Does the cheapest Azure Sql Server database pricing tier offload resources after a specific time period of non use, similar to how the free app service plan work?

Question

Question regarding pricing tiers for Azure Sql database and if the cheapest plan ($4.90/month) offloads resources after a specific time period for non use.

If my Azure Sql Server database doesn't get queried for a specific period of time, ex. 30 minutes. Will Azure offload the resources for the database, until it gets a new request?
This would be similar to an app service running the basic (free) plan. After ~30 minutes the site resources get offloaded from memory (I think). So, when I go to the site, instead of loading up immediately, it takes about 5-10 seconds, then if I hit the site again, because it's loaded back into memory, it will load immediately.

Does this same thing happen with Sql Server running in Azure with the cheap $4.90/month plan? It seems like it does! If I don't hit my app service (website), now upgraded to the S1 plan so no offloading, and come back a day later and hit a page that has to fetch database results to display on the page, it will take approx. 5-10 seconds, but then if I refresh the page again or hit another page that needs to query the DB, the queried data comes back instantly!

Answer 1

Hi Charles,

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

The SQL Server auto-pausing is a feature that you can turn on/off as per your need when you create the Azure SQL database. Please see the image below wherein I have enabled auto-pause which will suspend the database when there are no activity in the database after specified time period.

Should you need, please refer the below answer which explains more on free tier services that are offered in azure.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/391722/free-tier-azure-sql-database.html

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