Question 1

What's the difference between Azure Cosmos DB and Azure SQL Database?

Accepted Answer

Azure SQL Database is a relational database (tables, joins, SQL) best for structured data and complex queries with strong relational constraints. Cosmos DB is a NoSQL database designed for massive scale and global distribution, using partitioning and flexible schemas (commonly JSON documents). Cosmos DB also offers multiple consistency levels and built-in multi-region replication, which is a common reason teams choose it for worldwide apps.

Question 2

When should I use Azure Cosmos DB?

Accepted Answer

Use Cosmos DB when you need one or more of these: (1) very low latency for users around the world, (2) automatic multi-region replication and high availability, (3) elastic scaling for high request rates, (4) flexible schema for JSON/document data, or (5) predictable performance using provisioned or autoscaled throughput. It’s a strong fit for gaming, IoT telemetry, retail catalogs, user profiles, and event-driven apps that need fast reads/writes at scale.

Question 3

How much does Azure Cosmos DB cost?

Accepted Answer

Cosmos DB pricing is mainly driven by: (1) throughput (RU/s) you provision or autoscale, (2) storage consumed, (3) number of regions (replicating to more regions increases cost), and (4) networking/backup features depending on configuration. Workloads with many reads/writes or inefficient queries can consume more RU/s, increasing cost. A common cost-control approach is choosing a good partition key, using autoscale for spiky traffic, and optimizing queries and indexing to reduce RU consumption.

Cosmos DB

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