Yes — Azure Cosmos DB has a permanent free tier alongside its paid plans.
About
Azure Cosmos DB is a fully managed, serverless distributed database for NoSQL and relational workloads. It supports a schema-less JSON document model, automatic indexing, built-in vector search, hybrid search, and SDK access for Python, Node.js, Java, .NET, Go, and other languages.
The service is aimed at applications that need low-latency access, global distribution, and elastic scale, including AI apps, SaaS platforms, IoT systems, and event-driven workloads. The pricing page states that new accounts are eligible for 1,000 RU/s and 25 GB of storage with the free tier, and that free tier is not applicable to serverless.
- 1,000 RU/s free tier allowance
- 25 GB free storage
- Serverless NoSQL option
- Built-in vector search
- Hybrid search and semantic ranking
- 99.999% availability SLA
- <10 ms latency SLA
- Python, Node.js, Java, .NET, Go SDKs
Free Tier Value
This free tier is a capped but genuinely usable starter offer: it includes 1,000 RU/s and 25 GB of storage for the lifetime of one Cosmos DB account per Azure subscription, plus shared-throughput database/container limits. Because the page does not publish a simple monthly paid price to compare against, a defensible monthly dollar value can’t be estimated from the information shown; the main friction point is that a credit card is typically required for Azure signup, even though the free tier itself does not expire.
What's included in the free tier
- 1,000 RU/s provisioned throughput free for the lifetime of one Azure Cosmos DB account per Azure subscription.
- 25 GB storage free each month for the lifetime of one Azure Cosmos DB account per Azure subscription.
- Up to 25 containers sharing 1,000 RU/s at the database level with shared throughput databases.
- Up to 5 shared throughput databases per free tier account.
See Azure Cosmos DB pricing for current limits.
Paid plans
Standard provisioned throughput
- RU/s
- priced per provisioned throughput
- storage
- priced separately
- bandwidth
- priced separately
- Provisioned throughput for NoSQL, MongoDB (RU), Cassandra, Gremlin, and Table
- Supports standard/manual throughput management
- Backed by SLAs for predictable performance
- Can be used with single-region or multi-region accounts
- Consumed storage and bandwidth billed separately
Autoscale provisioned throughput
- RU/s
- starts at 1,000
- storage
- priced separately
- bandwidth
- priced separately
- Autoscaling throughput for variable or unpredictable traffic
- Starts at 1,000 RU/s
- Available for NoSQL, MongoDB (RU), Cassandra, Gremlin, and Table
- General Purpose and Business Critical service tiers
- Consumed storage and bandwidth billed separately
Serverless
- usage
- metered
- storage
- priced separately
- bandwidth
- priced separately
- Serverless compute option
- NoSQL API support
- Consumed storage billed separately
- Bandwidth billed separately
PostgreSQL vCore/Node
- vCore/node
- metered
- disk storage
- priced separately
- bandwidth
- priced separately
- vCore-based compute and memory pricing
- Available for PostgreSQL, MongoDB (vCore), and Garnet Cache
- Disk storage billed separately
- Bandwidth billed separately
MongoDB vCore
- vCore/node
- metered
- disk storage
- priced separately
- bandwidth
- priced separately
- vCore-based compute and memory pricing
- Available for MongoDB (vCore)
- Disk storage billed separately
- Bandwidth billed separately
Garnet Cache (Preview)
- vCore/node
- metered
- disk storage
- priced separately
- bandwidth
- priced separately
- vCore-based compute and memory pricing
- Preview offering
- Disk storage billed separately
- Bandwidth billed separately
Pricing extracted from Azure Cosmos DB's pricing page. Always verify current pricing before committing.
Common questions
Is Azure Cosmos DB free forever?
Yes. Azure Cosmos DB has a permanent free tier alongside its paid plans, though the allowance typically resets each month.
Does Azure Cosmos DB require a credit card?
Yes. Azure Cosmos DB asks for a card at signup, even for the free tier.