How to Master Microsoft Azure SQL Pricing

Microsoft Azure SQL Database is offered as part of Microsoft Azure’s public cloud platform, and allows developers to utilize an intelligent and scalable relational database service. It conforms to all the characteristics of a genuine cloud service, one being that you only have to pay for what you use.

That sounds great, but the truth is, pricing and cost optimization for Azure SQL Database can get confusing and pile up fast. If you don’t know how to wrangle those costs and get the most out of the platform, you could be facing a hefty bill.

How Does Microsoft Azure SQL Pricing Work?

Estimating Microsoft Azure SQL Database pricing can be challenging due to the multiple configurations available. For illustration, consider the following options to get an idea of how many permutations there are:

• 2 purchase models: DTU (Database Transaction Unit), vCore (Virtual Core)
• 3 deployment models: Single Database, Elastic Pool, Managed Instance
• 3 service tiers: General Purpose, Business Critical, Hyperscale
• 2 compute models: Provisioned, Serverless
• 4 hardware types: Gen 5, DC-Series, Fsv2-seres, M-Series

The number of choices available can be overwhelming at first. We recommend starting your cost optimization exercise by first starting with what your requirements are. Once you have a clear understanding of what you need, you can use the Azure SQL Database pricing page filter shown in the following image to narrow down the various options.

To learn more about how this works, check out the Microsoft Azure SQL Pricing article in our Guide to Azure Cost Optimization.

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