Three new Azure SQL Database service tiers—Basic, Standard, and Premium—are generally available. The tiers target seven performance levels, so they're flexible enough for light to heavyweight workloads.You can look forward to:
- 99.99 percent uptime SLA*, one of the highest for Azure services.
- Hourly billing for greater flexibility and budget management.
- Reduced prices (up to 50 percent from previously published generally available pricing).
Or, choose our new Standard performance level for a cost-effective solution that falls between Basic and S1.All general availability pricing for Basic, Standard, and Premium tiers will take effect on November 1, 2014.
| Basic | Standard | Premium |
| Uptime SLA | Now increased to 99.99%* |
| Database size limit | 2 GB | 250 GB | 500 GB |
| Self-service restore | Any point within 7 days | Any point within 14 days | Any point within 35 days |
| Disaster recovery | Geo-restore to alternate Azure region | Standard geo-replication, standby secondary | Active geo-replication, up to 4 readable secondaries |
| Performance objectives | Transaction rate per hour | Transaction rate per minute | Transaction rate per second |
*99.99 percent uptime SLA does not apply to SQL Database Web and Business editions, which are supported at 99.9 percent.- Basic: Designed for applications with a light transactional workload. Performance objectives for Basic provide a predictable hourly transaction rate.
- Standard: Designed as the go-to option for getting started with cloud-designed business applications. It offers mid-level performance and business continuity features. Performance objectives for Standard deliver predictable per-minute transaction rates.
- Premium: Designed for mission-critical databases, offers the highest performance levels and access to advanced business continuity features. Performance objectives for Premium deliver predictable per-second transaction rates.
For more information on the new service tiers, please visit the
Microsoft Azure Blog, and the
SQL Database Pricing Details and
Azure SQL Database Service Tiers (Editions) webpages.