a virtual network is not charged by the Virtual Network service itself.

Costs can still arise around the network. Virtual network peering carries data transfer charges, including regional or global peering according to Microsoft's pricing model. Resources placed in or connected to the network, such as VPN Gateway, Application Gateway, NAT Gateway, firewalls, load balancers and virtual machines, have their own pricing. Buyers should therefore model the whole network architecture rather than assuming that a free virtual network means the finished network design has no cost.

What are the main deployment and migration considerations?

Address planning is one of the most important early decisions. Networks that will be peered need nonoverlapping address spaces, and hybrid environments also need to avoid conflicts with on-premises ranges. Poor IP planning can make future peering, mergers, acquisitions or multiregion expansion more difficult.

Migration can also require resource-specific work. Microsoft notes that moving a virtual machine from one virtual network to another requires deleting and recreating the virtual machine, although its disks can be retained. DNS should also be planned carefully because default Azure name resolution does not automatically provide name resolution across peered virtual networks. Azure Private DNS or custom DNS may be needed for cross-network naming.

What are Azure Virtual Network's main limitations?

Virtual Network is a foundation, not a complete enterprise networking solution by itself. It does not replace firewalls, application delivery, dedicated hybrid connectivity, centralized network management or advanced routing appliances. Those needs are covered by separate Azure services that add cost and administration.

Complex environments can also become difficult to manage when many subscriptions, regions and virtual networks are created without a consistent IP plan, naming standard and ownership model. At larger scale, Azure Virtual Network Manager may be more suitable for centralized topology and security administration than managing each virtual network independently.

How does Azure Virtual Network compare with alternatives?

Within Azure, the main comparison is usually not Virtual Network versus another single service because most Azure infrastructure architectures need a virtual network somewhere in the design. The more useful comparison is between network patterns. A simple single virtual network may be enough for a small workload, while hub-and-spoke, Virtual WAN or centrally managed Virtual Network Manager designs can be better for larger estates.

Organizations comparing cloud providers should evaluate Azure Virtual Network against the private networking model in AWS or Google Cloud based on routing, hybrid connectivity, private service access, security tooling, operational familiarity and existing platform commitments. The right choice usually follows the wider cloud architecture rather than the network feature in isolation.

Who should choose something else instead of Azure Virtual Network?

A team using only a fully managed SaaS product may not need to design or operate Azure networking at all. Small application teams that can stay entirely inside a higher-level managed platform may also prefer to avoid direct network administration where the service safely abstracts it.

Organizations that need centralized management across many Azure virtual networks should evaluate Azure Virtual Network Manager in addition to the base service. Teams focused mainly on branch and global transit connectivity may need Azure Virtual WAN, while private dedicated connectivity to Azure may require ExpressRoute. Azure Virtual Network is the network foundation, but specialized requirements usually depend on additional services rather than replacing the virtual network itself.