By David Smith, Founder and CEO, Atlas AVD, , updated
Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) pays back when it replaces a hardware purchase, and in 2026 that purchase costs more than it has in years because of memory. In the worked example below, re-equipping 100 users with laptops costs $140,000, while three years of AVD costs $102,273 with thin clients and $57,273 on the devices people already have. Most of the gap is RAM: the refresh buys 1,600 GB of it at this year's prices, and 6 shared session hosts rent 192 GB by the hour.
The short version: a laptop refresh buys every user their own 16 GB of memory, up front, at 2026 prices, and most of it sits idle. Pooled AVD shares a much smaller amount between everyone who is signed in and bills it only while the hosts run. The ROI is real if you switch hosts off out of hours and your users can work from a desk or their own device. Leave the hosts on all week, or count users who work offline, and it shrinks or disappears.
Why RAM is the cost to watch in 2026
Memory is the reason PC quotes look different this year. Chip makers have moved production capacity to the memory that AI servers use, and the DRAM that goes into PCs has been short ever since.
| Source | Date | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| TrendForce | 2 February 2026 | Conventional DRAM contract prices forecast to rise 90 to 95% in one quarter. PC DRAM forecast to rise by more than 100%, the largest quarterly increase on record. |
| Gartner | 26 February 2026 | A 130% rise in combined DRAM and SSD prices by the end of 2026, lifting PC prices 17% over 2025. Memory reaches 23% of a PC's bill of materials, up from 16%. |
| TrendForce | 30 September 2026 | Conventional DRAM contract prices forecast to rise another 10 to 15% in the fourth quarter. PC DRAM supply could decline in 2027 as more capacity shifts to servers. |
Two things follow for anyone planning a refresh.
- The price isn't coming back soon. The most recent forecast still has contract prices rising, and it expects PC memory supply to tighten again next year. Waiting six months is not a plan.
- Businesses are already stretching their fleets. Gartner expects business PC lifetimes to grow 15% as buyers put off replacements. That works for a while, then the old devices become the problem: slow, out of warranty, and short of memory for Windows 11, Teams and a browser full of tabs.
A laptop refresh is the most memory-hungry way to give people a desktop. Every user gets their own 16 GB, bought once at whatever the price is that quarter, sized for their busiest hour and switched off for most of the week.
How AVD changes the memory bill
On a pooled AVD host pool, users share session hosts running Windows 11 Enterprise multi-session. Windows and each application are loaded once per host, not once per person, and users don't all hit their peak at the same moment. So the memory you provision per user is far lower than the memory you'd buy them in a laptop.
| Laptop refresh | AVD with pooled session hosts | |
|---|---|---|
| Memory per user | 16 GB, dedicated | About 1.6 GB, a share of a 32 GB host with 20 sessions |
| Total for 100 users | 1,600 GB, purchased | 192 GB across 6 hosts, rented |
| When you pay | Up front, at this quarter's price | By the hour, only while a host is running |
| If users need more | Open every device, or replace it | Change the VM size or lower the session limit |
| If prices fall | You've already paid | Your next hour costs less |
The 20 sessions per host comes from the worked 200-user example in our AVD sizing guide, which sizes a typical office workload on 8 vCPU, 32 GB hosts. It's a starting point, not a promise. Heavy users need more memory each, and a pilot is what confirms the number. How many users fit per vCPU covers how to measure it.
The endpoint still needs some memory. A thin client typically ships with 8 GB or less, so 100 of them hold 800 GB, half of what the laptops would. Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) and reused PCs buy none at all.
The worked example: 100 users over 3 years
The example compares three ways to give 100 office workers a working Windows desktop for the next 36 months.
- Laptop refresh. Replace every device with a new 16 GB business laptop.
- AVD with thin clients. Replace every device with a thin client and move the desktops to AVD.
- AVD with BYOD or existing devices. Keep the devices people already have, or let them use their own, and move the desktops to AVD.
The inputs
| Input | Value | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Business laptop, 16 GB | $1,400 | Our assumption: a $1,200 laptop at 2025 prices plus Gartner's 17%. Use your own quote. |
| Thin client | $450 | Our assumption for a current model from a partner on Microsoft's approved thin client list. |
| Session hosts | 6 × D8as_v5 (8 vCPU, 32 GB) | 20 sessions per host for 100 users, plus one spare host. |
| Compute rate | $0.344 per host-hour | East US pay-as-you-go list price, without a Windows license charge because users hold an eligible Microsoft 365 or Windows license. |
| Hours each host runs | 260 a month | 12 hours every weekday, powered off overnight and at weekends by a scaling plan. Always-on is 730. |
| OS disks | $9.60 per host a month | A 128 GiB Standard SSD (E10). Disks are billed whether the host is on or off. |
| FSLogix profile storage | 30 GiB per user at $0.16 per GiB | Azure Files premium, locally redundant, provisioned. |
| Everything else in Azure | $100 a month | Our allowance for networking, monitoring logs and backups. |
| One-time AVD build and migration | $15,000 | Our assumption for the image, pilot and rollout, whether you pay a partner or spend your own team's time. |
Azure rates are list prices read from Microsoft's Azure Retail Prices API on 11 November 2026. Yours will differ by region and agreement.
What AVD costs to run
| Azure cost | Per month | Over 36 months |
|---|---|---|
| Session host compute (6 hosts × 260 hours × $0.344) | $536.64 | $19,319 |
| OS disks | $57.60 | $2,074 |
| FSLogix profile storage | $480 | $17,280 |
| Networking, logs and backups | $100 | $3,600 |
| Total | $1,174.24 | $42,273 |
That's $11.74 per user a month to run the desktops.
The three routes compared
| 3-year cost | Laptop refresh | AVD with thin clients | AVD with BYOD or existing devices |
|---|---|---|---|
| Devices | $140,000 | $45,000 | $0 |
| One-time AVD build and migration | $0 | $15,000 | $15,000 |
| Azure, 36 months | $0 | $42,273 | $42,273 |
| Total | $140,000 | $102,273 | $57,273 |
| Saved against the refresh | $37,727 (27%) | $82,727 (59%) | |
| Return on what you spend | 37% | 144% | |
| Memory you buy | 1,600 GB | 800 GB | 0 GB |
| Cash needed on day one | $140,000 | $60,000 | $15,000 |
"Return on what you spend" is the saving divided by the AVD route's total cost. There's no payback period to wait out, because both AVD routes need less cash on day one than the refresh does. The rest is a monthly bill.
Autoscaling is what makes it work
Run the same 6 hosts around the clock and the Azure bill over 36 months is $77,196, not $42,273. The thin-client route then totals $137,196, which is $2,804 less than the refresh. Nearly all of the saving has gone.
So the ROI depends on one operational habit: hosts are off when nobody is working. Our guide to cutting idle AVD compute covers how, and the AVD autoscaling guide covers the thresholds. If part of the pool has to run all week, reserved instances or a savings plan cut the rate for those hosts.
What a higher laptop price does to the result
The Azure side of this model uses today's list rates, which don't move when a PC maker reprices a laptop. The refresh side does, and it moves by 100 devices at a time. Azure isn't immune to hardware costs over the long run, and Microsoft does change prices for particular VM series and regions, so rerun the numbers when it does.
| Laptop price | Refresh for 100 users | AVD with thin clients | AVD with BYOD or existing devices |
|---|---|---|---|
| $900 | $90,000 | $12,273 more | $32,727 saved |
| $1,200 | $120,000 | $17,727 saved | $62,727 saved |
| $1,400 | $140,000 | $37,727 saved | $82,727 saved |
| $1,600 | $160,000 | $57,727 saved | $102,727 saved |
| $1,800 | $180,000 | $77,727 saved | $122,727 saved |
The thin-client route costs the same as the refresh at a laptop price of about $1,023. Reusing devices breaks even at about $573. Below those prices the refresh is cheaper on hardware alone. At the 2025 price the thin-client route still came out ahead in this model, but by less than half as much. Every further price rise from the PC makers widens the gap.
Thin clients contain memory too, so their price isn't immune. They hold half as much, though, and they usually stay in service longer than a laptop because the work happens on the session host.
What the model leaves out
A model this small leaves things out on both sides. Check each one against your own estate before you take the numbers to finance.
Left out because it's the same on every route
- Microsoft 365 or Windows licenses. A laptop user needs them for Office and Windows, and the same licenses carry the AVD access rights.
- Monitors, keyboards and docks. The model assumes each desk already has them. A thin client needs a screen, so add one where a laptop's built-in display was the only one.
- Internet access and the office network.
Left out and likely to favor AVD
- Imaging, shipping and setting up 100 laptops.
- Repairs, loss and theft over three years. A lost thin client or personal device holds no company data.
- Replacing a laptop mid-cycle because 16 GB turned out not to be enough.
Left out and likely to favor the refresh
- Resale value of the laptops at the end of the term.
- Offline work. A laptop works on a plane. An AVD session doesn't.
- A support allowance or stipend for BYOD, if you pay one.
- Extra hosts for users who turn out heavier than the pilot suggested.
The AVD Cost Calculator lets you rerun the Azure side with your own user count, VM size and hours.
Thin clients or BYOD?
Both routes use the same AVD environment. The difference is who owns the device and how much you control it.
| Thin clients | Existing PCs | BYOD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Device cost | $450 each in this model | None until they fail | None, or a stipend |
| How users connect | The vendor's client, or the web client in a browser | Windows App | Windows App on Windows, macOS, iOS, iPadOS or Android, or a web browser |
| Who manages it | You, through the vendor's management tool | You, as today | The user |
| Best for | Fixed desks, shared desks, front-of-house and call centers | Buying time when the fleet still works | Contractors, part-time and home workers |
| Watch out for | Check the model is on Microsoft's approved list, and test Teams calls and printing on it | The device still needs a supported, patched operating system | You don't control the device, so control the session |
Reusing old PCs. A PC that's too slow for today's applications is usually fine as a way to reach a desktop that runs somewhere else. It still has to run an operating system that gets security updates. Windows 10 support ended on 14 October 2025, so a PC that can't run Windows 11 needs Extended Security Updates or a different operating system. Some thin client vendors sell an operating system that installs on existing PCs for this purpose.
Making BYOD safe. With BYOD the desktop is managed and the device isn't, so the controls sit on the sign-in and the session: Conditional Access and multifactor authentication on every connection, clipboard and drive redirection turned off for unmanaged devices, and screen capture protection or watermarking where the data warrants it. The AVD security guide has the full list.
When the ROI doesn't hold
AVD isn't the cheaper answer for everyone. The model above stops working in these cases.
- People who work offline or on poor connections. Field staff and frequent travelers need a real laptop.
- Heavy graphics and engineering work. GPU session hosts cost several times more per user than the hosts in this example. See when you need a GPU VM.
- Very small teams. The spare host, the build cost and the monthly minimums are spread over fewer people. Below about 20 users, run your own numbers carefully.
- A fleet you replaced last year. That money is spent. The comparison only applies at the next refresh.
- Hosts that can't be switched off. Round-the-clock shifts use the always-on figure above, less whatever a reservation saves.
- One person, one desktop. If every user needs their own always-available machine, compare personal host pools and Windows 365 instead. Our AVD vs Windows 365 comparison and pooled vs personal host pools explain the difference.
Many organizations end up mixed: laptops for the people who travel, AVD on thin clients or existing devices for everyone at a desk. The refresh you avoid is then the desk-based share of the fleet, and the model scales down in proportion.
If the hardware you're replacing is an on-premises Remote Desktop Services farm, not laptops, the comparison is different again. Azure Virtual Desktop vs on-premises RDS covers it.
Where Atlas AVD fits
Everything above works with Azure Virtual Desktop as Microsoft ships it. Atlas AVD is a management platform that deploys into your own Azure subscription, and it helps with the part of the model that's easiest to get wrong: keeping the Azure bill at the autoscaled figure and not the always-on one.
- Hosts off when nobody is working. Auto On/Off Scheduling and the Autoscale Engine power session hosts by schedule and by demand, and DrainGuard re-checks for live sessions so a host is never shut down under a connected user.
- The right number of users per host. Adaptive Density adjusts each host pool's maximum sessions based on real usage, so the 20-per-host starting point becomes a measured one.
- The right VM size. Adaptive SKU recommends a different size when a pool has more memory or CPU than it uses.
- Proof for finance. Host Pool Cost Tracking shows Azure compute cost per host pool, so you can hold the real bill against the model.
Atlas AVD is $199 per tenant a month with unlimited AVD users, which adds $7,164 over 36 months. On this example that makes the thin-client route $109,437 and the existing-device route $64,437, both still below the $140,000 refresh. Atlas AVD pricing explained covers how the flat rate works. Start free, no credit card: the Community plan is free forever for 1 tenant and 1 host pool, or try every feature for 30 days.
Planning the move itself? The AVD migration checklist lists the 25 things to verify before the first user moves, and What Is Azure Virtual Desktop? explains how the pieces fit.
FAQ
What is the ROI of Azure Virtual Desktop?
It depends on what AVD replaces. In this article's example, 100 users on AVD with thin clients cost $102,273 over three years against $140,000 for a laptop refresh, a saving of 27%. Reusing existing devices saves 59%. Both figures assume session hosts are powered off outside working hours.
Why do RAM prices affect the case for AVD?
A laptop refresh buys each user their own memory up front, and PC memory contract prices more than doubled in early 2026. Gartner forecast PC prices up 17% over 2025 because of it. Pooled AVD session hosts share far less memory between users and bill it by the hour, so a rise in PC memory prices raises the cost of the refresh without raising the AVD side of the comparison.
Is Azure Virtual Desktop cheaper than buying laptops?
For desk-based office workers on pooled session hosts that are switched off out of hours, usually yes at 2026 laptop prices. In this example the thin-client route breaks even at a laptop price of about $1,023. It isn't cheaper for people who work offline, for GPU workloads, or when hosts run around the clock.
Can users connect to Azure Virtual Desktop from personal devices?
Yes. Windows App runs on Windows, macOS, iOS, iPadOS and Android, and there's a web client for browsers. Protect BYOD access with Conditional Access and multifactor authentication, and turn off clipboard and drive redirection for unmanaged devices.
Do thin clients work with Azure Virtual Desktop?
Yes. Microsoft lists approved thin client partners, including 10ZiG, Dell, HP and IGEL, and a thin client can also use the web client in a browser. Test Teams calls, printing and any USB devices on the exact model before you buy in volume.
How much memory does each AVD user need?
It depends on the workload. This example uses 8 vCPU, 32 GB hosts with 20 sessions each, about 1.6 GB per user, for a typical office workload. Heavy users need more. Size from a pilot, not from a table.
Last updated 11 November 2026. Memory market figures are from TrendForce (2 February 2026, 30 September 2026) and Gartner (26 February 2026). Azure rates are East US list prices from the Azure Retail Prices API on that date. Client details are from Microsoft Learn: What is Windows App? and Connect with thin clients. Device prices and the build cost are our assumptions. Replace them with your own quotes before you decide.