Azure Subscriptions and Management Groups

Azure uses a hierarchical structure to organise resources, enforce policies, and manage billing. At the top of this hierarchy sit management groups, which contain subscriptions, which in turn contain resource groups and resources. Understanding this hierarchy is critical for governance, cost control, and security in any Azure environment.

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Azure Subscriptions

An Azure subscription is a logical unit that serves two primary purposes:

1. Billing boundary — all costs incurred by resources within a subscription are billed together on a single invoice
2. Access-control boundary — you can assign Azure RBAC roles at the subscription level to control who can manage resources

Every Azure resource belongs to a resource group, and every resource group belongs to a subscription. You cannot create resources without a subscription.

Types of Subscriptions

Azure offers several subscription types: