Updated 25 October 2026 · Published by Zoorik
Provisioned IOPS is the disk performance you set and pay for, counted in input/output operations per second (IOPS). That’s the reads and writes a disk can do each second. You pay for that number, whether your app uses it or not.
Provisioned IOPS in AWS and Azure
- On AWS, io1 and io2 Block Express are the Provisioned IOPS SSD types. You pay for every IOPS you set.
- gp3 has EBS provisioned IOPS too: 3,000 come with the storage, and you pay for the rest.
- On Azure, Premium SSD v2 and Ultra Disk charge for size, IOPS and throughput separately.
- Premium SSD v2 gives 3,000 IOPS free.
- Premium SSD ties IOPS to size: a 4 TiB P50 disk gets 7,500 base IOPS.
An example from AWS
AWS’s pricing page uses a 2,000 GB gp3 volume set to 10,000 IOPS.
- 3,000 IOPS come free.
- The other 7,000 are billed as extra.
Why it matters for your bill
- Set IOPS for your busiest hour, and you pay that level in quiet hours too.
- Your virtual machine (VM) caps IOPS too. IOPS above its limit are billed but never reached.
- You can change IOPS on a running disk on AWS, Premium SSD v2 and Ultra Disk. Azure allows four changes per disk in 24 hours.
- Before you choose io2, read when more IOPS are worth the price.
- For disk size, Amoeba moves a VM’s data disks onto one pool sized to your data, then rightsizes it autonomously.
- The free assessment works out your own figure.
Read next: io2 vs gp3: when Provisioned IOPS is worth the price
Sources: AWS, “Amazon EBS Provisioned IOPS SSD volumes” (opens in a new tab); AWS, “Amazon EBS General Purpose SSD volumes” (opens in a new tab); AWS, “Amazon EBS pricing” (opens in a new tab); Microsoft Learn, “Select a disk type for Azure IaaS VMs” (opens in a new tab).