Share via

azure sql database cost went up on 01.10 and stayed up

mamaHani 0 Reputation points
2025-10-21T19:22:59.7566667+00:00

hello

azure sql database cost and usage went up on 01.10 and stayed up ever since;

i dont see any new usage of the database; this is a production database, users are using tabular model so they are not querying db directly;

we do have a report sourced directly from db which is triggered every hour, but its been like this since 6 months, whereas the cost went up on 01.10;

i dont know how to determine what is causing this increase

any tips are appreciated

rgds

Azure SQL Database

1 answer

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Kalyani Kondavaradala 3,145 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2025-10-22T11:59:27.3133333+00:00

    Hi mamaHani,

    Thank you for reaching on Microsoft Q&A!Welcome!

    Here are some steps you might consider analyzing and potentially reduce those costs:

    1. Cost Analysis: Start by reviewing your costs in the Azure portal. Go to Cost Management + Billing, select Cost analysis, and filter your data to see which services are contributing most to the increased costs. This will help identify spikes in usage.
    2. Monitor Database Activity: Use Azure Monitor metrics to track the performance and activity of your SQL Database. This might allow you to spot unusual activities or increased queries that could be driving up costs.
    3. Review your SQL Database Model: If you're using the DTU or vCore purchasing models, ensure that you’ve selected the service tier and compute size that best suits your current workload. It might be worth evaluating if you can move to a more appropriate tier or if elastic pools might help in managing costs across multiple databases.
    4. Automatic Pause for Serverless Models: If your database is set up with a serverless tier, remember that it can automatically pause during inactivity. This can help reduce costs if your usage patterns allow for it.
    5. Resource Usage: Check if there have been any new workloads or reports that have been added or if existing ones have seen an increase in usage recently. Although you mentioned that the report has been running the same way for six months, cross-check if there are any changes in how users are accessing data via the tabular model.
    6. Elastic Pools: If you have multiple databases with varying usage demands, consider using elastic pools, which can share resources and reduce costs.

    Please go through the below Microsoft documents for more details:

    Please let us know if you still stuck after checking everything, we will try to help you further.

    If the provided information helpful, please click "Upvote" and accept the answer, it will help others who might be facing similar challenges.

    Thanks!

    Kalyani

Your answer

Answers can be marked as 'Accepted' by the question author and 'Recommended' by moderators, which helps users know the answer solved the author's problem.