Estimated costs are projected for just setting up a database and a container in an Azure Cosmos DB free tier account.

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Estimated costs are projected for just setting up a database and a container in an Azure Cosmos DB free tier account.

Charles Efford 20

* Database id

Create newUse existing

quickq-cosmos-database__

* Container id

* Partition key



Add hierarchical partition key__ This feature allows you to partition your data with up to three levels of keys for better data distribution. Requires .NET V3, Java V4 SDK, or preview JavaScript V3 SDK. Learn more

* Container throughput (autoscale)

AutoscaleManual

Estimate your required RU/s with capacity calculator.Container Max RU/s__Your container throughput will automatically scale from 100 RU/s (10% of max RU/s) - 1000 RU/s based on usage.

Estimated monthly cost (USD): $8.76 - $87.60 (1 region, 100 - 1000 RU/s, $0.00012/RU)These costs are projected for just setting up a first container in an Azure Cosmos DB free tier account. Why?

PratikLad 1,905 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-04-02T08:15:46.3033333+00:00
Hi Charles Efford,

The cost estimates provided during setup are projections based on potential usage and configurations. Even within the free tier, these estimates are displayed to inform users of possible charges if they exceed the free tier limits. However, as long as your usage remains within the 1,000 RU/s and 25 GB storage limits, you should not incur charges. It's advisable to monitor your actual usage through the Azure portal to ensure you stay within these limits.

For more detailed information on managing and understanding Azure Cosmos DB costs, you can refer to the official documentation:

Azure Cosmos DB Free Tier

Plan and Manage Costs for Azure Cosmos DB

These resources provide comprehensive guidance on cost estimation, monitoring, and best practices to avoid unexpected charges.

If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Yes for was this answer helpful. And, if you have any further query do let us know.

Answer accepted by question author

Sai Raghunadh M 4,575 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi @ Charles Efford

Greetings!!

The projected cost range is given to account for throughput usage that exceeds the free tier, and it is an estimate based on the autoscale feature set for the throughput of your Cosmos DB container.

Azure Cosmos DB's free tier offers a great way to get started with minimal costs. When you enable the free tier, you receive 1000 RU/s (Request Units per second) and 25 GB of storage for free, which can cover many small workloads.

However, if your usage exceeds these limits, you will incur charges. For example:

Throughput Costs: If you provision more than 1000 RU/s, you'll be billed for the additional RU/s at $0.00012 per RU/s.

Storage Costs: If your data exceeds 25 GB, you'll pay for the extra storage consumed.

The estimated monthly cost range of $8.76 to $87.60 reflects scenarios where usage might exceed the free tier limits, depending on the throughput and storage you configure

Please go through these Documentations that might help you:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/free-tier

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/cosmos-db/autoscale-provisioned/

Hope this helps. Do let us know if you any further queries.

If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Yes for was this answer helpful. And, if you have any further query do let us know.

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PratikLad 1,905 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-04-02T08:15:46.3033333+00:00

Hi Charles Efford,

The cost estimates provided during setup are projections based on potential usage and configurations. Even within the free tier, these estimates are displayed to inform users of possible charges if they exceed the free tier limits. However, as long as your usage remains within the 1,000 RU/s and 25 GB storage limits, you should not incur charges. It's advisable to monitor your actual usage through the Azure portal to ensure you stay within these limits.

For more detailed information on managing and understanding Azure Cosmos DB costs, you can refer to the official documentation:

Azure Cosmos DB Free Tier

Plan and Manage Costs for Azure Cosmos DB

These resources provide comprehensive guidance on cost estimation, monitoring, and best practices to avoid unexpected charges.

If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Yes for was this answer helpful. And, if you have any further query do let us know.

Answer 1

This is one of the captions from the page when I'm creating the fist container in the only database on my only Azure Cosmos DB free tier account:
Estimated monthly cost (USD)



: $8.76 - $87.60 (1 region, 100 - 1000 RU/s, $0.00012/RU)
It is projecting charges from the the very first RU/s. The ranges of usages is 100 - 1000 all within the free allowance, but the system estimates charges for all RU/s, not just those above the first 1000. It might be that just the calculation of the caption is wrong, but I can't trust that because I had a very expensive experience that cost me £154 for an SQL database I never sent any data to. I moved to Cosmos DB for cost reasons and now I get this. I'm not impressed.