Microsoft discloses Azure revenue for the first time: $33.2 billion

The dollar figure, released Wednesday alongside another record-breaking quarter for the company, puts Azure slightly ahead of Google Cloud, which Alphabet said brought in $30.7 billion over the same three months in results also published Wednesday. Both now report cloud revenue in dollars each quarter, as does Amazon Web Services, making direct comparisons possible for the first time.

Growth rates tell a different story. Google Cloud, whose numbers also include Google Workspace subscriptions, roughly doubled its revenue year over year — expanding at about twice Azure's pace, according to calculations based on the reported figures.

Within Microsoft, Azure is now the largest and fastest-growing product line on the company's own accounting, contributing roughly 36% of its $92.3 billion in quarterly revenue. The unit rents out computing capacity that businesses use to run applications and software-as-a-service products and to build and operate AI models.

The $33.2 billion result came in about $850 million above the $32.3 billion analysts had expected. Azure's 48% growth also cleared the 44% to 45% range that Microsoft chief financial officer Amy Hood had guided toward on the company's July earnings call.

Previously, Microsoft had described Azure's performance only through growth percentages or loosely framed revenue milestones, leaving investors to estimate the unit's absolute size.