Pricing for a Azure SQL database is confusing

Question

Hi,

I have created a Azure SQL database and currently am using the free version, which allows 100,000 vcore seconds. I have used the 'pause' option to stop the database once the free limit is up. Unfortunately, the 100,00 vcore seconds have ended within a day. The size of my database is around 1GB. I also have a .net 6 project which has been published using Azure App Service.

The issue is as mentioned the 100,000 vcore seconds have ended within the day the database was set up. I have not even used the website for it to use up all of the free seconds and thought it was plenty in order for me to start off my project and gain some traffic to the website.

The pricing on the Azure site is found here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/pricing/details/azure-sql-database/single/

My questions are:

1. If I choose the option 'Continue using database for additional charges' (see image above) for my database then how much can I expect to pay per month?
2. If I want to run a site for 24 hours with the aim of getting started and my site not to stop working what is the cheapest database option in the above link that will guarantee performance?
3. What will the monthly cost of running a simple/light .net 6 project be? I can't quite work it out from the above link. Can you give examples from your experience.
4. Are there any other cheap options which I am missing out from which isn't in the link above?
5. Any additional info/experience which may help is appreciated.

Below I have added the image of Compute Utilization. Just in case it will help with some of the questions.

Thank you

Answer 1

Hi,

The Serverless tier of Azure SQL Database (this is what the Free offer provides) is for when you only need to use the database for a relatively small total number of hours each month. Based on your description you need the database to be available 24x7, so the free offer isn't a good fit.

I would recommend you create a new Azure SQL Database and this time select DTU purchasing model, Standard tier, and 10 DTUs maximum. This will give you a fixed monthly cost for the database (you will see the cost for your region before you Create it).

Once you have this new database up and running you will need to test with your specific workload and data to see if 10 DTUs is enough. If it isn't performing and the cause is due to not enough resources, you can easily increase the number of DTUs at an increased monthly cost.

At a certain point in the future when you have more experience with usage of your application and what it requires (in terms of database) you may want to switch to vCore model.

As far as the free database offer, I suggest you keep it as it is, and then when the vCore seconds resets in the next billing period you can use it only for brief experiments/testing, since it is free. I DO NOT recommend you select "Continue using database for additional charges" since that will likely result in a large bill.

Azure SQL Database pricing

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/azure-sql-database/single/

Please click Accept Answer and upvote if the above was helpful.

Thanks.

-TP