Updated 25 October 2026 · Published by Zoorik
The Azure temporary disk, or Azure temp disk, is short-term storage that comes with most Azure virtual machines (VMs). Microsoft says it isn’t a managed disk and should hold only data such as page files, swap files or SQL Server tempdb files.
When its data can be lost
Data on the temporary disk in an Azure VM might be lost when:
- Azure runs a maintenance event
- You redeploy the VM
- You stop the VM
A successful standard restart keeps the data.
An example: Azure VM temporary disk size
The temporary disk’s size depends on the VM size you pick, as the Ddsv5 series shows:
- Standard_D2ds_v5 comes with a 75 GiB temporary disk.
- Standard_D96ds_v5 comes with 3,600 GiB.
Some VM sizes have no temporary disk at all. Windows shows it as drive D by default, and on Linux it’s usually /dev/disk/azure/resource.
Why it matters for your bill
- The VM price covers the temporary disk, so it has no separate charge.
- Data you need to keep belongs on managed data disks.
- Azure bills those for the size you provision, not for what you write. Empty space on them still costs money.
- Check each disk’s used vs provisioned space.
Amoeba moves a VM’s data disks onto one pool sized to your data, then rightsizes it autonomously. It works on data disks only and never touches the OS disk or the Azure temporary disk.
The free assessment works out your own figure.
Read next: Azure VM disk usage: check used vs provisioned
Sources: Microsoft Learn, “Overview of Azure Disk Storage” (opens in a new tab); Microsoft Learn, “Ddsv5 size series” (opens in a new tab); Microsoft Learn, “Understand Azure Disk Storage billing” (opens in a new tab); Microsoft Azure, “Linux Virtual Machines Pricing” (opens in a new tab).