Build or modernize scalable, high-performance apps
Quickly and easily develop apps at any scale with Azure Cosmos DB, a fully managed and serverless distributed database supporting NoSQL and relational workloads. Get guaranteed speed and availability for NoSQL data, automatic and instant scalability, and support for open source PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and Cassandra. Azure Cosmos DB offers cost-effective pricing models for apps of any size, from dev/test to production.
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Prices are estimates only and are not intended as actual price quotes. Actual pricing may vary depending on the type of agreement entered with Microsoft, date of purchase, and the currency exchange rate. Prices are calculated based on US dollars and converted using London closing spot rates that are captured in the two business days prior to the last business day of the previous month end. If the two business days prior to the end of the month autumn on a bank holiday in major markets, the rate setting day is generally the day immediately preceding the two business days. This rate applies to all transactions during the forthcoming month. Sign in to the Azure pricing calculator to see pricing based on your current programme/offer with Microsoft. Contact an Azure sales specialist for more information on pricing or to request a price quote. See frequently asked questions about Azure pricing.
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Important—The price in R$ is merely a reference; this is an international transaction and the final price is subject to exchange rates and the inclusion of IOF taxes. An eNF will not be issued.
US government entities are eligible to purchase Azure Government services from a licensing solution provider with no upfront financial commitment, or directly through a pay-as-you-go online subscription.
Important—The price in R$ is merely a reference; this is an international transaction and the final price is subject to exchange rates and the inclusion of IOF taxes. An eNF will not be issued.
Azure Cosmos DB pricing model
Azure Cosmos DB bills for three different types of usage: compute, storage and bandwidth. The tabs below describe each compute pricing model in greater detail with its accompanying storage and bandwidth pricing models.
Once a compute pricing model and API are chosen, they cannot be changed.
Compute Pricing:
Request Unit (throughput): Azure Cosmos DB bills using Request Units (RU) measured per second (RU/s). Request Units are a proxy for compute, memory and IO used to process database operations and are billed across all selected Azure regions for your Azure Cosmos DB account.
Options for throughput include: Standard Provisioned throughput, Autoscale provisioned throughput and Serverless.
Applicable APIs: NoSQL, MongoDB (RU), Cassandra, Gremlin, and Table.
vCore: Azure Cosmos DB bills for vCores (compute and memory) per node to process database operations and are billed on the size and number of nodes provisioned.
Available APIs: PostgreSQL and MongoDB (vCore).
Storage Pricing:
Consumed Storage: Azure Cosmos DB bills for consumed storage rounded up to the next GB per container/collection/table/graph per region. Consumed storage includes all transactional and analytical data and indexes, and backups.
Applicable APIs: NoSQL, MongoDB (RU), Cassandra, Gremlin, and Table.
Disk Storage: Azure Cosmos DB bills for disks provisioned for each node by storage size.
Applicable APIs: PostgreSQL and MongoDB (vCore).
Bandwidth Pricing:
Data Egress: Azure bills for data that egresses the Azure cloud or transits the Azure WAN across regions or availability zones.
Applicable APIs: All.
APIs: NoSQL, MongoDB (RU), Cassandra, Gremlin, and Table.
Provisioned Throughput
Provisioned throughput offers the highest performance, backed by SLAs. It is ideal for large, critical workloads requiring predictable performance. New accounts are eligible to receive 1,000 request units per second (RU/s) throughput and 25 GBs storage per month with Azure Cosmos DB free tier.
There are two capacity management options for provisioned throughput: autoscale provisioned throughput and standard provisioned throughput. Read more on How to choose between standard (manual) and autoscale provisioned throughput.
You can estimate your provisioned throughput needs by using the Azure Cosmos DB capacity planner (RU calculator).
Autoscale provisioned throughput
Eliminate the need to manually manage capacity for your large, critical workloads and achieve cost benefits when traffic patterns are variable or unpredictable. You set a customised throughput limit (starting at 1,000 RU/s) either using Azure portal or programmatically using an API. Billing is based on the maximum number of request units per second (RU/s) used each hour, between 10 - 100% of your throughput limit.
| Autoscale provisioned throughput | Total RU/s per hour | Price per 100 RU/s | Final Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single-region write account | 100 RU/s x 1.5 x 1 region | $- | $- |
| Single-region write account with data distributed across multiple regions (with or without availability zones*) | 100 RU/s x 1.5 x N regions | $- | $- |
| Multi-region write (formerly called multi-master) account distributed across multiple regions** | 100 RU/s x N regions | $- | $- |
Regional data distribution
Azure Cosmos DB supports data replication across any or all Azure regions for provisioned throughput-based accounts. You can add and remove regions to your Azure Cosmos DB account at any time. With multi-region distribution enabled, provisioned throughput, consumed storage, and dedicated gateway are billed across every region associated with the account. Network bandwidth used to replicate data across Azure regions is charged using Azure Network bandwidth rates.
Optionally, accounts can be enabled for multi-region writes. When configured this way, accounts are billed at a multi-region rate.
Reserved capacity for autoscale provisioned throughput
Enjoy cost savings of up to 30%, while reducing the burden of capacity planning with Azure Cosmos DB reserved capacity pricing. Reserve autoscale or standard provisioned throughput, starting at 100 RU/s, for either one-year or three-years terms, and share the reserved throughput across all regions, APIs, database accounts and subscriptions under a given enrolment. Reserved capacity is applied to autoscale database operations at a rate of 100 RU/s x 1.5.
| One Year Term Discount | Three Year Term Discount | |
|---|---|---|
| Reserved Capacity request units per second (RU/s) | 20% | 30% |
Consumed Storage
Azure Cosmos DB offers unlimited transactional storage billed as GBs of SSD-backed logical storage used by data and indexes across all regions selected for geo-replication. Azure Cosmos DB also offers unlimited analytical storage (Azure Synapse Link), billed as GB’s of storage used by data and indexes. For example, if you replicate an Azure Cosmos DB account across three regions, you will pay for the total storage cost in each of those three regions.
Data is managed in two distinct storage tiers, transactional and analytical, with workloads operating on the same logical data without interfering with each other. While transactional storage is always enabled by default, you must explicitly enable analytical storage on your Azure Cosmos DB container to use Azure Synapse Link to run analytics over data in Azure Cosmos DB using Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL, Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB or Azure Cosmos DB for Apache Gremlin.
| Consumed Storage | Total GB | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Transactional storage (row-oriented) | 1 GB x N regions | $-/month |
| Analytical storage (column-oriented) | 1 GB x N regions | $-/month |
Back up storage
Accounts can select either periodic or continuous back up for provisioned throughput-based accounts. By default, periodic back up is activated on all accounts and two back up copies of your data are stored free of charge. Periodic data backups can be configured to be geo, local, or zone resilient. Please see technical documentation for details.
| Periodic back up storage | Total GB | Price per GB |
|---|---|---|
| Stored periodic back up data (2 copies) | GBs per copy | Free/month |
| Stored periodic back up data (>2 copies) | GBs per copy | $-/month |
Continuous back up can be activated instead of periodic backups on all provisioned throughput accounts. Once activated, backups are charged monthly based on the total amount of data stored across all selected Azure regions. Point-in-time restoration from the continuous backup data is billed as total GBs of data restored to the primary write region.
| Continuous back up storage | Total GB | Price per GB |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous back up data – 7-day retention | GBs x N regions | Free/month |
| Continuous backup data – 30-day retention | GBs x N regions | $-/month |
| Point-in-time restore | GBs | $- |
Analytical storage (Azure Synapse Link) transactions
IO (input/output) transactions for analytical storage are billed by quantity of operations.
| Transactions | Operations | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Write Operations - analytical storage | 10,000 | $- |
| Read Operations - analytical storage | 10,000 | $- |
Dedicated Gateway
A dedicated gateway routes requests to the backend partitions in your Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL account. Once enabled, vCore-based compute resources will be created in all regions associated with your account.
Integrated cache
Once a dedicated gateway cluster is created, an Azure Cosmos DB integrated cache is automatically enabled at no additional cost and can be used to further improve read performance. Integrated cache is available for Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL.
Materialised View
Materialised view with Azure Cosmos DB for Apache Cassandra and NoSQL API provides the ability to create views on top of a base table/container to access the table/container information using different unique identifiers or keys on the server side, automatically in the background, and with a single write to the base table/container.
| Name | vCPU | Memory | Cost (per instance, varies by region) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dedicated - Gateway Purpose - D4 | 4 | 16 GB | $- per hour |
| Dedicated - Gateway Purpose - D8 | 8 | 32 GB | $- per hour |
| Dedicated - Gateway Purpose - D16 | 16 | 64 GB | $- per hour |
Availability zones
You can enable availability zones when selecting regions to associate with your Azure Cosmos DB account in the Azure portal. This provides additional redundancy within a given region by replicating data across multiple zones in that region. For more information on regions with availability zone support see, Availability zone service and regional support.
The billing impact is:
- For single-region write accounts using standard provisioned throughput, request units per second (RU/s) are multiplied by a factor of 1.25 in each region designated as an Availability Zone. Availability zone is included free for autoscale resources
- For single-region serverless accounts, request units (RU) are multiplied by a factor of 1.25
- For multi-region write (formerly “multi-master”) accounts using provisioned throughput, there is no billing impact
Bandwidth
Azure Cosmos DB bills for data that egresses the Azure cloud to a destination on the internet or transits the Azure WAN between regions.
Data Transfer In (Ingress)
| Price | |
|---|---|
| Data transfer into any region | Free |
| Data transfer within any region | Free |
| Data transfer within an availability zone or between availability zones within any region | Free |
Data Transfer Out (Egress)
| First 5 GB/Month | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Data transfer from any region in Europe or North America to any other regions or any destination on the internet | Free | $0.05 per GB |
| Data transfer from any region in Asia or Ociana or Middle East and Africa to any other region or any destination on the internet (excluding China) | Free | $0.08 per GB |
| Data transfer from any region in South America to any other region within the same continent or across continents or any destination on the internet | Free | $0.16 per GB |
Try Azure Cosmos DB for free
There are a variety of ways for you to get started free with Azure Cosmos DB.
| 30 days free. Run a non-production Azure Cosmos DB database for a limited time. | Get Started: Enjoy a time-limited Azure Cosmos DB experience free of charge and without an Azure subscription. You can renew any number of times. |
| Azure Cosmos DB free tier. Develop and test applications, or run small production workloads, free within the Azure environment. | Get Started: Enable free tier on a new account to receive 1,000 RU/s provisioned throughput and 25 GBs storage free each month for the life of one Azure Cosmos DB account per Azure subscription. |
| Azure free account. New to Azure? Develop and test a pre-production application with Azure Cosmos DB and other Azure services. | Get Started: Try Azure Cosmos DB and other Azure services as a part of a 12-month Azure free account. Get $200 credit for 30 days and enjoy 400 RU/s of provisioned throughput and 25 GBs of storage per month free. New Azure free accounts can also enable the Azure Cosmos DB free tier to gain additional free provisioned throughput and storage. |
| Azure Cosmos DB local emulator. Test applications from your local machine without creating an Azure subscription or incurring any cost. | Get Started: Download the free Azure Cosmos DB emulator from your local Windows or Linux machine. Once you’re satisfied with your database, you can deploy it by pointing to an Azure Cosmos DB instance in the cloud. |
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Frequently asked questions
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Request units are the currency for database operations in Azure Cosmos DB. Each operation - writes, updates, reads and queries - consumes CPU, memory and IOPs resources. These resources incur charges which are expressed in request units (RU). Provisioned throughput is the total throughput capacity for database operations and is set as request units per second (RU/s). To learn more please visit request units in Azure Cosmos DB page.
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You’re billed by the hour for the provisioned throughput, expressed in request units per second (RU/s), that you set for your database or container.
Standard provisioned throughput for an individual container:
If you create an Azure Cosmos DB database account in East US 2 with two containers with standard provisioned throughput of 500 RU/s and 700 RU/s, respectively, you would have a total provisioned throughput of 1,200 RU/s. You would thus be charged 12 x $- = $-/hour.
If your throughput needs changed, and you’ve increased each container’s capacity by 500 RU/s while also creating a new container using 20,000 RU/s, your overall provisioned capacity would be 22,200 RU/s (1,000 RU/s + 1,200 RU/s + 20,000RU/s). Your note would then change to: $- x 222 = $-/hour.
In a month of 720 hours, if for 500 hours provisioned throughput was 1,200 RU/s and for the remaining 220 hours provisioned throughput was 22,200 RU/s, your monthly note will show: 500 x $-/hour + 220 x $-/hour = $-/month.
Provisioned throughput for a database (a set of containers):
If you create an account in East US 2 with two Cosmos DB databases (with a set of collections under each) with provisioned throughput of 50K RU/s and 70K RU/s, respectively, you would have a total provisioned throughput of 120K RU/s. You would thus be charged 1200 x $- = $-/hour.
If your throughput needs changed and you increased each database’s provisioned throughput by 10K RU/s each, your overall provisioned capacity would be 140K RU/s (60K RU/s + 80K RU/s). Your note would then change to: 1400 * $- = $-/hour.
In a month of 720 hours, if for 500 hours provisioned throughput was 120K RU/s and for the remaining 220 hours provisioned throughput was 140K RU/s, your monthly note will show: 500 x $-/hour + 220 x $-/hour = $- + $- = $-/month.
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With autoscale (previously "autopilot"), you set a maximum provisioned throughput limit in RU/s that your database or container can scale to. You are then billed by the hour for RU/s of provisioned throughput used, starting at 400 request units per second (RU/s) or 10% of your maximum. For example, if you set a maximum of 8,000 RU/s Azure Cosmos DB will automatically scale between 800 - 8,000 RU/s based on actual usage.
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When enabled on a new Azure Cosmos DB account, free tier gives the first 1,000 RU/s and 25 GB of storage for free for the lifetime of the account. Additionally, when using shared throughput databases, you can create up to 25 containers that share 1,000 RU/s at the database level (max. 5 shared databases per free tier account). You can have a maximum of one free tier account per Azure subscription and must opt in when creating the account.
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In free tier accounts, you will receive the first 400 RU/s provisioned throughput and 5 GB of storage free each month. Any provisioned throughput and storage beyond 400 RU/s and 5 GB will be billed at the regular Azure Cosmos DB rates. The 400 RU/s applies to standard provisioned throughput, autoscale provisioned throughput, and multi-region writes (multi-master). Free tier is not applicable to serverless.
The free tier discount is applied at the account level. For example, if in one month, an account had a total of 400 RU/s and three regions, with 5 GB in each region, the account would be billed for 800 RU/s (400 RU/s x 3 regions – 400 RU/s) and 10 GB of storage (5 GB x 3 regions – 5 GB) for each hour in the month. If the regions have different rates for RU/s and storage, the discount will reflect the rates of the region the account was created in.
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When you choose to make an Azure Cosmos DB account (with databases and containers) span across geographic regions, you are billed for the throughput and storage for each container in every region and the data transfer between regions. As an example, let’s assume you have a container in West US provisioned with throughput 10K RU/s and store 1 TB of data this month. Let’s assume you add 3 regions: East US, North Europe, and East Asia, each with the same storage and throughput. Your total monthly bill will be (assuming 31 days in a month):
Item Usage (Month) Rate Monthly Cost Throughput note for container in West US 10K RU/s * 24 * 31 $- per 100 RU/s per hour $- Throughput note for 3 additional regions - East US, North Europe, and East Asia 3 * 10K RU/s * 24 * 31 $- per 100 RU/s per hour $- Storage note for container in West US 1 TB $-/GB $- Storage note for 3 additional regions - East US, North Europe, and East Asia 3 * 1TB $-/GB $- Total $- Let's also assume that you egress 100GB of data every month from the container in West US to replicate data into East US, North Europe and East Asia. You are billed for egress as per data transfer rates.
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When you choose to operate containers that span across multiple geographic regions, you are billed for the provisioned throughput and storage for each container in every region and the data transfer between regions. You will be billed for the provisioned throughput.
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Storage capacity is billed in units of the maximum hourly amount of data stored, in GB, over a monthly period. For example, if you utilised 100 GB of storage for half of the month and 50 GB for the second half of the month, you would be billed for an equivalent of 75 GB of storage during that month.
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You're billed for each hour the container or database exists, regardless of usage or if the container or database is active for less than an hour. For example, if you create a container or database and delete it 5 minutes later, your bill will reflect a 1 hour.
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You are charged for the maximum provisioned throughput for any given hour.
For instance, if you increase provisioned throughput at 9:30 AM from 400 RU/s to 1,000 RU/s and then lower provisioned throughput at 10:45 AM back to 400 RU/s, you will be charged for two hours of 1,000 RU/s.
If you increase provisioned throughput for a container or a set of containers at 9:30 AM from 100K RU/s to 200K RU/s and then lower provisioned throughput at 10:45 AM back to 100K RU/s, you will be charged for two hours of 200K RU/s.
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You can scale up or scale down the provisioned throughput (i.e., Request Units per second) for each container or a database by using the Azure Portal, one of the supported SDKs, ARM template, PowerShell, Azure CLI or the REST API.
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Azure Cosmos DB reserved capacity helps you save money by offering a discount if you prepay for one year or three years of provisioned throughput. Reserved capacity provides a billing discount and does not affect the runtime state of your resources. You can buy a reserved capacity for Azure Cosmos DB in the Azure portal. To learn more about reserved capacity, read the Azure Cosmos DB documentation.
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