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.
Azure Copilot
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
- Azure SQL Database is a cloud native relational database service built on the SQL Server engine and designed for high performance and elastic scale. As a fully managed platform as a service (PaaS), Microsoft manages patching, backups, availability, and monitoring, while customers focus on schema, queries, and applications. SQL Database is purpose-built to support data-intensive modern application development, mission critical workloads, and AI ready architectures.
- Azure SQL Database runs on Microsoft Azure as a cloud based SQL database and automatically handles provisioning, patching, backups, and high availability. It supports single databases and elastic pools with pre-provisioned or serverless compute. Service tiers match your workload needs, from general-purpose applications to data intensive, mission critical systems and AI workloads using Azure SQL Database Hyperscale.
- Azure SQL Database helps you build faster with a fully managed SQL database cloud service. It scales for modern workloads with Azure SQL Database Hyperscale and supports AI apps such as retrieval augmented generation (RAG) and intelligent agents through integration with Azure AI and native vector search. It improves reliability with built-in high availability and backups and reduces operational overhead versus self-managed SQL Server, securing data by default with enterprise-grade compliance.
- Azure SQL Database offers multiple service tiers to meet different application needs:
- Hyperscale – Designed for highly elastic applications that need rapid scale out, high throughput, and up to multi-terabyte storage.
- General Purpose – Balanced compute and storage for most cloud applications.
- Business Critical – High performance and low latency for mission critical workloads.
- You can access Azure SQL Database through Azure portal or by using familiar tools such as SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), MSSQL extension in Visual Studio Code, or application frameworks that support SQL Server cloud connectivity. Azure SQL Database works with standard T-SQL and common drivers, making it easy to migrate or modernize existing apps.
- You can get started with tutorials, quickstarts, and architecture guidance in Microsoft Learn and the Azure SQL Database documentation. These resources cover everything from building a cloud based SQL database to optimizing performance with Azure SQL Database Hyperscale.
- Yes. You can explore Azure SQL Database using the Azure free account, which includes free credits and a free tier option—making it easy to try a cloud SQL database with no upfront cost.
- Yes, though it is built upon the same SQL Server engine. Azure SQL Database is a fully managed SQL cloud database service, while SQL Server can be self managed on-premises or in virtual machines. Azure SQL Database removes infrastructure management and adds built-in intelligence, automation, and scalability that traditional SQL Server deployments don’t provide by default.
- Azure SQL Database is optimized for cloud native application development, offering rapid scaling and serverless options—including Azure SQL Database Hyperscale. Azure SQL Managed Instance is designed for easier migration of existing SQL Server workloads that require near full instance compatibility. Both are part of the Azure SQL family and run as fully managed services.
Next steps
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Explore Azure Databases
Make data your strategic asset. Modernize or build Al-ready apps with intelligent cloud databases.
- [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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