Azure SQL Database
Build limitless, trusted, AI-ready apps on a fully managed SQL database
Overview
Build on a fast, flexible, and elastic SQL database
- Accelerate time to market with vector search, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) support, and the flexibility of multiple languages and formats.
- Build new apps with flexible Hyperscale cloud databases that automatically scale with the pace of your business.
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Power your resource-intensive apps and keep mission-critical workloads running at peak performance.
- Protect your data and maintain business continuity with built-in controls and machine learning–based security capabilities.
FEATURES
Build scalable and secure apps
Hyperscale
Rapidly scale up to meet demand and offload read workloads with scale-out support for up to 30 named replicas.
Microsoft Copilot in Azure
Experience AI-assistance in the design, operation, and optimization of your SQL applications.
AI-ready
Build intelligent applications using your SQL data with Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Search, and native vector search support.
Mirroring
Query and analyze your data with near real-time SQL data replication into Microsoft Fabric.
Azure data platform connection
Easily connect to other Azure services such as Azure Functions without writing your own code.
Data API builder
Turn database objects into REST and GraphQL APIs and access data on any platform, language, or device.
Dev container templates
Simplify the development process and start coding immediately with preconfigured environments locally or in the cloud.
Intelligent query processing
Improve the query performance of existing workloads with minimal effort.
Security and governance
Protect your data with a multilayered approach to security that includes Microsoft Defender for SQL.
Security
Embedded security and compliance
34,000
Full-time equivalent engineers dedicated to security initiatives at Microsoft.
15,000
Partners with specialized security expertise.
>100
Compliance certifications, including over 50 specific to global regions and countries.
PRICING
Pricing for the intelligent, relational cloud database service
Explore pricing options and find the performance tier that best fits your workload.
Related products
Azure products work better together
Compare Azure SQL Database price performance
Azure SQL Database Hyperscale outpaces Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL by up to 68% in performance and value.1
CUSTOMER STORIES
See how customers are innovating with Azure SQL Database
Try Azure SQL Database free of charge
Get up to 10 databases with 100,000 vCore seconds of serverless compute and 32 GB of storage each, every month for the life of your subscription.
RESOURCES
Get started with Azure SQL Database
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
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Azure SQL Database is available as a single database with its own set of resources managed via a logical server, and as a pooled database in an elastic pool with a shared set of resources managed through a logical server. In general, elastic pools are designed for a typical software-as-a-service (SaaS) application pattern, with one database per customer or tenant. With pools, you manage the collective performance, and the databases scale automatically.
Learn more about elastic pools and software as a service (SaaS) application patterns. -
Azure Hybrid Benefit helps maximize the value of your current licensing investments and accelerate your migration to the cloud. Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server is an Azure-based benefit that allows you to use your SQL Server licenses with active Microsoft Software Assurance to pay a reduced rate ("base rate") on vCore-based Azure SQL services. Further optimize your costs with centralized management of your Azure Hybrid Benefit across your entire subscription or billing account.
Learn more about Azure Hybrid Benefit and centralized management. -
No. Azure SQL Database is a fully managed database service—Microsoft operates SQL Server for you and ensures its availability and performance. SQL Database also includes features to enhance your business continuity and security, such as built-in high availability and threat detection, so that you don't have to worry about administering or maintaining your SQL Server databases.
Learn more about built-in high availability and threat detection. -
The vCore-based service tiers are primarily differentiated by availability, storage type, and input/output (I/O) per second. General purpose is a budget-oriented option that's best when input/output performance or failover time is not the priority. Hyperscale is optimized for online transaction processing (OLTP) and hybrid transactional analytical workloads. The business critical tier is best for OLTP applications with high transaction rates and low I/O latency requirements.
Learn more about vCore-based service tiers. -
Connectivity between Azure SQL Database and the Azure internet gateway is guaranteed at least 99.995 percent of the time for zone-redundant deployments, regardless of your service tier. For more information, read the SLA and learn about the high-availability architecture.
Learn more about the SLA and high-availability architecture.
- SQL databases, also known as relational databases, are systems that store collections of tables and organize structured sets of data in a tabular columns-and-rows format, similar to that of a spreadsheet.
Learn more about SQL databases.
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- [1]Achieve strong performance and value on Azure SQL Database Hyperscale, a Principled Technologies report, February 2024 (Revised).
Price-performance claims based on data from a study commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by Principled Technologies in February 2024. The study compared performance and price performance between a 16 vCore and 32 vCore Azure SQL Database using premium-series hardware on the Hyperscale service tier and the db.r6i.4xlarge and db.r6i.8xlarge offerings for Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL I/O-Optimized (“Amazon Aurora”). Benchmark data is taken from a Principled Technologies report which used the HammerDB TPROC-C benchmark. The TPROC-C workload is derived from the TPC-C Benchmark and results were obtained with the HammerDB TPROC-C workload. The HammerDB TPROC-C workload is derived from the TPC-C benchmark and is not comparable to published TPC-C Benchmark results, as this implementation does not comply with all requirements of the TPC Benchmark. Price performance is calculated by Principled Technologies as the cost of running the cloud platform continuously divided by new orders per minute throughput, based upon the standard. Prices are based on publicly available US pricing in East US 1 for Azure SQL Database and US East for Amazon Aurora as of February 2024. Performance and price-performance results are based upon the configurations detailed in the Principled Technologies report. Actual results and prices may vary based on configuration and region.
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