Azure Cosmos DB
Develop AI-powered low-latency apps and agents with a fully managed and serverless NoSQL vector database at any scale.
OVERVIEW
Develop AI-powered apps at any scale
- Power copilots and multi-agent apps with NoSQL and vector data, and generate queries by asking questions using natural language.
- Simplify AI apps by storing and querying vectors and NoSQL data efficiently using a serverless vector database—powered by DiskANN.
- Leverage hybrid search to combine vector search, full-text search (BM25), and semantic ranking to deliver fast, low-latency results that are both context-aware and keyword-relevant within the same JSON document model in your Cosmos database.
- Integrate NoSQL and vector data directly into your applications through a unified JSON document model, enabling context-aware AI apps and multi-agent experiences with support for developer tools and AI frameworks.
- Scale out your Cosmos data and throughput with automatic partitioning as demand grows—without impacting availability or requiring manual intervention. Ideal for applications with unpredictable growth and high throughput demands, including real-time, globally distributed, and AI-driven workloads and SaaS applications that must scale seamlessly without downtime or operational overhead.
- Build highly responsive apps with <10ms latency SLA and up to 99.999% availability across multiple regions. Best suited for modern applications such as SaaS platforms, intelligent apps, and real-time services that need low latency at global scale.
- Maintain high availability for single-write region accounts by automatically failing over at the partition level, minimizing disruption and eliminating manual intervention.
- Spend less time managing databases and more time building with a fully managed NoSQL database designed for rapid development. Easily evolve your data model using schema-less JSON documents and automatic indexing—so you can create real-time applications, AI-powered copilots, multi-agent systems, personalized user experiences, and globally distributed SaaS platforms.
- Build apps in Python, Node.js, Java, .NET, Go, and more with full Azure Cosmos DB SDK support. Go from prototype to production faster with tools designed for modern NoSQL applications, including real-time, cloud-native, and AI-powered scenarios.
- Start quickly with serverless NoSQL for JSON data in Azure Cosmos DB. No capacity planning required, and you pay only for what you use. As your application grows, seamlessly transition your serverless NoSQL database to provisioned throughput with dynamic autoscale to handle increasing demand.
- Start building with a free tier option, then avoid overprovisioning as you scale by using dynamic autoscale to adjust throughput in real time. Optimize cost and performance for NoSQL and JSON workloads—handling spikes automatically while paying only for the capacity you need.
- Mirror Azure Cosmos DB data into Microsoft Fabric to enable near-real-time analytics, AI, and reporting without extract, transform, and load (ETL) processes. Combine operational data with other sources in OneLake for deeper insights.
- Use Azure Functions, AKS, and Azure Container Apps to process Azure Cosmos DB change feed events in real time—triggering workflows, microservices, and analytics without complex data polling or ETL.
- Store agent conversations and model interactions securely in Azure Cosmos DB, and gain enterprise control, observability, and improved multi-turn AI experiences.
FEATURES
Azure Cosmos DB meets you where you are
Azure Cosmos DB
Enjoy the best end-to-end Azure Cosmos DB experience with the native JSON document API.
Vector search in Azure Cosmos DB
Use efficient, high-accuracy vector search at any scale with Azure Cosmos DB.
New dynamic autoscale
Achieve greater efficiency and savings by scaling non-uniform workloads independently.
Manage multitenant workloads at scale with Azure Cosmos DB fleets
Organize tenant accounts in Azure Cosmos DB, leverage shared throughput pools, and gain fleet-wide analytics to optimize performance and costs.
Accelerate queries with Global Secondary Indexes
Optimize performance and reduce costs by creating read-only containers with different partition keys, turning cross-partition queries into fast single-partition lookups.
Security
Embedded security and compliance
34,000
Full-time equivalent engineers dedicated to security initiatives at Microsoft.
15,000
Partners with specialized security expertise.
>100
Compliance certifications, including over 50 specific to global regions and countries.
Pricing
Pricing that gives you flexibility and control
Find the model that best fits your workload, with free options for testing and development. Enjoy virtually unlimited throughput and storage, scale-out architectures for automatic elasticity, traditional scale-up of nodes, and consumption-based serverless options.
use cases
Discover popular Azure Cosmos DB use cases
AI assistants in any industry
Build your own copilot with Azure Cosmos DB and Azure OpenAI.
Scalable and intelligent payment solutions
Build a payments and transactions solution and analyze transactions using an AI-powered agent.
Claims processing
Process medical insurance claims at scale and use an AI-powered assistant to help insurance agents with recommendations.
Fast, scalable Internet of Things (IoT) device telemetry
Get insight into operations, assets, and inventory to help you improve business performance and user experience.
Personalization and recommendations
Build scalable retail experiences with a real-time product catalog, personalized recommendations, and order processing.
Multitenant software as a service (SaaS) apps
Scale to include millions of tenants using partitions and various isolation models. Use fleet management to centrally manage accounts, optimize costs, and simplify operations.
RELATED PRODUCTS
Build and modernize intelligent apps
CUSTOMER STORIES
See how customers are innovating with Azure Cosmos DB
RESOURCES
Azure Cosmos DB resources
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
- Azure Cosmos DB is a fully managed, cloud-native NoSQL database designed to deliver ultra-low latency and elastic scalability at a global scale. It uses a schema-agnostic JSON document model which makes it easy for developers to store and query flexible data structures. It supports vector search and hybrid search, enabling AI-driven experiences like RAG and agentic apps. You can access the API using SDKs for popular frameworks such as Python, Node.js, Java, and .NET.
- Azure Cosmos DB is used to build cloud-native applications that require low-latency access, global distribution, and elastic scale. It powers real-time apps, SaaS platforms, AI-driven solutions like RAG and agents, and data-intensive services such as IoT, personalization, and event-driven systems with flexible JSON data models.
- Azure Cosmos DB is optimized for AI by combining a multi-region, low-latency operational database with built-in vector and hybrid search, enabling developers to ground AI models in real-time data. It unifies transactions, search, and embeddings in one service with enterprise SLAs. With a flexible JSON model, automatic indexing, and seamless integration with Microsoft Foundry, developers can quickly build and scale AI apps and agents.
- Azure DocumentDB is the new name of vCore-based Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB. It is a fully managed, MongoDB-compatible database built on the open-source DocumentDB engine under the Linux Foundation. It delivers scalable performance, built-in vector and full-text search, enterprise security, and cost efficiency with independent compute and storage scaling—so developers can build anywhere and run at scale in Azure.
- Azure Cosmos DB is a NoSQL database. It uses a schema-less JSON document model with SQL-like querying, making it easy for developers to work with flexible, evolving data without complex schema migrations. This approach enables faster development, simpler data modeling, and seamless scaling for modern, cloud-native applications.
- Azure Cosmos DB serverless is cost-effective because you pay only for the operations you use, with no upfront capacity or idle costs. It’s ideal for low or variable workloads such as development and testing, prototyping, small apps, or infrequent traffic patterns. Serverless option in Azure Cosmos DB eliminates overprovisioning while still delivering low-latency performance without manual scaling.
- Azure Cosmos DB is ideal for ISV and SaaS apps with elastic scale, global distribution, and low-latency performance for multi-tenant workloads. Features like fleet management simplify operating and managing many tenant databases, while autoscale optimizes costs as demand grows. Its flexible JSON model enables rapid iteration without complex schema changes.
- For NoSQL data, Azure Cosmos DB offers comprehensive SLAs across throughput, latency, consistency, and high availability. This includes a less than 10 millisecond write-and-read latency and 99.999 percent availability.
- You can find Azure Cosmos DB documentation on Microsoft Learn, which provides comprehensive, up-to-date guidance for developers and architects. It includes quickstarts, SDK samples (Python, Node.js, Java, .NET, etc.), data modeling and partitioning best practices, query and indexing guidance, cost optimization strategies, and tutorials for building scalable, real-time, and AI-powered applications.
- Yes. Azure Cosmos DB offers multiple free options to help you get started. You can enable the free tier on a new account to get up to 1,000 RU/s of throughput and 25GB of storage at no cost for the lifetime of the account. You can also try it through the Azure free account or limited-time trials, making it easy to build and test applications before scaling to paid usage.
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