Azure SQL Database pricing

Azure SQL Database pricing in the vCore model is made of compute per vCore and hour (provisioned) or per vCore-second (serverless), the SQL Server licence per vCore unless Azure Hybrid Benefit covers it, provisioned data storage per GB and month, backup storage beyond the included amount, and on Hyperscale the replicas as compute of their own; in the DTU model everything is bundled into one package per database or pool and day. Compute dominates almost every bill, because a provisioned database runs around the clock and Business Critical roughly triples it with three replicas; storage and backups only weigh in on large or heavily modified databases.

Pricing dimensions

Microsoft recommends the vCore model and positions the DTU model for customers who want a preconfigured bundle; the conversion runs online. The serverless vCore costs more per unit of time than the provisioned one but pauses to zero; Business Critical sits at about 2.7 times General Purpose, in Microsoft's words, because the three replicas run with it. Hyperscale bills every replica on its own, sets no maximum size and backs up through file snapshots. How the dimensions compare with RDS, Aurora and Cloud SQL is shown under managed databases; the licence question across services under licences in the cloud.

How it appears in your billing data

In the cost export every line carries MeterCategory SQL Database, and MeterSubCategory names product family, service tier and meter type: Single/Elastic Pool General Purpose - Compute Gen5, General Purpose - Serverless - Compute Gen5, Single/Elastic Pool Business Critical - Compute Gen5 and SingleDB/Elastic Pool Hyperscale - Compute Gen5 for compute with the MeterName vCore (Zone Redundancy vCore on zone-redundant databases), Single/Elastic Pool General Purpose - SQL License for the licence, also with vCore, Single/Elastic Pool General Purpose - Storage with General Purpose Data Stored, Single/Elastic Pool PITR Backup Storage with LRS Data Stored, ZRS Data Stored or RA-GRS Data Stored, LTR Backup Storage with Backup LRS Data Stored, and in the DTU model Single Standard with S0 DTUs to S3 DTUs per day and Elastic Pool - Standard with eDTUs per day. Microsoft's backup documentation itself names the filters single/elastic pool pitr backup storage and ltr backup storage for the subcategory in cost analysis; a meter appears only once there is consumption on it.

The ResourceId is the database, the pool for pool compute and storage, and always the database for backups; the logical server produces no lines of its own. For serverless the export sums the day's vCore-seconds into a Quantity in vCore-hours, so pauses show as a smaller quantity, not as a line of their own. Azure Hybrid Benefit is visible as a missing licence line; Dev/Test subscriptions carry the licence meter at a price of zero (Azure Dev/Test pricing). Reserved capacity shows as PricingModel Reservation on the compute lines with a ReservationId, the purchase itself as ChargeType Purchase. Managed Instance carries MeterCategory SQL Managed Instance with matching subcategories (General Purpose - Compute Gen5, General Purpose - Storage with Additional IOPS, PITR Backup Storage); backups outside the service carry the meters of Azure Backup.

In the FOCUS export service and meter sit in ServiceName, x_SkuMeterCategory, x_SkuMeterSubcategory and SkuMeter; ChargeCategory is Usage for consumption and Purchase for the reservation purchase, CommitmentDiscountId and CommitmentDiscountType mark the reserved vCore-hours, and PricingCategory separates on-demand from commitment. The licence is a line of its own there with the same ResourceId as the compute, which matters when summing per database.

Levers

Configuration. Serverless pays off for single databases with pauses: Microsoft names intermittent usage with low average load as the serverless case and steady, high load as the case for provisioned compute. Minimum vCores and the auto-pause delay are the dials, because a database that never pauses pays the minimum around the clock, and features such as geo-replication or long-term retention stop it from pausing. On provisioned databases the vCore count is the lever (rightsizing); Business Critical only where the local SSD latency and the replicas are needed, otherwise General Purpose or Hyperscale, which carries no licence fee. Trim backup retention to what is needed, choose locally redundant backups for non-production, and where excess backup storage stays high in General Purpose, provision more data storage, which Microsoft itself notes is cheaper than the backup GB. Zone redundancy is free on Business Critical and Premium and a price of its own on General Purpose.

Purchase option. Reserved capacity lowers the vCore price of the provisioned tiers for one or three years, and Azure Hybrid Benefit takes the licence off the bill where SQL Server licences with Software Assurance exist; one Enterprise core licence covers four General Purpose vCores or one Business Critical vCore, one Standard core licence one General Purpose vCore. Neither applies to serverless or DTU (reserved capacity for managed services, Azure reservations).

Architecture. Many small databases with varying load belong in an elastic pool: the pool bills at the hour's highest value, but only once, and Microsoft says savings are possible with as few as two S3 databases. Read traffic on Business Critical goes to the read scale-out replica at no extra charge, on Hyperscale to named replicas that cost extra. A geo-secondary is a database of its own with its own compute, storage and licence line. Non-production databases pause through serverless or run in a smaller tier (scheduling and auto-scaling); what the choice of database changes overall is covered under database optimisation. Whoever stores documents rather than relational data compares with Azure Cosmos DB, whoever needs PostgreSQL or MySQL with Azure Database for PostgreSQL and MySQL.

Where it goes wrong

• Serverless never pauses. Compute appears every day with 24 hours at the minimum although the application sleeps at night; a monitor, a geo-replication or an open connection keeps the database awake. Check the serverless metric app_cpu_billed and the pause events, switch off the blocking features or move to provisioned.
• The licence line is twice what was expected. Business Critical carries a higher licence meter per vCore than General Purpose, and every further provisioned database, a geo-secondary included, carries its own licence line. Read the SQL License subcategory per database and set Azure Hybrid Benefit where licences exist.
• Backup storage grows faster than the database. Index rebuilds and bulk loads enlarge differential and log backups, longer retention multiplies them, and deleted databases keep their backups until they expire. Compare the PITR Backup Storage meter per database with the maximum size, shorten retention, run index maintenance less often.
• The pool costs more than the databases would alone. The pool was sized for peaks that all databases hit at the same time, so nothing is shared. Overlay the databases' usage patterns and move databases with steady medium to high load out of the pool.
• Hyperscale replicas double the compute. Every HA replica and every named replica is a vCore line of its own, in serverless each with its own minimum. Check the replica count against the read demand.
• Zone redundancy made the General Purpose database dearer. Unlike Business Critical, General Purpose carries meters of its own for zone-redundant compute and storage. Decide which databases must survive a zone outage.
• The DTU database pays for extra storage. Standard and Premium bill storage above the bundle limit per GB and long-term retention separately. Compare bundle size with data size, or move to the vCore model where storage and compute scale apart.

Example

List prices from the Azure Retail Prices API in EUR for Germany West Central, standard-series (Gen5), read on 2026-10-21: a provisioned General Purpose vCore costs EUR 0.1473 per hour (meter vCore), the SQL licence EUR 0.088 per vCore and hour (the region-less meter SQL License), EUR 0.2353 together; with Azure Hybrid Benefit the licence falls away. Business Critical costs EUR 0.2947 per vCore-hour plus EUR 0.33 licence, Hyperscale EUR 0.1768 per vCore-hour and replica, serverless in General Purpose EUR 0.505 per vCore-hour billed per second, and serverless in Hyperscale EUR 0.3659. For zone-redundant General Purpose databases the API lists the meter Zone Redundancy vCore at EUR 0.0884 per vCore-hour beside the vCore meter. Data storage costs EUR 0.1206 per GB and month in General Purpose (EUR 0.2411 zone-redundant), EUR 0.2618 in Business Critical and EUR 0.1047 in Hyperscale; backup storage beyond the included amount EUR 0.1047 per GB and month with LRS or ZRS and EUR 0.2094 with RA-GRS, long-term retention EUR 0.0262 with LRS. In the DTU model Basic costs EUR 0.1417 per day, Standard S0 EUR 0.4258 and S3 EUR 4.2579 per day, the elastic pool EUR 0.0638 per eDTU and day, extra Standard storage EUR 0.1945 per GB and month. Managed Instance in General Purpose sits at the same EUR 0.1473 per vCore-hour, EUR 0.1206 per GB of storage and EUR 0.0435 per additional IOPS and month.

That gives the serverless threshold: two provisioned General Purpose vCores with licence cost EUR 0.4706 per hour, EUR 11.2944 per day; serverless costs EUR 1.01 per hour at full load on two vCores, EUR 0.2525 at the 0.5 vCore minimum, and nothing while paused. A database that runs fewer than 11.18 hours a day on two vCores and pauses otherwise is cheaper in serverless; if it idles at the minimum instead of pausing for the remaining hours, the threshold drops to 6.9 hours (11.2944 minus 24 times 0.2525, divided by 0.7575). Against the Azure Hybrid Benefit variant (EUR 0.2946 per hour for two vCores) the threshold with pausing is 7.0 hours.

Sources

Read on 2026-10-21. Microsoft Learn: Purchasing models for Azure SQL Database, Serverless compute tier, Serverless compute tier billing, Hyperscale service tier, Elastic pools, Automated backups, Availability through local and zone redundancy, Azure Hybrid Benefit, Cost details fields, FOCUS cost and usage details schema. Prices: Azure Retail Prices API in EUR, SQL Database in Germany West Central, SQL licence meters, SQL Managed Instance in Germany West Central.