When Azure SQL Database introduced the serverless option, I decided to try it. I moved one of my databases to the tier, though I had to move to a vCore model instead of the basic DTU setup. I was nervous, but I did it back in May.
Since then, I’ve only used the database sparingly, so I haven’t noticed much change, but the billing is lower. In October, the first database I moved over here cost me US$0.35. In fact, the last three months, this has cost me US$6.90
Let’s compare that with the 3 months until I went serverless. When I look at this, I see US$15.45, which is what I’d expect. About $5 a month.
On a low usage database, this has certainly saved me money. Would it be different if I used this more? That is harder to determine, and I need to run an experiment with something I use more often. I’ve tried to manage my Azure credits wisely, and with making a few changes across the last six months, I was slightly worried about the cost of this vCore system.
Last month I did adjust this down to a 1 hour delay before shutting down the system, so if you had a normal vCore database and could cut down on usage during some periods, this certainly might help you.
The downside? Today I spun up a db, and saw this for about 15 minutes.
Now great, as this caused me SSMS issues as I tried to connect. More an SSMS issue, but still annoying.
So far serverless has worked well for some test databases, which is where I think is shines.