Quickly and easily develop apps at any scale with fully managed NoSQL database service offering guaranteed speed and availability, automatic and instant scalability, and open source APIs. Azure Cosmos DB offers cost-effective pricing models for apps of any size, from dev/test to production.
Pricing overview
Azure Cosmos DB bills for database operations and consumed storage.
Database operations
The cost of all database operations is normalized and expressed as request units (RU). Azure Cosmos DB offers two database operations models：
- Provisioned Throughput is measured in request units per second (RU/s) and billed per hour. It offers single-digit millisecond reads and writes and 99.999-percent availability worldwide, backed by SLAs. It is ideal for large, critical workloads requiring guaranteed low-latency and high-availability. You can choose between two capacity management options: Standard Provisioned Throughput and Autoscale Provisioned Throughput.
- Serverless bills for the request units (RU) used for each database operation. Serverless makes it easy to run spiky workloads that don’t have sustained traffic. It can handle traffic bursts on demand, without resource planning or management.
Consumed Storage
Storage is billed as GBs consumed by SSD-backed data and index across all the Azure regions your database is distributed to. Two backup copies are provided free, with additional copies billed as total GBs of data stored. Backup storage is available as either periodic or continuous.
- Periodic backup is enabled by default, with two backup copies provided free, and additional copies billed as total GBs of data stored.
- Continuous backupPreview, if enabled, is billed as GBs stored across all selected Azure regions and point-in-time restore is billed as GBs of data restored per instance.
Provisioned Throughput
Provisioned Throughput offers single-digit millisecond reads and writes and 99.999-percent availability worldwide, backed by SLAs. It is ideal for large, critical workloads requiring guaranteed low-latency and high-availability. New accounts are eligible to receive 1000 request units per second (RU/s) throughput and 25 GBs storage per month with Azure Cosmos DB free tier.
There are two capacity management options for provisioned throughput: autoscale provisioned throughput and standard provisioned throughput. The one you choose will depend on the predictability of your workload and whether you wish to manually manage capacity.
Standard (manual) provisioned throughput
Directly manage capacity with standard provisioned throughput. This option is ideal for large, critical workloads with predictable traffic patterns.
Starting at a minimum 400 request units per second (RU/s), standard provisioned throughput can be manually configured on your container or database using Azure portal or programmatically using an API. You will be billed an hourly rate for the RU/s provisioned on your container or database.
| Standard Provisioned Throughput | Total RU/s per hour | Price per 100 RU/s |
|---|---|---|
| Single-region write account | 100 RU/s x 1 region | ￥0.051/hour |
| Single-region write account distributed across N regions | 100 RU/s x N regions | ￥0.051/hour |
| Multi-region write (formerly "multi-master") account with N regions | 100 RU/s x N regions | ￥0.102/hour |
| Standard Provisioned Throughput | Total RU/s per hour | Price per 100 RU/s |
|---|---|---|
| Single-region write account, with regions using availability zones | 100 RU/s x 1.25 x N zones | ￥0.051/hour |
Consumed Storage
Azure Cosmos DB offers unlimited transactional and analytical storage, billed as GBs of SSD-backed logical storage used by data and indexes across all regions selected for geo-replication. For example, if you replicate an Azure Cosmos DB account across three regions, you will pay for the total storage cost in each of those three regions.
Your data is managed in two distinct storage tiers, transactional and analytical, with workloads operating on the same logical data without interfering with each other. While transactional storage is always enabled by default, you must explicitly enable analytical storage on your Azure Cosmos DB container in order to use Azure Synapse Link to run analytics over data in Azure Cosmos DB.
Provisioned throughput (RU/s) scales relative to the amount of transactional storage at a rate of 10 RU/s for every 1 GB storage. To estimate your storage requirement, use the capacity planner tool, and ensure you’ve provisioned enough throughput to meet your storage needs.
| Consumed Storage | Total GB | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Transactional storage (row-oriented) | 1 GB | ￥ 2.576/month |
| Analytical storage (column-oriented) | 1 GB | ￥ 0.149/month |
| Consumed Storage | Total GB | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Transactional storage (row-oriented) | 1 GB | ￥ 2.576/month |
Backup storage
Accounts can select either periodic or continuous backup. By default, periodic backup is activated on all accounts and two backup copies of your data are stored free of charge. Periodic data backups can be configured to be geo, local, or zone resilient. Please see technical documentation for details.
| Periodic backup storage | Total GB | Price per GB-LRS | Price per GB- ZRS | Price per GB- RA-GRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stored periodic backup data (2 copies) | GBs per copy | Free/month | Free/month | Free/month |
| Stored periodic backup data (>2 copies) | GBs per copy | ￥0.786/month | ￥0.978/month | ￥1.566/month |
Continuous backup (preview) can be activated instead of periodic backups on accounts using either the Core (SQL) API or API for MongoDB. Once activated, backups are charged on a monthly basis based on the total amount of data stored across all selected Azure regions. Point-in-time restoration from the continuous backup data is billed as total GBs of data restored to the primary write region.
| Continuous backup storage | Total GB | Price per GB |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous backupPreview data | GBs x selected Azure regions | ￥2.034/month |
| Point-in-time restorePreview | GBs | ￥1.524/month |
| Continuous backup storage | Total GB | Price per GB |
|---|---|---|
| Point-in-time restorePreview | GBs | ￥1.02/month |
Analytical storage transactions
IO (input/output) transactions for analytical storage are billed by quantity of operations.
| Transactions | Operations | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Write Operations - analytical storage | 10,000 | ￥0.045 |
| Read Operations - analytical storage | 10,000 | ￥0.015 |
Multiple regions
Azure Cosmos DB offers guaranteed low-latency and high availability through multi-region reads and multi-region writes (formerly “multi-master”), across any or all Azure regions. You can add and remove regions to your Azure Cosmos DB account at any time. The billing impact of multiple regions is that provisioned throughput and consumed storage are multiplied by every region associated with your account.
Provisioned Throughput
Provisioned Throughput offers single-digit millisecond reads and writes and 99.999-percent availability worldwide, backed by SLAs. It is ideal for large, critical workloads requiring guaranteed low-latency and high-availability. New accounts are eligible to receive 1000 request units per second (RU/s) throughput and 25 GBs storage per month with Azure Cosmos DB free tier.
There are two capacity management options for provisioned throughput: autoscale provisioned throughput and standard provisioned throughput. The one you choose will depend on the predictability of your workload and whether you wish to manually manage capacity.
Autoscale provisioned throughput
Eliminate the need to manually manage capacity for your large, critical workloads and achieve cost benefits when traffic patterns are unpredictable. You set a custom throughput limit (starting at 4,000 RU/s) either using Azure portal or programmatically using an API. Billing is based on the maximum number of request units per second (RU/s) used each hour, between 10 - 100% of your throughput limit.
| Autoscale provisioned throughput | Total RU/s per hour | Price per 100 RU/s |
|---|---|---|
| Single-region write account | 100 RU/s x 1.5 x 1 region | ￥ 0.0765/hour |
| Single-region write account with data distributed across multiple regions | 100 RU/s x 1.5 x N regions | ￥ 0.0765/hour |
| Multi-region write (formerly called multi-master) account distributed across multiple regions | 100 RU/s x N regions | ￥ 0.102/hour |
Consumed Storage
Azure Cosmos DB offers unlimited transactional and analytical storage, billed as GBs of SSD-backed logical storage used by data and indexes across all regions selected for geo-replication. For example, if you replicate an Azure Cosmos DB account across three regions, you will pay for the total storage cost in each of those three regions.
Your data is managed in two distinct storage tiers, transactional and analytical, with workloads operating on the same logical data without interfering with each other. While transactional storage is always enabled by default, you must explicitly enable analytical storage on your Azure Cosmos DB container in order to use Azure Synapse Link to run analytics over data in Azure Cosmos DB.
Provisioned throughput (RU/s) scales relative to the amount of transactional storage at a rate of 10 RU/s for every 1 GB storage. To estimate your storage requirement, use the capacity planner tool, and ensure you’ve provisioned enough throughput to meet your storage needs.
| Consumed Storage | Total GB | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Transactional storage (row-oriented) | 1 GB | ￥ 2.576/month |
| Analytical storage (column-oriented) | 1 GB | ￥ 0.149/month |
| Consumed Storage | Total GB | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Transactional storage (row-oriented) | 1 GB | ￥ 2.576/month |
Backup storage
Accounts can select either periodic or continuous backup. By default, periodic backup is activated on all accounts and two backup copies of your data are stored free of charge. Periodic data backups can be configured to be geo, local, or zone resilient. Please see technical documentation for details.
| Periodic backup storage | Total GB | Price per GB-LRS | Price per GB-ZRS | Price per GB-RA-GRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stored periodic backup data (2 copies) | GBs per copy | Free/month | Free/month | Free/month |
| Stored periodic backup data (>2 copies) | GBs per copy | ￥0.786/month | ￥0.978/month | ￥1.566/month |
Continuous backup (preview) can be activated instead of periodic backups on accounts using either the Core (SQL) API or API for MongoDB. Once activated, backups are charged on a monthly basis based on the total amount of data stored across all selected Azure regions. Point-in-time restoration from the continuous backup data is billed as total GBs of data restored to the primary write region.
| Continuous backup storage | Total GB | Price per GB |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous backupPreview data | GBs x selected Azure regions | ￥2.034/month |
| Point-in-time restorePreview | GBs | ￥1.524/month |
| Continuous backup storage | Total GB | Price per GB |
|---|---|---|
| Point-in-time restorePreview | GBs | ￥1.02/month |
Analytical storage transactions
IO (input/output) transactions for analytical storage are billed by quantity of operations.
| Transactions | Operations | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Write Operations - analytical storage | 10,000 | ￥0.045 |
| Read Operations - analytical storage | 10,000 | ￥0.015 |
Multiple regions
Azure Cosmos DB offers guaranteed low-latency and high availability through multi-region reads and multi-region writes (formerly “multi-master”), across any or all Azure regions. You can add and remove regions to your Azure Cosmos DB account at any time. The billing impact of multiple regions is that provisioned throughput and consumed storage are multiplied by every region associated with your account.
Serverless
Serverless makes it easy to run workloads with low traffic. It can handle intermittent bursts on demand, without resource planning or management, and bills only for resources used per database operation with no minimum. As a pay-per-request billing model with no minimum operations and request units (RU), serverless is a great option for running small applications that don’t have sustained traffic.
| Serverless | Total Request Units (RU) | Price per 1M RU |
|---|---|---|
| Serverless request units (RU) | 1,000,000 | ￥2.36 |
Consumed Storage
Azure Cosmos DB offers unlimited transactional and analytical storage, billed as GBs of SSD-backed logical storage used by data and indexes across all regions selected for geo-replication. For example, if you replicate an Azure Cosmos DB account across three regions, you will pay for the total storage cost in each of those three regions.
Your data is managed in two distinct storage tiers, transactional and analytical, with workloads operating on the same logical data without interfering with each other. While transactional storage is always enabled by default, you must explicitly enable analytical storage on your Azure Cosmos DB container in order to use Azure Synapse Link to run analytics over data in Azure Cosmos DB.
Provisioned throughput (RU/s) scales relative to the amount of transactional storage at a rate of 10 RU/s for every 1 GB storage. To estimate your storage requirement, use the capacity planner tool, and ensure you’ve provisioned enough throughput to meet your storage needs.
| Consumed Storage | Total GB | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Transactional storage (row-oriented) | 1 GB | ￥ 2.576/month |
| Analytical storage (column-oriented) | 1 GB | ￥ 0.149/month |
| Consumed Storage | Total GB | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Transactional storage (row-oriented) | 1 GB | ￥ 2.576/month |
Backup storage
Accounts can select either periodic or continuous backup. By default, periodic backup is activated on all accounts and two backup copies of your data are stored free of charge. Periodic data backups can be configured to be geo, local, or zone resilient. Please see technical documentation for details.
| Periodic backup storage | Total GB | Price per GB-LRS | Price per GB-ZRS | Price per GB-RA-GRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stored periodic backup data (2 copies) | GBs per copy | Free/month | Free/month | Free/month |
| Stored periodic backup data (>2 copies) | GBs per copy | ￥0.786/月 | ￥0.978/月 | ￥1.566/月 |
Continuous backup (preview) can be activated instead of periodic backups on accounts using either the Core (SQL) API or API for MongoDB. Once activated, backups are charged on a monthly basis based on the total amount of data stored across all selected Azure regions. Point-in-time restoration from the continuous backup data is billed as total GBs of data restored to the primary write region.
| Continuous backup storage | Total GB | Price per GB |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous backupPreview data | GBs x selected Azure regions | ￥2.034/month |
| Point-in-time restorePreview | GBs | ￥1.524/month |
| Continuous backup storage | Total GB | Price per GB |
|---|---|---|
| Point-in-time restorePreview | GBs | ￥1.02/month |
Analytical storage transactions
IO (input/output) transactions for analytical storage are billed by quantity of operations.
| Transactions | Operations | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Write Operations - analytical storage | 10,000 | ￥0.045 |
| Read Operations - analytical storage | 10,000 | ￥0.015 |
Multiple regions
Azure Cosmos DB offers guaranteed low-latency and high availability through multi-region reads and multi-region writes (formerly “multi-master”), across any or all Azure regions. You can add and remove regions to your Azure Cosmos DB account at any time. The billing impact of multiple regions is that provisioned throughput and consumed storage are multiplied by every region associated with your account.
FAQ
Expand all-
What is a request unit?
A request unit (RU) is the unit of measurement for throughput in Azure Cosmos DB. 1 RU corresponds to the throughput for obtaining a 1 KB file. Every operation performed in DocumentDB (including reads, writes, SQL queries, and stored procedure executions) has a determined request unit value based on the throughput required to complete the operation. Instead of thinking about CPU, IO, and memory, and how they affect your application throughput, you can think in terms of a single Request Unit measure.
A request unit used through provisioned RUs per second or a one-minute bucket is the same.
For details on request units and help determining your collection needs, please see Request Units in Azure Cosmos DB.
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How does request unit usage appear on my bill?
During this period, billing is based on the total capacity (RU/second) provisioned under your Azure Cosmos DB account, using predictable hourly rates that fluctuate steadily
If you create accounts for two partitions that use 500 RU/second and 700 RU/second respectively, the total provisioned capacity will reach 1,200 RU/second. Therefore, the billing amount will be 12 x ¥ 0.051 = ¥ 0.612 /hour.
If your throughput needs to be changed and you increase the capacity of each partition by 500 RU/second, while also creating a new unlimited container using 20,000 RU/s, your overall provisioned capacity would be 22,200 RU/second (1,000 RU/second + 1,200 RU/second + 20,000 RU/second). Your bill would then change to: ¥ 0.051 x 222 = ¥11.322/hour.
In a month of 720 hours, if 500 hours are provisioned at 1,200 RU/second and 220 hours are provisioned at 22,200 RU/second, the monthly bill will show: 500 x ¥ 0.612/hour + 220 x ¥ 11.322/hour = ¥ 2,796.84.
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Working principles of request units per minute
In addition to the normal preview throughput, additional per minute request units can now be provisioned. You can use these additional throughput units in the UTC minute window. If per minute request units are enabled, an additional 1,000 request units per minute can be used for every 100 RU/second provisioned in a container.
For example, if you provision 400 RU/second, you can use an additional 4,000 request units per second. Suppose that an application requires more than 400 RU/second at 12 o'clock noon. From 12:00:01 p.m. to 12:01:00 p.m., the application will be able to use 4,000 additional request units while continuing to use the provisioned 400 RU/second throughput. Starting from 12:00:01 p.m., if all 4,000 request units are used before 12:01:00 p.m., the other request units cannot be used until the next UTC minute (starting from 12:01:01 p.m.). If you do not use all 4,000 request units within a given minute time interval, the remaining request units will not accumulate to the next minute time interval.
Please see Number of per minute request units in Azure Cosmos DB for details.
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If I specify my own performance for the container, how will the storage be billed?
Storage capacity is billed according to the maximum hourly amount of data stored (in GB) over a monthly period. For example, if you used 100 GB of storage in the first half of the month and 50 GB in the second half of the month, you would be billed for an equivalent of 75 GB of storage during that month.
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How will I be billed if my container is active for less than an hour?
You are billed the flat rate for each hour the container exists, regardless of usage or if the collection is active for less than an hour. For example, if you create a container and delete it five minutes later, your bill will reflect a charge of one unit hour.
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How do I increase or decrease the throughput for each collection?
You can increase or decrease the number of request units per container in an Azure Cosmos DB account using one of the supported SDKs or REST APIs in the Azure portal.
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What is the difference between "autopilot" and "autoscale" in Azure Cosmos DB?
"Autoscale" or "autoscale provisioned throughput" is the updated name for the feature, previously known as "autopilot." With the current release of autoscale, we've added new features, including the ability to set custom max RU/s and programmatic support.
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How does autoscale show up on my bill?
In single-master accounts, the autoscale rate per 100 RU/s is 1.5x the rate of standard (manual) provisioned throughput. On your bill, you will see the existing standard provisioned throughput meter. The quantity of this meter will be multiplied by 1.5. For example, if the highest RU/s the system scaled to within an hour was 6000 RU/s, you'd be billed 60 * 1.5 = 90 units of the meter for that hour.
In multi-master accounts, the autoscale rate per 100 RU/s is the same as the rate for standard (manual) provisioned multi-master throughput. On your bill, you will see the existing multi-master meter. Since the rates are the same, if you use autoscale, you'll see the same quantity as with standard throughput.
Support & SLA
If you have any questions or need help, please visit Azure Support and select self-help service or any other method to contact us for support.
Azure Cosmos DBoperated by 21Vianet in China is a distributedmulti-model database service. It provides turnkey data distribution in different Azure Data Centers in China, so your users can adjust and replicate your data transparently, no matter where they are located. This service offers a comprehensive 99.99% Service Level Agreement that includes a Cosmos DB database account for a single Azure region configured with any of five levels of consistency, or throughput, consistency, availability, and latency guarantees for database accounts across multiple Azure regions configured with any of four levels of loose consistency. In addition to consistency level selection, Cosmos DB also offers a 99.999% Service Level Agreement for database accounts with read availability across two or more Azure regions.
To learn more about the details of our Service Level Agreement, please visit the Service Level Agreements page.