By default, all Log Analytics tables are created under the Analytics plan, which is optimized for high-performance querying and interactive analysis. However, not all telemetry requires real-time access or frequent querying. Some tables may serve audit, archival, or compliance use cases where querying is rare or unnecessary. Leaving such tables on the Analytics plan results in unnecessary spend—especially when ingestion volumes are high or the table receives data from verbose sources (e.g., diagnostic logs, platform metrics).
Azure now allows users to assign different pricing plans at the table level, including the Basic plan, which offers significantly lower ingestion costs at the expense of reduced query functionality. This provides a valuable opportunity to align cost with access patterns by assigning less expensive plans to tables that are retained for record-keeping or compliance, rather than analysis.
Azure Log Analytics charges based on the ingestion volume and pricing plan assigned to each table. The default plan—Analytics—offers full query capabilities but is the most expensive option. The Basic plan is intended for low-access or audit-only data and provides lower-cost storage with limited query functionality. Costs can accumulate rapidly when high-ingestion tables default to the Analytics plan despite minimal interaction or querying needs.
