Try SQL Server in the cloud with an Azure free account
Run Microsoft SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines or use Azure SQL Database, a fully managed service
Popular services free for 12 months
55+ other services free always
Start with USD$200 Azure credit
Here's just some of what you can do with Azure
Support modern cloud applications
Optimize performance and durability with automated, AI-powered features that are always up to date.
Simplify SQL Server migration to the cloud
Easily migrate your SQL Server workloads to Azure and take advantage of powerful, versatile virtual machines.
Lower your total cost of ownership
Take advantage of cost savings that are only available on Azure for Windows Server and SQL Server workloads.
Take advantage of free products
These products are free up to the specified monthly amounts. Some are always free to all Azure customers, and some are free for 12 months to new customers only.
12 Months
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Azure Virtual Machines—Windows
750 hours each of B1s, B2pts v2 (Arm-based), and B2ats v2 (AMD-based) burstable VMs
12 Months
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Azure Virtual Machines—Linux
750 hours each of B1s, B2pts v2 (Arm-based), and B2ats v2 (AMD-based) burstable VMs
Always
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Azure SQL Database
Get up to 10 databases with 100,000 vCore seconds of serverless tier and 32 GB of storage each
12 Months
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Azure Blob Storage
5 GB locally redundant storage (LRS) hot block with 20,000 read and 10,000 write operations
Take advantage of free products
These products are free up to the specified monthly amounts. Some are always free to all Azure customers, and some are free for 12 months to new customers only.
| Azure service | Description | Type | Free monthly amount | Free period | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Advisor | Get personalized recommendations and best practices for Azure. | Management and Governance | Unlimited | Always |
 | AI Anomaly Detector | Detect anomalies in data to quickly identify and troubleshoot issues. | AI + Machine Learning | 20,000 transactions of free tier | Always |
 | AI Bot Service | Develop intelligent, enterprise-grade bots that scale on demand. | AI + Machine Learning | 10,000 premium channel messages and unlimited standard channel messages | Always |
 | AI Content Safety | Moderate text and images to provide a safer, more positive user experience. | AI + Machine Learning | 5,000 text records or 5,000 images of free tier | Always |
 | AI Custom Vision | Easily customize computer vision models for your unique use case. | AI + Machine Learning | 10,000 predictions S0 tier, one training hour, two projects with 5,000 training images each | 12 months |
 | AI Document Intelligence | Automate the extraction of text, key/value pairs, and tables from your documents. | AI + Machine Learning | 500 pages S0 tier | 12 months |
 | AI Immersive Reader | Embed text reading and comprehension capabilities into applications. | AI + Machine Learning | 3 million characters | Always |
 | AI Language | Extract information such as sentiment, key phrases, named entities, and language from your text. | AI + Machine Learning | 5,000 text records | Always |
 | AI Metrics Advisor | Embed AI-powered monitoring features to proactively diagnose issues. | AI + Machine Learning | Up to 25 time series of standard tier | Always |
 | AI Personalizer | Deliver rich, personalized experiences for every user. | AI + Machine Learning | 50,000 transactions S0 tier | 12 months |
 | AI Search | Include a cloud search service in your web and mobile application. | AI + Machine Learning | 50 MB storage for 10,000 hosted documents and 3 indexes per service | Always |
 | AI Speech -Speaker Recognition | Accurately verify and identify speakers by their unique voice characteristics. | AI + Machine Learning | 10,000 transactions each of speaker verification, speaker identification, and voice profile storage | Always |
 | AI Speech - Speech to Text | Transcribe spoken audio to text. | AI + Machine Learning | 5 audio hours each of Standard, Custom, and Conversation Transcription Multichannel Audio, 1 Custom endpoint hosting model | Always |
 | AI Speech - Speech Translation | Integrate real-time speech translation into your app. | AI + Machine Learning | 5 audio hours Standard | Always |
| | AI Speech - Text to Speech | Build apps that convert text to lifelike speech. | AI + Machine Learning | 0.5 million neural characters per month | Always |
 | AI Translator | Add real-time, multi-language text translation to your apps, websites, and tools. | AI + Machine Learning | 2 million characters free tier | Always |
| | AI Vision | Extract rich information from images to categorize and process visual data. | AI + Machine Learning | 5,000 transactions for each S1, S2, and S3 tier | 12 months |
 | API Management | Manage APIs across all platforms with a hybrid, multicloud platform. | Integration | 1 million monthly calls free with Consumption tier | Always |
 | App Configuration | Store and manage configurations for all your Azure apps. | Developer Tools | 1,000 requests per day with 10 MB storage | Always |
 | App Service | Quickly build, deploy, and scale web apps and APIs globally with a fully managed platform as a service (PaaS). | Compute | Up to 10 web or API apps with 1 GB storage and 1 hour per day | Always |
 | Archive Storage | Store and manage rarely accessed data with locally redundant storage (LRS) or geo-redundant storage (GRS). | Storage | 10 GB LRS storage, 10 GB LRS or GRS write and retrieval, and 100 reads | 12 months |
 | Automation | Simplify cloud management with process automation. | Management and Governance | 500 minutes of job runtime | Always |
 | Azure Active Directory B2C | Identity and access management for your customer-facing apps | Identity | 50,000 active users per month (MAU) with Azure Active Directory B2C | Always |
 | Azure Arc | Extend Azure management and services. | Hybrid + Multicloud | Free Azure control plane functionality for resources outside Azure, search and indexing for Azure Arc-enabled resources | Always |
| | Azure Attestation | Verify the identity and security posture of trusted platform modules and trusted execution environments. | Security | Free | Always |
| | Azure Automanage | Simplify and optimize IT management with automated operations. | Management and Governance | There are no charges specifically for Automanage. Azure services that are onboarded through Automanage will be billed individually. | Always Free |
 | Azure Container Storage | Manage persistent storage volumes for stateful container applications. | Containers | This service will offer a free tier for deployments with storage pool capacity under 5 TiB. | Always |
 | Azure Cosmos DB | Build modern apps at any scale using a fast NoSQL database with open APIs. | Databases | 400 request units per-second provisioned throughput with 25 GB storage / 1,000 request units per-second provisioned throughput with 25 GB storage | 12 months / Always |
 | Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB | Build modern apps at scale with a fully managed MongoDB-compatible database service. | Databases | A dedicated MongoDB cluster with 32 GB storage | Always |
 | Azure Database for MySQL | Host a fully managed, scalable MySQL database in Azure. | Databases | 750 hours of Flexible Server—Burstable B1MS Instance, 32 GB storage, and 32 GB backup storage | 12 months |
 | Azure Database for PostgreSQL | Build intelligent, scalable apps with fully managed database for PostgreSQL. | Databases | 750 hours of Flexible Server—Burstable B1MS Instance, 32 GB storage, and 32 GB backup storage | 12 months |
 | Azure Deployment Environments | Quickly spin up app infrastructure environments with project-based templates. | Developer Tools | Azure Deployment Environments is a free service today. However, you will be charged for other Azure resources like compute, storage, and networking that are created in environments deployed through the service. | Always |
 | Azure DevOps | Build apps in any language using Git repos, CI/CD, and build and release automation. | Developer Tools | 5 users with unlimited private Git repos | Always |
 | Azure Files | Migrate to simple, distributed, cross-platform file storage without changing code. | Storage | 100 GB of LRS transaction optimized, hot, and cool files. 2 million read, list, and other file operations | 12 months |
 | Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) | Deploy and manage containers using the tools you choose. | Compute | AKS cluster management is free; you’ll incur a charge for resources consumed by nodes | Always |
| | Azure Lighthouse | Manage service providers with Zero Trust access controls. | Management and Governance | Free | Always |
| | Azure Managed Applications, Service catalog | Make it easier to acquire services with a catalog of approved cloud offerings. | Management and Governance | Free publishing | Always |
 | Azure Maps | Create location-aware web and mobile applications using geospatial services, APIs, and SDKs. | Internet of Things | 1,000 to 5,000 transactions for specific mapping and location insights features | Always |
 | Azure Migrate | Discover, assess, right-size, and migrate your on-premises virtual machines to Azure. | Migration | Free | Always |
 | Azure Policy | Achieve real-time cloud compliance at scale with consistent resource governance. | Management and Governance | Free access to configuration and change tracking features | Always |
| | Azure Resource Mover | Simplify how you move multiple resources between Azure regions. | Management and Governance | Free (ingress and egress charges may apply) | Always |
 | Azure SignalR Service | Add real-time communications into your web applications. | Web | 20 concurrent connections per unit and 20,000 messages | Always |
 | Azure SQL Managed Instance | Modernize existing apps with a fully managed SQL instance on Azure. | Database | 750 vCore hours per month with 32 GB of storage | 12 months |
| | Azure Update Manager | Centrally govern and manage software updates at scale. | Management and Governance | Free for Azure resources (charged for Arc-enabled servers) – see pricing page for details. | Always Free |
 | Bandwidth (Data Transfer) | Transfer data inbound and outbound through our robust network of global data centers. | Networking | 15 GB outbound / 100 GB outbound | 12 months / Always |
 | Batch | Scale your application in the cloud with job orchestration and scheduling for HPC applications. | Compute | Free | Always |
 | Blob Storage | Use massively scalable object storage for any type of unstructured data. | Storage | 5 GB locally redundant storage (LRS) hot block with 20,000 read and 10,000 write operations | 12 months |
 | Cloud Shell | Manage Azure resources in a browser-based shell using popular command-line tools and programming languages. | Management and Governance | 5 GB free storage in Azure Files for 12 months | Always |
 | Container Apps | Build and deploy modern apps and microservices using serverless containers. | Containers | 180,000 vCPU seconds, 360,000 GiB seconds, and 2 million requests | Always |
 | Container Registry | Store and manage container images across all types of Azure deployments. | Containers | 1 Standard tier registry with 100 GB storage and 10 webhooks | 12 months |
 | Cost Management | Monitor, allocate, and optimize cloud costs with transparency, accuracy, and efficiency. | Management and Governance | Free | Always |
 | Data Catalog | Get more value from your enterprise data assets. | Analytics | Unlimited users | Always |
 | Data Factory | Compose and manage data services at scale. | Analytics | 5 low-frequency activities | Always |
 | Database Migration Service | Simplify on-premises database migration to the cloud. | Databases | Free Standard Compute | Always |
 | DevTest Labs | Enable fast, easy, and lean dev-test environments. | Developer Tools | Free | Always |
 | Event Grid | Get reliable event delivery at massive scale. | Integration | 100,000 operations per month | Always |
 | Face | Detect, identify, analyze, organize, and tag faces in images. | 30,000 transactions S0 tier / 30,000 transactions of Free instance | 12 months / Always | |
 | Functions | Process events with a serverless code architecture. | Compute | 1 million requests | Always |
| | Health Bot | Build and deploy AI-powered, compliant, conversational healthcare experiences at scale. | AI + Machine Learning | 3,000 messages (up to 10 messages per second) | Always |
| | Health Data Services | Unify and manage health data and protected health information (PHI) in the cloud. | Integration | 1 GB structured and blob storage, 50,000 API requests, .5 GB transformation operations, 100,000 events | Always |
 | IoT Edge | Extend cloud intelligence and analytics to IoT edge devices. | Internet of Things | Free, open-source edge runtime | Always |
 | IoT Hub | Connect, monitor, and manage IoT assets with a scalable platform. | Internet of Things | 8,000 messages per day and .5 KB message meter size of Free edition | Always |
 | Key Vault | Safeguard and maintain control of keys and other secrets. | Security | 10,000 transactions RSA 2048-bit keys or secret operations, Standard tier | 12 months |
 | Language Understanding (LUIS) | Build natural language understanding into apps, bots, and IoT devices. | AI + Machine Learning | 10,000 text request transactions S0 tier | 12 months |
 | Load Balancer | Instantly add scale, availability, and network performance to your applications. | Networking | 750 hours, 15 GB of data processing, and up to five rules with Standard Load Balancer | 12 months |
 | Logic Apps | Build automated integration solutions across clouds and on-premises systems. | Integration | 4,000 built-in actions with the Consumption plan | Always |
 | Machine Learning | Develop and run R and Python models on your platform of choice. | AI + Machine Learning | Free | Always |
 | Managed Disks | Get high performance, durable block storage for Azure Virtual Machines with simplified management. | Storage | 2 64 GB (P6) solid state drives SSD storage, plus 1 GB snapshot and 2 million I/O operations | 12 months |
 | Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) | Enable identity and access management in the cloud. | Identity | 50,000 stored objects with single sign-on (SSO) to all cloud apps | Always |
 | Monitor | Gain full observability into your applications, infrastructure, and network. | Management and Governance | See Azure Monitor pricing details for free amounts per feature | Always |
 | Network Watcher | Monitor, diagnose, and gain insights into your network performance and health. | Networking | 5 GB storage with 1,000 checks, 10 tests, and 10 connection metrics | Always |
 | Notification Hubs | Send push notifications to any platform from any back end. | Mobile | 1 million push notifications with free namespace | Always |
 | Open Datasets | Accelerate machine learning with curated datasets. | AI + Machine Learning | Free (egress charges may apply) | Always |
 | Private Link | Privately access services on Azure, keeping your data on the Microsoft network. | Networking | Free | Always |
 | Resource Manager | Simplify how you manage your app resources. | Management and Governance | Free | Always |
 | Security Center | Prevent, detect, and respond to threats with increased visibility and control over the security of your Azure resources. | Security | Free policy assessment and recommendations | Always |
 | Service Bus | Get reliable cloud messaging as a service with simple hybrid integration. | Integration | 750 hours and 13 million operations Standard tier base unit | 12 months |
 | Service Fabric | Build and operate always-on, scalable, distributed apps. | Containers | Free | Always |
 | Spatial Anchors | Build mixed reality apps that map, share, and persist 3D content. | Mixed Reality | 10,000 anchors queried | Always |
 | SQL Database | Create a SQL database that delivers intelligence built-in. | Databases | Get up to 10 databases with 100,000 vCore seconds of serverless tier and 32 GB of storage each | Always |
 | Static Web Apps | Streamline full-stack development from source code to global high availability. | Compute | 100 GB bandwidth per subscription, 2 custom domains and .5 GB storage per app | Always |
 | Virtual Machines—Linux | Create Linux virtual machines (VMs) in seconds to meet your workload and budget needs. | Compute | 750 hours each of B1s, B2pts v2 (Arm-based), and B2ats v2 (AMD-based) burstable VMs | 12 months |
| | Virtual Machines—Windows | Create Windows VMs in seconds to meet your workload and budget needs. | Compute | 750 hours each of B1s, B2pts v2 (Arm-based), and B2ats v2 (AMD-based) burstable VMs | 12 months |
 | Virtual Network | Provision private networks and connect to on-premises datacenters. | Networking | 50 virtual networks | Always |
 | Visual Studio Code | Boost productivity with a powerful, lightweight code editor for cloud development. | Developer Tools | Free | Always |
 | VPN Gateway | Establish secure, cross-premises connectivity. | Networking | 750 hours VpnGw1 Gateway Type | 12 months |
 | Web PubSub | Build real-time, two-way communication into your web and mobile apps. | Web | 20,000 messages per unit per day and 20 concurrent connections per unit (1 unit max) | Always |
Try Azure free—then only pay for what you use
After your USD$200 credit, only pay for what you use beyond the free amounts of services. With pay as you go, there’s no fee to maintain your Azure free account, and no upfront commitment. Cancel anytime.
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Ready? Here’s a review of how it works
1
Start free. Get USD$200 credit to use in 30 days. While you have your credit, get free amounts of popular services and 55+ other services.
2
After your credit, move to pay as you go to keep getting popular services and 55+ other services. Only pay if you use more than the free monthly amounts.
3
After 12 months, you'll continue getting 55+ services free always—and still only pay for what you use beyond the free monthly amounts.