---
slug: "azure-virtual-machines-hc-series-retirement"
title: "Azure Virtual Machines: HC-series retirement"
summary: "Retirement date for HC-series Azure Virtual Machines: 31 May 2027. After that date, remaining HC-series VMs are set to a deallocated state and stop working."
cloud: "azure"
service: "Azure Virtual Machines"
service_slug: "virtual-machines"
category: "compute_sku"
type: "retirement"
announced_date: "2026-03-19"
effective_date: "2027-05-31"
effective_precision: "day"
replacement: "HBv5-series or HX-series VMs"
affected_versions: ["Standard_HC44rs","Standard_HC44-16rs","Standard_HC44-32rs"]
source_url: "https://azure.microsoft.com/updates?id=548543"
extra_source_urls: ["https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/sizes/high-performance-compute/hbv5-series?tabs=sizebasic","https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/sizes/high-performance-compute/hx-series?tabs=sizebasic"]
vendor_ref: "548543"
last_checked_at: "2026-11-12T09:55:19.345Z"
created_at: "2026-11-13T13:36:44.208Z"
updated_at: "2026-11-13T13:36:44.208Z"
url: "https://eolwatch.dev/items/azure-virtual-machines-hc-series-retirement"
short_url: "https://eolwatch.dev/i/68"
markdown_url: "https://eolwatch.dev/items/azure-virtual-machines-hc-series-retirement.md"
json_url: "https://eolwatch.dev/items/azure-virtual-machines-hc-series-retirement.json"
source_note: null
---

# Azure Virtual Machines: HC-series retirement

Retirement date for HC-series Azure Virtual Machines: 31 May 2027. After that date, remaining HC-series VMs are set to a deallocated state and stop working.

- Effective date: 31 May 2027
- Cloud: [Azure](https://eolwatch.dev/cloud/azure.md)
- Service: [Azure Virtual Machines](https://eolwatch.dev/services/azure/virtual-machines.md)
- Type: Retirement
- Category: [Compute SKU](https://eolwatch.dev/categories/compute-skus.md)
- Affected versions: Standard_HC44rs, Standard_HC44-16rs, Standard_HC44-32rs
- Replacement: HBv5-series or HX-series VMs
- Announced: 19 Mar 2026
- Official source: [azure.microsoft.com](https://azure.microsoft.com/updates?id=548543)
- Last checked: 12 Nov 2026

## What breaks

The retirement covers the sizes Standard_HC44rs, Standard_HC44-16rs and Standard_HC44-32rs. After the retirement date, remaining HC-series VMs are set to a deallocated state, stop working and no longer incur billing charges. After the retirement date, HC-series is no longer under SLA and no longer has support included. Purchases of 1-year and 3-year reserved instances ended on April 2, 2026.

## Who is affected

### Affected versions

- `Standard_HC44rs`
- `Standard_HC44-16rs`
- `Standard_HC44-32rs`

### Matching resource types

- `microsoft.compute/virtualmachines`
- `microsoft.compute/virtualmachinescalesets`
- `azurerm_linux_virtual_machine`
- `azurerm_windows_virtual_machine`
- `azurerm_virtual_machine`
- `azurerm_linux_virtual_machine_scale_set`
- `azurerm_windows_virtual_machine_scale_set`
- `azurerm_orchestrated_virtual_machine_scale_set`
- `azurerm_kubernetes_cluster`
- `azurerm_kubernetes_cluster_node_pool`

### Fields the check reads

- `vmsize`
- `sku`
- `size`
- `vm_size`
- `sku_name`
- `default_node_pool.vm_size`

### Detected by the estate check from

- Azure Resource Graph export (CSV or JSON)
- Terraform state or plan (JSON)
- ARM template

## What to do

1. Resize or deallocate your HC-series VMs.
2. Microsoft recommends migrating the workloads to newer HPC-optimized SKUs such as HBv5, HBv4, HX and HBv3-series virtual machines, or an alternative that meets your workload requirements.
3. Microsoft recommends the current-generation HPC families [HBv5-series](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/sizes/high-performance-compute/hbv5-series?tabs=sizebasic) and [HX-series](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/sizes/high-performance-compute/hx-series?tabs=sizebasic), the latter for high-memory HPC workloads.

## Replacement

HBv5-series or HX-series VMs

## Sources

- [Official source](https://azure.microsoft.com/updates?id=548543) (azure.microsoft.com, Official)
- [Additional source](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/sizes/high-performance-compute/hbv5-series?tabs=sizebasic) (learn.microsoft.com, Official)
- [Additional source](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/sizes/high-performance-compute/hx-series?tabs=sizebasic) (learn.microsoft.com, Official)

Last checked against the first source in this list on 12 Nov 2026.

Page: https://eolwatch.dev/items/azure-virtual-machines-hc-series-retirement | JSON: https://eolwatch.dev/items/azure-virtual-machines-hc-series-retirement.json

The text on this page is drafted with AI assistance from the vendor's text, checked against the official source and approved by a person before it is published.