We are excited to announce the general availability (GA) of a highly requested capability in Azure Cosmos DB: the ability to migrate from serverless to provisioned throughput mode—without manual recreation, or downtime.

This release builds on the momentum of our public preview and is now fully supported across all regions.

Why it matters

Azure Cosmos DB offers two powerful capacity modes designed to match your application’s scale and usage patterns:

• Serverless – designed for applications with bursty or unpredictable traffic patterns, or for teams who prefer not to manage or forecast RU/s upfront. You only pay for the RUs you consume.
• Provisioned throughput – ideal for predictable, high-traffic workloads where performance tuning, multi-region writes, and cost predictability are essential. You have full control over RU/s, with the flexibility of manual or autoscale configurations.

With this new capability, you can now start with serverless—avoiding the need to estimate or configure throughput early—and transition seamlessly to provisioned mode as your application matures and scaling requirements become more predictable.

Key capabilities now generally available

🔄 One-click migration

• Seamlessly switch an account’s capacity mode from serverless to provisioned throughput via Azure Portal.
• Migration is seamless and non-destructive—your data, indexing policies, and configurations are preserved.

⚙️ Flexible Scaling Options

• After migration, configure manual throughput or leverage autoscale to dynamically adjust to traffic patterns.
• Access enterprise-grade features like global distribution, multi-region writes, configuring throughput per container or database, and guaranteed SLAs with provisioned capacity mode.

Use Cases and benefits

This new migration path is particularly useful for:

• Start Fast with Simplicity: Use serverless to quickly build and deploy applications especially when traffic patterns are unknown or unpredictable without worrying about Request units (RU/s) provisioning.
• Scale with Confidence: As usage patterns stabilize or scale, migrate to provisioned throughput for enhanced control, performance tuning, and multi-region replication.
• Optimized Cost Management: Avoid premature over-provisioning. Pay per request with serverless and transition to provisioned mode only when consistent throughput becomes necessary.

How to get started

Migrating your account from serverless to provisioned throughput is straightforward:

1. Open your Azure Cosmos DB account in the Azure Portal.
2. On the account overview page, select “Change capacity mode to provisioned throughput.”
3. Confirm and apply changes. That’s it!

Best practices and considerations

• Migration is one-way: Once migrated to provisioned throughput, account cannot revert to serverless. We recommend validating performance and cost expectations in a non-production environment first.
• Monitor and Optimize: Post-migration, review your RU/s settings and use autoscale where traffic is variable.
• Plan for Scale: Provisioned throughput unlocks advanced features like dedicated throughput, guaranteed SLAs, and global distribution capabilities.

What’s next

We continue to invest in features that make Azure Cosmos DB more flexible, scalable, and developer friendly. This GA release is a key milestone in enabling a frictionless growth path—from dynamic serverless workloads to performance-optimized global apps.

With this new migration capability, you have the freedom to start simple with serverless and scale with precision using provisioned throughput—all without rewriting your application or moving data.

For more information, visit our official documentation.

We’d love to hear your feedback—share your thoughts via Azure Feedback or contact us at azurecosmosdbserverless@service.microsoft.com.

Build with flexibility and grow with confidence, all on Azure Cosmos DB.

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About Azure Cosmos DB

Azure Cosmos DB is a fully managed and serverless NoSQL and vector database for modern app development, including AI applications. With its SLA-backed speed and availability as well as instant dynamic scalability, it is ideal for real-time NoSQL and MongoDB applications that require high performance and distributed computing over massive volumes of NoSQL and vector data.

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