Bicep Cost Estimator

Bicep Cost Estimator (bce) estimates the monthly cost of Azure infrastructure before you deploy it. It works with Bicep and ARM JSON templates and ships as a CLI, a VS Code extension, a GitHub Action, and a browser playground.

Choose Your Workflow

CLI

Use the published bce command locally, in scripts, or in CI when you want direct control over files, parameter overrides, and output formats.

curl -sL https://bicepcostestimator.net/install.sh | bash
bce estimate --file main.bicep

See Getting Started and CLI Commands.

VS Code Extension

Use the extension when you want estimates while authoring Bicep: CodeLens totals, hover details, a status bar total, and a cost breakdown view in the explorer.

code --install-extension enginpolat.bce

See VS Code Extension.

GitHub Action

Use the action when you want cost checks in pull requests or workflow gates based on the estimated monthly total.

- id: cost
  uses: polatengin/washington@main
  with:
    file: infra/main.bicep
    output-format: json

See GitHub Action.

Playground

Use the browser playground when you want to paste a self-contained template and inspect the result without installing anything locally.

See Playground.

Quick Start With The CLI

curl -sL https://bicepcostestimator.net/install.sh | bash
bce estimate --file main.bicep

Add a params file or choose a machine-readable format when you need a more realistic or automatable run:

bce estimate --file main.bicep --params-file main.bicepparam
bce estimate --file main.bicep --output json

Run via Docker instead if you do not want to install the CLI directly:

bce() {
  docker run --rm \
    -v "$PWD:/work" \
    -w /work \
    --entrypoint /app/bin/bce \
    ghcr.io/polatengin/washington:latest \
    "$@"
}

Add that function to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc, reload your shell, and then use bce like a normal command.

What You Get

• Estimates from Bicep and ARM JSON templates
• Support for .bicepparam files and repeatable --param key=value overrides
• Output formats for terminal and automation: table, json, csv, and markdown
• Shared pricing behavior across the CLI, VS Code extension, GitHub Action, and browser playground
• Warning-based handling for unsupported resources so mixed templates still produce partial totals

How It Works

1. Compile Bicep to ARM JSON when needed.
2. Extract Azure resources, locations, and pricing-relevant properties.
3. Map supported resource types to Azure Retail Prices API queries.
4. Aggregate the results into line items, warnings, and a grand total.

See How Estimates Work for the full pipeline.

Good To Know

• Estimation uses the public Azure Retail Prices API. An Azure subscription sign-in is not required just to run an estimate.
• Pricing responses are cached locally for 24 hours under ~/.bicep-cost-estimator/cache.
• If a resource location cannot be resolved, the estimator falls back to eastus.
• Unsupported resource types are reported as warnings instead of failing the whole run.

Available Tools

Tool	Description
Playground	Paste standalone Bicep into the browser and get an on-demand estimate
CLI	Command-line interface for local and CI use, published as bce
VS Code Extension	Real-time cost estimates in your editor
GitHub Action	Cost estimates on every pull request

Where To Go Next

• Getting Started for installation paths, first estimates, and runtime defaults
• Common Workflows for task-based recipes across the CLI, VS Code, GitHub Action, and docs browser
• CLI Commands for command and flag reference
• VS Code Extension for editor workflows and settings
• GitHub Action for CI and pull request automation
• Supported Resources for coverage details
• Troubleshooting for setup, cache, and unsupported-resource issues