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Pricing guidance for SQL Server on Azure VMs

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  • 8 minutes to read

Applies to: SQL Server on Azure VM

This article provides pricing guidance for SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines. There are several options that affect cost, and it is important to pick the right image that balances costs with business requirements.

Tip

If you only need to find out a cost estimate for a specific combination of SQL Server edition and virtual machine (VM) size, see the pricing page for Windows or Linux. Select your platform and SQL Server edition from the OS/Software list.

UI on VM Pricing page

Or use the pricing calculator to add and configure a virtual machine.

Free-licensed SQL Server editions

If you want to develop, test, or build a proof of concept, then use the freely licensed SQL Server Developer edition. This edition has all the features of SQL Server Enterprise edition, allowing you to build and test any type of application. However, you cannot run the Developer edition in production. A SQL Server Developer edition VM only incurs charges for the cost of the VM, because there are no associated SQL Server licensing costs.

If you want to run a lightweight workload in production (<4 cores, <1-GB memory, <10 GB/database), use the freely licensed SQL Server Express edition. A SQL Server Express edition VM also only incurs charges for the cost of the VM.

For these development/test and lightweight production workloads, you can also save money by choosing a smaller VM size that matches these workloads. The DS1v2 might be a good choice in some scenarios.

To create an Azure VM running SQL Server 2017 with one of these images, see the following links:

Platform Freely licensed images
Windows Server 2016 SQL Server 2017 Developer Azure VM
SQL Server 2017 Express Azure VM
Red Hat Enterprise Linux SQL Server 2017 Developer Azure VM
SQL Server 2017 Express Azure VM
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SQL Server 2017 Developer Azure VM
SQL Server 2017 Express Azure VM
Ubuntu SQL Server 2017 Developer Azure VM
SQL Server 2017 Express Azure VM

If you have a non-lightweight production workload, use one of the following SQL Server editions:

SQL Server edition Workload
Web Small web sites
Standard Small to medium workloads
Enterprise Large or mission-critical workloads

You have two options to pay for SQL Server licensing for these editions: pay per usage or bring your own license (BYOL).

Pay per usage

Paying the SQL Server license per usage (also known as pay as you go) means that the per-second cost of running the Azure VM includes the cost of the SQL Server license. You can see the pricing for the different SQL Server editions (Web, Standard, Enterprise) in the Azure Virtual Machines pricing page for Windows or Linux.

The cost is the same for all versions of SQL Server (2012 SP3 to 2019). The per-second licensing cost depends on the number of VM vCPUs.

Paying the SQL Server licensing per usage is recommended for:

  • Temporary or periodic workloads. For example, an app that needs to support an event for a couple of months every year, or business analysis on Mondays.

  • Workloads with unknown lifetime or scale. For example, an app that may not be required in a few months, or which may require more, or less compute power, depending on demand.

To create an Azure VM running SQL Server 2017 with one of these pay-as-you-go images, see the following links:

Platform Licensed images
Windows Server 2016 SQL Server 2017 Web Azure VM
SQL Server 2017 Standard Azure VM
SQL Server 2017 Enterprise Azure VM
Red Hat Enterprise Linux SQL Server 2017 Web Azure VM
SQL Server 2017 Standard Azure VM
SQL Server 2017 Enterprise Azure VM
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SQL Server 2017 Web Azure VM
SQL Server 2017 Standard Azure VM
SQL Server 2017 Enterprise Azure VM
Ubuntu SQL Server 2017 Web Azure VM
SQL Server 2017 Standard Azure VM
SQL Server 2017 Enterprise Azure VM

Important

When you create a SQL Server virtual machine in the Azure portal, the Choose a size window shows an estimated cost. It is important to note that this estimate is only the compute costs for running the VM along with any OS licensing costs (Windows or third-party Linux operating systems).

Choose VM size blade

It does not include additional SQL Server licensing costs for Web, Standard, and Enterprise editions. To get the most accurate pricing estimate, select your operating system and SQL Server edition on the pricing page for Windows or Linux.

Note

It is now possible to change the licensing model from pay-per-usage to bring your own license (BYOL) and back. For more information, see How to change the licensing model for a SQL Server VM.

Bring your own license (BYOL)

Bringing your own SQL Server license through License Mobility, also referred to as BYOL, means using an existing SQL Server Volume License with Software Assurance in an Azure VM. A SQL Server VM using BYOL only charges for the cost of running the VM, not for SQL Server licensing, given that you have already acquired licenses and Software Assurance through a Volume Licensing program or through a Cloud Solution Partner (CSP).

Note

The BYOL images are currently only available for Windows virtual machines. However, you can manually install SQL Server on a Linux-only VM. See the guidelines in the SQL Server on a Linux VM FAQ.

Bringing your own SQL Server licensing through License Mobility is recommended for:

  • Continuous workloads. For example, an app that needs to support business operations 24x7.

  • Workloads with known lifetime and scale. For example, an app that is required for the whole year and which demand has been forecasted.

To use BYOL with a SQL Server VM, you must have a license for SQL Server Standard or Enterprise and Software Assurance, which is a required option through some volume licensing programs and an optional purchase with others. The pricing level provided through Volume Licensing programs varies, based on the type of agreement and the quantity and or commitment to SQL Server. But as a rule of thumb, bringing your own license for continuous production workloads has the following benefits:

BYOL benefit Description
Cost savings The Azure Hybrid Benefit offers up to 55% savings. For more information, see Switch licensing model
Free passive secondary replica Another benefit of bringing your own license is the free licensing for one passive secondary replica per SQL Server for high availability purposes. This cuts in half the licensing cost of a highly available SQL Server deployment (for example, using Always On Availability Groups). The rights to run the passive secondary are provided through the Fail-Over Servers Software Assurance benefit.

To create an Azure VM running SQL Server 2017 with one of these bring-your-own-license images, see the VMs prefixed with "{BYOL}":

Important

Let us know within 10 days how many SQL Server licenses you are using in Azure. The links to the previous images have instructions on how to do this.

Note

It is now possible to change the licensing model from pay-per-usage to bring your own license (BYOL) and back. For more information, see How to change the licensing model for a SQL Server VM.

Reduce costs

To avoid unnecessary costs, choose an optimal virtual machine size and consider intermittent shutdowns for non-continuous workloads.

Correctly size your VM

The licensing cost of SQL Server is directly related to the number of vCPUs. Choose a VM size that matches your expected needs for CPU, memory, storage, and I/O bandwidth. For a complete list of machine size options, see Windows VM sizes and Linux VM sizes.

There are new machine sizes that work well with certain types of SQL Server workloads. These machines sizes maintain high levels of memory, storage, and I/O bandwidth, but they have a lower virtualized core count. For example, consider the following example:

VM size vCPUs Memory Max disks Max I/O throughput SQL Server licensing costs Total costs (compute + licensing)
Standard_DS14v2 16 112 GB 32 51,200 IOPS or 768 MB/s
Standard_DS14-4v2 4 112 GB 32 51,200 IOPS or 768 MB/s 75% lower 57% lower

Important

This is a point-in-time example. For the most recent specifications, refer to the machine sizes articles and the Azure pricing page for Windows and Linux.

In the previous example, you can see that the specifications for Standard_DS14v2 and Standard_DS14-4v2 are identical except for vCPUs. The suffix -4v2 at the end of the Standard_DS14-4v2 machine size indicates the number of active vCPUs. Because SQL Server licensing costs are tied to the number of vCPUs, this significantly reduces the cost of the VM in scenarios where the extra vCPUs are not needed. This is one example, and there are many machine sizes with constrained vCPUs that are identified with this suffix pattern. For more information, see the blog post Announcing new Azure VM sizes for more cost-effective database work.

Shut down your VM when possible

If you are using any workloads that do not run continuously, consider shutting down the virtual machine during the inactive periods. You only pay for what you use.

For example, if you are simply trying out SQL Server on an Azure VM, you would not want to incur charges by accidentally leaving it running for weeks. One solution is to use the automatic shutdown feature.

SQL Server VM autoshutdown

Automatic shutdown is part of a larger set of similar features provided by Azure DevTest Labs.

For other workflows, consider automatically shutting down and restarting Azure VMs with a scripting solution, such as Azure Automation.

Important

Shutting down and deallocating your VM is the only way to avoid charges. Simply stopping or using power options to shut down the VM still incurs usage charges.

Next steps

For general Azure pricing guidance, see Prevent unexpected costs with Azure billing and cost management. For the latest Azure Virtual Machines pricing, including SQL Server, see the Azure Virtual Machines pricing page for Windows VMs and Linux VMs.

For an overview of SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines, see the following articles: