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Try Azure Cosmos DB free

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APPLIES TO: NoSQL MongoDB Cassandra Gremlin Table PostgreSQL

Try Azure Cosmos DB makes it easy to try out Azure Cosmos DB for free before you commit. There's no credit card required to get started. Your account is free for 30 days. After expiration, a new sandbox account can be created. You can extend beyond 30 days for 24 hours. You can upgrade your active Try Azure Cosmos DB account at any time during the 30 day trial period.

If you're using the API for NoSQL or PostgreSQL, you can also migrate your Try Azure Cosmos DB data to your upgraded account before the trial ends.

This article walks you through how to create your account, limits, and upgrading your account. This article also walks through how to migrate your data from your Try Azure Cosmos DB sandbox to your own account using the API for NoSQL.

If you decide that Azure Cosmos DB is right for you, you can receive up to 63% discount on Azure Cosmos DB prices through Reserved Capacity.

Limits to free account

The following table lists the limits for the Try Azure Cosmos DB for Free trial.

Resource Limit
Duration of the trial 30 days¹²
Maximum containers per subscription 1
Maximum throughput per container 5,000
Maximum throughput per shared-throughput database 20,000
Maximum total storage per account 10 GB

¹ A new trial can be requested after expiration. ² After expiration, the information stored in your account is deleted. You can upgrade your account prior to expiration and migrate the information stored.

Note

Try Azure Cosmos DB supports global distribution in only the East US, North Europe, Southeast Asia, and North Central US regions. Azure support tickets can't be created for Try Azure Cosmos DB accounts. However, support is provided for subscribers with existing support plans. If the account exceeds the maximum resource limits, it's automatically deleted.

Create your Try Azure Cosmos DB account

From the Try Azure Cosmos DB home page, select an API. Azure Cosmos DB provides five APIs: NoSQL and MongoDB for document data, Gremlin for graph data, Azure Table, and Cassandra.

Note

Not sure which API will best meet your needs? To learn more about the APIs for Azure Cosmos DB, see Choose an API in Azure Cosmos DB.

Screenshot of the API options including NoSQL, MongoDB, and Cassandra on the Try Azure Cosmos DB page.

Launch a Quick Start

Launch the Quickstart in Data Explorer in Azure portal to start using Azure Cosmos DB or get started with our documentation.

You can also get started with one of the learning resources in the Data Explorer.

Screenshot of the Azure Cosmos DB Data Explorer landing page.

Upgrade your account

Your account is free for 30 days. After expiration, a new sandbox account can be created. You can upgrade your active Try Azure Cosmos DB account at any time during the 30 day trial period. Here are the steps to start an upgrade.

Start upgrade

  1. From either the Azure portal or the Try Azure Cosmos DB free page, select the option to Upgrade your account.

    Screenshot of the confirmation page for the account upgrade experience.

  2. Choose to either Sign up for an Azure account or Sign in and create a new Azure Cosmos DB account following the instructions in the next section.

Create a new account

Note

While this example uses API for NoSQL, the steps are similar for the APIs for MongoDB, Cassandra, Gremlin, or Table.

  1. Sign in to the Azure portal.

  2. From the Azure portal menu or the Home page, select Create a resource.

  3. On the New page, search for and select Azure Cosmos DB.

  4. On the Select API option page, select the Create option within the NoSQL section. Azure Cosmos DB has six APIs: NoSQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, Apache Cassandra, Apache Gremlin, and Table. Learn more about the API for NoSQL.

    Screenshot of select API option page for Azure Cosmos DB.

  5. On the Create Azure Cosmos DB Account - Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL page, enter the following information:

    Setting Value
    Subscription Select the Azure subscription that you wish to use for this Azure Cosmos account.
    Resource Group Select a resource group, or select Create new, then enter a unique name for the new resource group.
    Account Name Enter a name to identify your Azure Cosmos account. The name will be used as part of a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) with a suffix of documents.azure.com, so the name must be globally unique. The name can only contain lowercase letters, numbers, and the hyphen (-) character. The name must also be between 3-44 characters in length.
    Location Select a geographic location to host your Azure Cosmos DB account. Use the location that is closest to your users to give them the fastest access to the data.
    Capacity mode Select Provisioned throughput to create an account in provisioned throughput mode.
    Apply Azure Cosmos DB free tier discount Choose whether you wish to enable Azure Cosmos DB free tier. With Azure Cosmos DB free tier, you'll get the first 1000 RU/s and 25 GB of storage for free in an account. Learn more about free tier.

    Note

    You can have up to one free tier Azure Cosmos DB account per Azure subscription and must opt-in when creating the account. If you do not see the option to apply the free tier discount, this means another account in the subscription has already been enabled with free tier.

    Screenshot of new account page for API for NoSQL.

  6. Select Review + create.

  7. Review the settings you provide, and then select Create. It takes a few minutes to create the account. Wait for the portal page to display Your deployment is complete before moving on.

  8. Select Go to resource to go to the Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL account page.

    Screenshot of deployment page for an API for NoSQL resource.

Move data to new account

If you desire, you can migrate your existing data from the free account to the newly created account.

  1. Navigate back to the Upgrade page from the Start upgrade section of this guide. Select Next to move on to the third step and move your data.

    Screenshot of the sign-in/sign-up experience to upgrade your current account.

  2. Locate your Primary Connection string for the Azure Cosmos DB account you created for your data. This information can be found within the Keys page of your new account.

    Screenshot of the Keys page for an Azure Cosmos DB account.

  3. Back in the Upgrade page from the Start upgrade section of this guide, insert the connection string of the new Azure Cosmos DB account in the Connection string field.

    Screenshot of the migrate data options in the portal.

  4. Select Next to move the data to your account. Provide your email address to be notified by email once the migration has been completed.

Delete your account

There can only be one free Try Azure Cosmos DB account per Microsoft account. You may want to delete your account or to try different APIs, you'll have to create a new account. Here’s how to delete your account.

  1. Go to the Try Azure Cosmos DB page.

  2. Select Delete my account.

    Screenshot of the confirmation page for the account deletion experience.

Next steps

After you create a Try Azure Cosmos DB sandbox account, you can start building apps with Azure Cosmos DB with the following articles: