SQL Server licensing in 2026. Cores, CALs, Software Assurance and the cloud rules.

SQL Server is licensed per core or per server plus CAL, but Software Assurance, virtualization, HA replicas and cloud deployment decide what you actually owe. Those four areas produce most audit findings.

The SQL Server licensing model has barely changed in a decade: you pay per core or per server plus CALs, and Software Assurance decides what else you may do. The detail underneath changes with every release, and that detail is where audit findings come from.

This guide covers editions, metrics, Software Assurance, virtualization, HA and DR, the cloud rules and how audits score SQL Server. For the wider picture, see our Microsoft knowledge hub and Microsoft advisory service.

Which SQL Server edition do you need?

Most production workloads belong on Standard or Enterprise, and the choice comes down to scale limits and a short list of Enterprise only features. The other editions are free, restricted to development, or sold only through hosting partners.

The editions on the price list

• Enterprise. The full feature set, licensed per core only.
• Standard. Core production workloads, licensed per core or Server plus CAL.
• Web. Public facing workloads only, sold through the service provider (SPLA) channel. SQL Server 2025 no longer offers it.
• Developer. Free for non production use. SQL Server 2025 splits it into Enterprise Developer and Standard Developer.
• Express. Free, with limited features and a 10 GB database cap on SQL Server 2022, raised to 50 GB in SQL Server 2025.

Where Standard edition stops

Standard fits departmental OLTP, smaller analytics and most line of business databases. On SQL Server 2022 it uses at most the lesser of 4 sockets or 24 cores and 128 GB of buffer pool memory. SQL Server 2025 lifts those limits to 32 cores and 256 GB.

Enterprise fits mission critical OLTP, large analytics and any design that needs full Always On availability groups with several secondaries. Standard offers only basic availability groups: two replicas, one database, no readable secondary.

Why the edition question cuts both ways

Many companies pay for Enterprise where Standard would do. Data compression and table partitioning have been in Standard since SQL Server 2016 SP1, so they no longer justify Enterprise. The audit usually finds the reverse: an instance installed from Enterprise or Developer media on a server licensed as Standard, scored as unlicensed Enterprise cores.

How do SQL Server per core and Server plus CAL licensing work?

Per core licensing counts processor cores and covers unlimited users. Server plus CAL counts servers plus the people or devices that use them. Enterprise is per core only, and Standard can go either way depending on how many users reach how many servers.

Per core licensing

Core licenses are sold in two core packs covering two physical or virtual cores. You need at least four core licenses per physical processor, and at least four per VM when you license by VM. The metric follows hardware and ignores headcount.

Server plus CAL licensing

• Server license. One license covers the physical server or virtual machine.
• CAL per user or per device. Every named user or device that reaches the server, directly or through an application, needs one.
• Standard edition only. New Enterprise purchases are per core.
• Known populations only. The model fails for internet facing systems and large user bases, because you cannot count the users.

Say one 8 core Standard server supports 40 named users. Per core costs 4 packs, or $15,780. Server plus CAL costs $989 plus 40 CALs at $230, or $10,189. The break even sits near 64 users on 8 cores and 30 users on a 4 core VM.

One SQL CAL covers access to any licensed SQL Server of the same or an earlier version. The same 40 users across three such servers cost $12,167 under Server plus CAL against $47,340 per core. Connection pools and web tiers do not reduce the CAL count.

How virtualization changes the count

When you license by VM, each VM needs licenses for its virtual cores, minimum four. Since SQL Server 2022 that option requires Software Assurance or subscription licenses. The alternative is to license every physical core of the host with Enterprise plus SA, which covers unlimited SQL Server VMs on that host.

Without SA, a license can move to another server in the farm only once every 90 days, which a vMotion or DRS cluster breaks routinely.

Both columns need SA to work as shown. Once the vCores on a host pass its physical core count, host licensing wins, and with SA in place every later VM on that host costs nothing extra. Hosts running SQL Server VMs without full host licensing are also the largest single source of exposure we find, because VMs grow between inventories.

What does SQL Server Software Assurance give you?

Software Assurance is the annual add on that keeps a perpetual license current. Several of its rights now decide whether a design is compliant at all.

• New version rights. Move to the next release without buying new licenses.
• License mobility. Reassign licenses inside a server farm without the 90 day wait, and use them with authorized mobility partners in the cloud.
• Azure Hybrid Benefit. Pay the base rate on Azure SQL services.
• Passive failover rights. Free passive replicas for HA and DR.
• Licensing by VM. Required since SQL Server 2022.
• Flexible Virtualization Benefit. Since October 2022, shared servers at outsourcers other than the Listed Providers.

Running an earlier version under a current license is often credited to SA, but it is a downgrade right that comes with every volume license. Our Software Assurance guide covers SA across other Microsoft products.

When SA pays for itself

SA costs roughly 25 percent of the license price per year. It pays off if you plan an upgrade, run Azure SQL, rely on HA failover or license VMs individually. The exception is a fixed legacy footprint with no upgrade or cloud plans.

On 16 Enterprise cores bought at $120,984, SA runs about $30,246 a year. Over five years that is $151,230, more than buying the same cores again at the newer version.

Why we do not put SA on every core

Microsoft presents SA as a standard add on justified by upgrade rights. We disagree. In roughly five out of eight SQL Server environments we have audited, the SA premium exceeded the upgrade value over the term, because most enterprises run a prior version for five to seven years before upgrading.

Buy SA for disaster recovery rights, Azure Hybrid Benefit and license mobility. That usually means SA on production cores and none on test or development cores. Check first how each non production server is licensed, because a VM licensed individually needs SA.

How SA renewal works

SA renews on the Enterprise Agreement cycle, and a lapse is expensive to undo. Microsoft generally sells SA only with a new license or as a renewal of unbroken coverage, so getting it back typically costs 1.5 to 2 times the SA price. Map SA on every license at renewal and decide line by line.

How are SQL Server HA and DR secondaries licensed?

With Software Assurance a passive secondary is free and an active one needs full licenses. Since November 1, 2019, SA covers up to three passive replicas per licensed primary: HA on premises, DR on premises and DR in Azure.

What a passive secondary may do

• Allowed. Consistency checks (DBCC CHECKDB), full and transaction log backups, and resource monitoring.
• Allowed for testing. Brief DR tests with primary and replica running together, every 90 days.
• Not allowed. Readable secondaries serving queries, reports or extracts.
• Not allowed. Log shipping standby databases opened for queries.

Readable secondaries are the most common SQL Server audit finding. A replica is set to allow read connections for a reporting tool, and from that day it needs the same core licenses as the primary.

Cold, warm and hot disaster recovery

Cold DR is covered by SA, and so is warm DR with no active workload. Hot DR that answers queries needs full licensing for each instance.

How does SQL Server licensing work in Azure, AWS and Google Cloud?

In the cloud you either pay for SQL Server in the hourly rate or bring licenses with Software Assurance. The rules differ by provider and by service.

Azure Hybrid Benefit

Azure Hybrid Benefit applies licenses with SA, or subscription licenses, against Azure SQL Database, Managed Instance and SQL Server on Azure VMs. The cost reduction runs 30 to 55 percent against license included SKUs, for as long as the SA stays active.

• Enterprise. One core covers four vCores of General Purpose or one of Business Critical.
• Standard. One core covers one vCore of General Purpose, and four cover one of Business Critical.
• Azure SQL Database. Provisioned vCore model only, with DTU and serverless excluded.
• Migration. 180 days of dual use on premises and in Azure, then the license lives in one place.

Sixteen Enterprise cores with SA cover 64 vCores of General Purpose, but only 16 of Business Critical. See our Azure Hybrid Benefit guide for the Windows Server side.

License Mobility on AWS and Google Cloud

• AWS. Licenses with SA qualify for License Mobility on shared tenancy EC2 with conditions, and on dedicated hosts.
• Google Cloud. Licenses with SA qualify on Compute Engine. Cloud SQL for SQL Server does not accept your own licenses.
• Listed Providers. Alibaba, Amazon, Google and Microsoft are excluded from the Flexible Virtualization Benefit.
• Authorized partners only. Off list providers do not qualify for License Mobility.

The mistake we see most often is migrating first and checking the terms later. The team then learns mobility does not cover that provider or service, and SQL Server gets billed twice: once in the hourly rate and once on the idle licenses.

Pay as you go through Azure Arc

SQL Server 2022 added pay as you go billing through Azure Arc, per core per hour, for servers you run yourself. It suits variable workloads, and a server running all year rarely comes out ahead.

Arc reports edition and core counts to Microsoft, so treat that telemetry as audit evidence. SQL Server 2022 also added ledger tables, which every edition supports, so a ledger database on its own does not signal Enterprise use. More in our Azure Arc guide.

What do Microsoft audits usually find in SQL Server?

SQL Server audits find a gap in approximately 75 percent of enterprise environments, and it usually runs between 8 and 22 percent of installed entitlement. The auditor inventories instances and cores through MAP Toolkit scans or SCCM extracts, reconciles them to your Enterprise Agreement, and bills the difference as a true up at list.

How to check your own position first

• Edition. SERVERPROPERTY('Edition') on every instance.
• Cores. cpu_count in sys.dm_os_sys_info, against the vCPU allocation in vCenter or Hyper-V and the host's physical cores.
• Replicas. secondary_role_allow_connections_desc in sys.availability_replicas; anything other than NO is readable.
• Features. sys.dm_db_persisted_sku_features in each database.

The findings that cost the most

1. Readable secondaries. Treated as passive but configured for read access.
2. Enterprise installs on Standard licenses. Enterprise media, or features such as full availability groups, on cores licensed as Standard.
3. VM core growth. Virtual cores increased beyond entitlement, or VMs added to hosts that are not fully licensed.
4. Mobility to the wrong provider. SA mobility claimed on a cloud configuration that does not qualify.
5. Developer in production. Developer edition used for production reporting or live data.

Our SQL Server audit defense guide covers contesting findings.

Keeping an Effective License Position

Your protection is a current Effective License Position: installed SQL Server by edition, core count and HA role, against entitlement. Refresh it every six months and run your own audit before Microsoft does. The EA renewal is the best time to close gaps, at negotiated prices.

What have we seen in recent SQL Server audits and renewals?

Across roughly 30 to 45 SQL Server audit defenses and licensing reviews we ran in 2024 and 2025, the median gap on first inventory sat at 14 to 21 percent of total SQL Server core entitlement. Most of it closed without new purchases once SA, HA and virtualization rules were applied correctly.

The costly SQL Server findings rarely come from missing licenses. They come from a replica switched to readable, a VM that grew, or a workload that changed clouds.

What will Microsoft say about SQL Server, and how should you answer?

Account teams and SAM partners repeat a few lines on SQL Server, and each has a precise answer.

• "You need SA on every core to stay compliant." SA is a condition only where a design depends on it: VMs licensed individually, unlimited virtualization, passive replicas, mobility and Azure Hybrid Benefit. Price the other servers separately.
• "Your availability group secondaries are covered by SA." Only passive ones are. Bring the replica configuration and let the terms decide.
• "Migrate to Managed Instance and Azure Hybrid Benefit covers you." Ask for the ratio by tier. Business Critical consumes four times the Enterprise cores that General Purpose does.
• "A SAM engagement is not an audit." It is voluntary, but your data feeds the same reconciliation. Build your own position first and share only what the scope requires.

Terms to request at renewal

• Price hold on SQL Server SKUs. Fix core pack, CAL, SA and subscription prices for the full term, so a true up in year three is priced like year one.
• Shortfalls at your EA price level. Any gap found in an audit or SAM review is bought at your negotiated prices, with no backdated SA charge.
• A remediation window. Time to switch a readable replica back to passive, or shrink a VM, before a finding turns into a purchase.
• SA line by line. The right to renew SA on production cores and let it lapse on named non production licenses, recorded in the enrollment.

Our Microsoft EA renewal guide covers the wider agreement.

What to do next

1. Inventory every SQL Server instance. Edition, core count, HA role, virtualization host and cloud service.
2. Reconcile to entitlement. Match the inventory line by line to your active Enterprise Agreement.
3. Test every secondary against the passive rules. Any readable secondary needs licenses or a configuration change.
4. Map SA coverage. Keep SA on each license for a stated reason, or remove it on purpose.
5. Model Azure Hybrid Benefit. Calculate Azure SQL savings for licenses with SA, using the ratio for each tier.
6. Check each cloud workload against the mobility rules. Match it to an authorized provider and a service that accepts your licenses.
7. Run your own audit before the EA renewal. Use the renewal to buy or restructure at negotiated prices.

Frequently asked questions