This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(307.2, 0%, 39%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ERJ%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
If I stop the database will it cost me in Azure?
Which type of Azure SQL DB are you talking about? Can you share link to particular document if you are referring any. In general, we can't stop Azure SQL Databases.
It was a question in AZ 900 exam.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(297.6, 97%, 38%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EAS%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Hi @Ravindra Joshi , just wanted to check if you need any other details. If answer helped, you can mark it 'Accept Answer'
We can't stop the Azure SQL DB to save the cost at this moment.
But there are other services where, for sure, you save the cost when the service is paused or stopped.. Say, pausing Synapse SQL pool, stopping virtual machine, pausing Kusto cluster etc.
Please don't forget to Accept Answer and Up-vote if the response helped -- Vaibhav
The only Azure SQL Database product (PaaS) that can be stopped is Azure SQL Serverless. It can be configured to auto-pause when it has an specific number of hours without activity. You can configure that using control panel as shown below:
The minimum time you can specify for auto-pause is 1 hour. However even when its computing power can be paused, you still continue to pay for the storage the database is consuming. On the Cost section of this article you will find the following excerpt:
"When the database is paused, the compute cost is zero and only storage costs are incurred."
You can learn more about how to auto-pause a database on this documentation,
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(179.20000000000002, 20%, 27%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EZL%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
So I cannot stop Azure SQL Database to decrease costs?
So I cannot stop Azure SQL Database to preserve costs?
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(0, 7.000000000000001%, 10%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EK%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Apparently we cannot stop it. Which really stinks because I was doing a Azure SQL DB training and now I've run out of resources. It wasn't even in production and I was the only person using it.
Very frustrating, MS. We should be able to pause it / stop it so that it doesn't keep accumulating charges when we are not actively training and using it.
I did find this:
To stop billing charges, export the SQL Azure Database to Azure storage and then delete the SQL Azure Database and restore it when needed.