Azure SQL Database serverless automatically scales compute based on workload demand and bills for compute used per second.  In the General Purpose tier, serverless also provides an option to automatically pause the database during idle usage periods when only storage related costs are billed.  When workload activity returns, the database is automatically resumed.

Customers choosing to enable auto-pausing can specify the auto-pause delay as part of the serverless configuration.  The auto-pause delay is the length of time the database must be idle before auto-pausing.  The lower the auto-pause delay and the more frequently auto-pausing occurs, the greater the potential compute cost savings. 

We are pleased to announce the minimum configurable auto-pause delay has decreased from 1 hour to 15 minutes providing even greater price optimization opportunities for serverless databases.  The auto-pause delay can be configured for new or existing databases using the Azure portal or via APIs including PowerShell and Azure CLI.  For more information, please see Azure SQL Database serverless.

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