SQL database pricing

Azure SQL previously had just one pricing model—a model based on DTUs—but an alternative pricing model based on vCPUs has also been launched. The pricing model is selected based on the customer's requirements. The DTU-based model is selected when the customer wants simple and preconfigured resource options. On the other hand, the vCore-based model offers the flexibility to choose compute and storage resources. It also provides control and transparency.

Let's take a closer look at each of these models.

DTU-based pricing

The DTU is the smallest unit of performance measure for Azure SQL Database. Each DTU corresponds to a certain amount of resources. These resources include storage, CPU cycles, IOPS, and network bandwidth. For example, a single DTU might provide three IOPS, a few CPU cycles, and IO latencies of 5 ms for read operations and 10 ms for write operations.

Azure SQL Database...