Defender Workload Unit ( DWU) represents cloud security usage

Defender Workload Unit is a new billing model and product experience for cloud security that maps protected workloads to one unified unit. Customers track total secured workloads in one model and use updated tools to estimate, budget, and track usage. DWU uses a consistent global per-unit price, billed monthly or prorated hourly. Final pricing is reflected on the official pricing page.

Defender Workload Unit (DWU)

A simplified billing model and updated cloud security experiences that map protected workloads into a single, unified unit:

Pricing model: A single, globally consistent per‑unit price ($5 list price). Each protected workload (CSPM, servers, containers) is mapped to a defined DWU ratio.
- As part of the new model:
  - Defender for Containers is measured by protected node instead of vCPU.
  - Defender for Key Vault, Defender for Storage, and Defender for Resource Manager use per-resource measurement instead of transactional measurement.
  - Defender for Azure SQL Databases, Defender for SQL Servers on Machines, and Defender for Open-Source Relational Databases are consolidated into one Defender for Databases plan.
  - Defender for APIs uses a unified plan instead of multiple separate plans.
  - Defender for DNS will no longer be offered as a standalone plan. Defender for Servers Plan 2 customers gain access to Defender for DNS value as part of Defender for Servers Plan 2 at no extra cost.
Usage report: Customers can view total secured workloads in a single model and use enhanced tools to estimate, plan, and monitor usage.

NOTE. Before using the new DWU model the cloud security plans needs to be enabled to Defender.

Getting started

Defender for Cloud customers with at any paid plan can access the consumption experiences in the Defender portal.

Defender for Cloud customers with at least one paid plan can access the Defender portal experiences.

To prepare your tenant for cloud security data:

In the Microsoft Defender portal, select Cloud security > Overview.
Select Prepare my tenant.

NOTE: Data can take up to 24 hours to appear.

Follow the link to plan enablement.

Track the cost of DWU-based billing

After you move subscriptions to DWU-based billing, use the Cloud security cost report to review costs.

Sign in to the Microsoft Defender portal.
In the navigation pane, select Cost & usage.

The Cloud security cost page shows the total USD cost for the selected time period in the upper-right corner of the Spending overview chart.

Cloud security cost estimator

Use the Cloud Security Cost Estimator to estimate DWU usage and projected monthly costs before moving environments to the new model. Sign-in if prompted:

Cloud Security Cost Estimator

The DWU model replaces separate billing signals with one unit that can be reviewed across workloads and environments. For current pricing and workload mappings, see

Pricing – Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Understanding Defender Workload Unit for Cloud Security

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