MS SQL Server 2022 Licensing FAQ (unofficial)

What editions are available with SQL Server 2022?

As with previous versions of SQL Server, SQL Server 2022 is offered in the following editions:

• Enterprise Edition includes all features and capabilities of SQL Server and is suitable for mission critical applications and data warehousing.
• Standard Edition provides core database capabilities for mid-tier applications. It is limited to lesser of 4 sockets or 24 cores, and to less than 128 GB buffer pool per instance.
• Web Edition is offered on Azure and by other cloud and hosting providers. It is suitable for entry level databases supporting small and mobile applications. Web Edition is limited to lesser of 4 sockets or 16 cores, and to less than 64 GB buffer pool per instance.
• Developer Edition is a free fully functioning version of SQL Enterprise Edition licensed for development, test, and demonstration purposes only. There's no time limit for this edition and no paid license is required, but it can't be used for production.
• Express Edition is a freely downloadable and distributable edition suitable for entry level databases. It has limited scalability and compute capacity - lesser of 1 socket or 4 cores, 1410 MB buffer pool per instance, and 10GB maximum relational database size. Express edition doesn't require a paid license and can be used in production.
• Evaluation Edition is a fully functional trial version of SQL Server 2022 that automatically expires after 180 days. This edition doesn't require a paid license but can't be used for production.

For more information check the following pages:
SQL Server 2022 editions datasheet
Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2022
Deployment options, licensing, and feature differences in SQL Server 2022

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What licensing options are available for SQL Server 2022?

The following licensing options are available through a number of MS licensing agreements and programs:

• Perpetual licenses - Core, Server, and CAL licenses, with or without Software Assurance (SA). SA offers a number of additional rights and benefits briefly outlined below. The license itself does not expire. SA, on the other hand, must be renewed to remain active.
• Subscription licenses - valid only for the subscription term. Subscription licenses include Software Assurance or SA-equivalent rights.
• Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) or on-demand cloud offerings. The PAYG model provides per-hour consumption-type billing for on-premise or hosted SQL Server instances and requires Azure subscription and installation of Azure extension for SQL Server. Customers may also choose SQL Server offerings from cloud service providers, such as GCP, AWS, Azure, etc. SQL Server Enterprise and Standard Editions are often available either as VM images with preinstalled SQL Server software or as managed SQL instances/databases. The cloud service charges for such VMs and services include the cost of SQL licenses.

There are two main license models that apply to SQL server:

• Per Core;
• Server + CAL.

Newly acquired SQL Server Enterprise Edition licenses support only the Per Core model. SQL Server Standard Edition can be licensed either under the Per Core model or under the Server + CAL model. CAL stands for Client Access License. Core licenses are sold in packs of two. That is, one SKU, called 2 core pack, contains two core licenses.

SQL Server Web Edition is only available through hosting providers with Microsoft Service Provider License Agreements (SPLA).

SQL Server Developer Edition and SQL Server Express Edition do not require a paid license.

SQL Server licenses are platform agnostic and permit deployment and use on Windows or Linux systems.

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What is Software Assurance?

Software Assurance (SA) is a software support offering available through the Volume Licensing programs. SA is purchased together with the base license and must be renewed on a periodic basis to remain active. Software Subscription licenses acquired under a Microsoft Server and Cloud Enrollment (SCE) or Microsoft Products and Services Agreement (MPSA) provide the same SA rights and benefits during the term of the Subscription as licenses with SA coverage. Software Assurance Benefits are not available to Microsoft Customer Agreement or Microsoft Cloud Agreement customers.

SQL Server SA benefits include:

• 24x7 Problem Resolution Support.
• New Version Rights. Customers are entitled for a free upgrade to a new version of the software when it becomes available.
• License Mobility Across Server Farms allows reassignment of SQL Server licenses within a server farm more than once every 90 days.
• License Mobility Through Software Assurance permits reassignment of SQL Server licenses to shared servers hosted on Microsoft Azure Services or with qualified License Mobility through Software Assurance Partners. Note: Subscription licenses purchased through Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA) do not include License Mobility through SA.
• Flexible Virtualization Benefit allows assignment of subscription licenses or licenses with Software Assurance to Authorized Outsourcers' servers (shared or dedicated) under the Outsourcing Software Management conditions.
• Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server is an Azure-specific benefit that enables customers to use SQL Server licenses with Software Assurance or subscription licenses to pay a reduced rate (base rate) on
  • Azure SQL Database vCore-based options such as managed instance, vCore-based single database, and vCore-based elastic pool;
  • SQL Server in Azure Virtual Machines (including, but not limited to, Azure Dedicated Host);
  • SQL Server Integration Services.
• Option to license by virtual machine allows to license SQL Server 2022 by virtual machine (by licensing all virtual cores assigned to a VM) and move licenses with the virtual machine to another server in the same server farm at any time.
• Unlimited Virtualization (applicable to SQL Server Enterprise Edition under the core licensing model only) permits customers to run any number of SQL Server Enterprise Edition instances in an unlimited number of VMs on a fully licensed server with active SA coverage.
• Unlimited Containers (applicable to SQL Server Standard and Enterprise Editions under the core licensing model only) allows customers to run any number of containers in a VM licensed under the Option to license by virtual machine.
• Fail-Over Rights. For each primary SQL server covered with active SA, customers are entitled to:
  • One fail-over operating system environment (OSE) for any purpose, including high availability, on any server (subject to Outsourcing Software Management clause);
  • One fail-over OSE for disaster recovery purposes on any server (subject to Outsourcing Software Management clause);
  • One fail-over OSE for disaster recovery purposes on Microsoft Azure servers subject to the Ratio of Qualified Licenses to Azure vCores as defined in the Azure Hybrid Benefit terms for SQL Server.

For the complete list of Software Assurance benefits check the following pages:
Software Assurance
Software Assurance Product Terms
Microsoft Azure Product Terms

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How to license a SQL server under the Per Core license model?

Under the Per Core license model, each server running SQL Server or any of its components must be assigned an appropriate number of core licenses. The number of required licenses can be determined either by the total number of physical CPU cores on the server, or based on the number of virtual cores allocated to individual VMs running SQL Server software.

Note: The option to license SQL Server 2022 by virtual cores allocated to a virtual machine is only available for subscription licenses or licenses with Software Assurance.

With the Per Core model, client access licenses (CALs) are not required and there is no limit to the number of connecting users or devices.

Licensing by physical core

To license SQL Server Enterprise Edition or SQL Server Standard Edition software by physical cores, all physical cores on the server must be licensed with the respective SQL Server Core licenses. A minimum of four core licenses is required for each physical processor on the server.

For example:

• a server with two 8-core CPUs needs 2 x 8 = 16 core licenses or 8 two-core packs;
• a server with one CPU with two cores (if you still can find one like that) requires 4 core licenses (to satisfy the requirement of a minimum of four core licenses per processor).

If all physical cores on a server are licensed with SQL Server Enterprise Edition Core licenses, customers can run SQL Server software in a number of operating system environments (physical and/or virtual) equal to the number of core licenses assigned to the server. In such configuration there are no restrictions on the number of virtual cores (vCPUs) that can be allocated to each OSE/VM. Also, there is no limit to the number of SQL instances running on a licensed server.

Additional SQL Server Enterprise Edition Core licenses can be assigned to a fully licensed server to increase the maximum number of VMs (virtual OSEs) permitted to run SQL Server software. Each additional core license allows deployment of SQL Server software in one additional VM.

Maximum virtualization can be achieved via the Software Assurance Unlimited Virtualization benefit. Customers are permitted to run any number of instances of SQL Server software in an unlimited number of VMs on a server with all physical cores fully licensed with SQL Server Enterprise Edition Core subscription licenses or licenses with Software Assurance.

If all physical cores on a server are licensed with SQL Server Standard Edition Core licenses, customers can run any number of SQL instances only in the physical OSE on the licensed server.

Licensing by individual VM

To license an individual VM with SQL Server Enterprise Edition or SQL Server Standard Edition Core licenses, all virtual cores (v-cores, virtual processors, virtual CPUs) allocated to the VM must be licensed with the corresponding SQL Server Core subscription licenses or licenses with Software Assurance, subject to a minimum of four core licenses per VM.

For example:

• a VM configured with 6 vCPU requires 6 core licenses or 3 two-core packs;
• a VM with 2 vCPU assigned requires 4 core licenses (to satisfy the requirement of a minimum of four core licenses per VM).

Additional core licenses are required if any of the virtual cores in a VM is mapped to more than one hardware thread.

There is no limit to the number of SQL instances running in a licensed VM.

For more information about the SQL Server Per Core license model see the Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Licensing guide.

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How to license a SQL server using the Server + CAL license model?

The Server + CAL license model is applicable to SQL Server Standard Edition only.

Note: The right to use SQL Server in a virtual machine under the Server + CAL license model does not require subscription licenses or licenses with Software Assurance.

In order to license SQL Server Standard Edition software under the Server + CAL license model, customers need to purchase a Server license for each operating system environment (physical server or VM) and a client access license (CAL) for each user (User CAL) and/or device (Device CAL) accessing SQL server or any of its components. A Device CAL is required for every device not operated by humans. For human operated devices, such as PCs, mobile phones, hand-held terminals, User CALs or Device CALs can be used. A single CAL permits access to any number of licensed SQL servers of the same or earlier version.

SQL Server CALs are required for all users or devices that input data into, query, or view data from a SQL Server database either directly or indirectly (through a pooling device, an intermediary system or product, a web-based application, etc.). Such technique of aggregating or pooling connections to a SQL server is defined as "multiplexing". Multiplexing does not reduce the number of CALs required. To learn more about multiplexing and its impact on SQL Server licensing see the Multiplexing Overview doc. In situations where users or devices can not be accurately counted the Per Core license model should be used.

CALs are not required for access by another licensed SQL servers. CALs allow access to server software running on customer's servers only.

If a SQL server/VM is licensed with a subscription license or a license with active Software Assurance, then all CALs used to access the server must also be acquired as subscription licenses or have active Software Assurance.

When licensing VMs under the Server + CAL license model, the number of virtual or physical cores has no affect on the number of Server licenses required. For each Server license, customers may run any number of SQL instances in only one operating system environment (physical or virtual).

More details about the Server + CAL license model can be found in the Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Licensing guide.

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How to license a container running SQL Server software?

All rules and conditions applicable to VMs under the Per Core and Server + CAL license models are applicable to containers with the following considerations:

• a container is considered to be a virtual OSE/VM;
• the physical or virtual cores available to that container are considered to be hardware threads.

The Product Terms document defines a hardware thread as either a physical core or a hyper-thread in a physical processor. When licensing a container under the Per Core license model, customers must assign a Core license for each hardware thread mapped to the container, subject to a minimum of four licenses per container.

Customers may also take advantage of the SA Unlimited Containers benefit by licensing a VM (virtual OSE) by virtual core with Enterprise or Standard Core subscription licenses or licenses with active Software Assurance (Option to license by virtual machine). Such configuration allows to run any number of instances of SQL Server software in any number of containers in a licensed VM. When electing this benefit, a container is not considered to be a VM/virtual OSE.

Additional information about licensing SQL Server in containers, including examples of different licensing scenarios can be found in the Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Licensing guide.

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How to license different SQL Server software components?

Any VM or operating system environment (OSE) running any of the licensed SQL Server components must be fully licensed. A single SQL licenses cannot be separated to license individual SQL Server components installed on different VMs/OSEs.

The list of licensed components includes:

• SQL Server Database Engine (DB),
• Master Data Services (MDS),
• Analysis Services (AS),
• Integration Services (IS),
• Reporting Services (RS),
• Data Quality Services (DQS),
• Machine Learning Services.

Management tools and other software identified as Additional Software in the Product Terms can be generally distributed and run on any number of devices for use with a licensed instance of SQL Server software.

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What is License Mobility?

Before exploring license mobility benefits, let's first review a few important definitions from the Product Terms:

• Listed Providers include entities identified by Microsoft at https://aka.ms/ListedProviders. At the time of writing the list includes Alibaba, Amazon, Google, Microsoft. This designation affects all services offered by Listed Providers (for example, VMware Cloud on AWS).
• Authorized Outsourcer means any third party service provider that is not a Listed Provider and is not using Listed Provider as a Data Center Provider as part of the outsourcing service.
• License Mobility through Software Assurance Partner (also referred as Authorized Mobility Partner) means an entity authorized by Microsoft to host customers' software on shared servers (Authorized Mobility Partners list).
• Server Farm means a single data center or two data centers, each physically located either in time zones not more than four hours apart, or within the EU or EFTA. A data center can be moved from one Server Farm to another, but not on a short-term basis. (EU is European Union; EFTA is European Free Trade Association).

Without Software Assurance (SA) coverage the following outsourcing software management and license assignment/reassignment rules apply:

• Unless explicitly permitted by the Product Terms, customer is not allowed to use or access software on devices that are under the management or control of a third party.
• Customer may use licensed copies of the software on devices that are under the day-to-day management and control of Authorized Outsourcers, provided all such devices are fully dedicated to customer's use.
• Customer may reassign a license to another server, but not less than 90 days since the last reassignment of that same license, unless the reassignment is due to permanent hardware failure or loss.

With Software Assurance customers can take advantage of the following mobility-related benefits:

• License Mobility Across Server Farms,
• License Mobility through Software Assurance,
• Flexible Virtualization,
• Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server.

License Mobility Across Server Farms

With License Mobility Across Server Farms customers can reassign SQL Server licenses to different servers within a Server Farm as often as needed. Customers may also reassign these licenses from one Server Farm to another, but not on a short-term basis (i.e., not within 90 days of the last assignment).

License Mobility through Software Assurance

With License Mobility through Software Assurance customers can reassign SQL Server licenses to shared servers only with Microsoft Azure Services or qualified License Mobility through Software Assurance Partner. The License Mobility Verification Form must be completed and submitted with each License Mobility through Software Assurance Partner providing shared servers.

License Mobility through Software Assurance rights also apply to Listed Providers' dedicated servers/hosts, with the same terms and conditions.

Customers may move SQL Server licenses from shared servers back to on-premise servers or to another party's shared servers, but not on a short term basis (not within 90 days of the last assignment). Customers are also permitted to move licensed VMs/OSEs from shared servers in one Server Farm to shared servers in another Server Farm, but not on a short-term basis (not within 90 days of the last assignment).

For each SQL Server Core license with active SA coverage, customers can use one virtual core in a VM/OSE deployed on a shared server infrastructure, subject to a minimum of 4 core licenses per VM/OSE.

For each Server license (under Server + CAL license model) with active SA coverage, customers can deploy one VM (OSE) on a shared server infrastructure. In this scenario SQL Server CALs must have active SA coverage as well.

For more information see the License Mobility through Microsoft Software Assurance Guide.

Flexible Virtualization

With Flexible Virtualization customers with subscription licenses or licenses with active SA may use licensed copies of the software on dedicated and/or shared servers that are under the day-to-day management and control of Authorized Outsourcers.

The Flexible Virtualization Benefit is different from License Mobility through Software Assurance in that it does not require customers to use only Authorized Mobility Partners and permits deployment to shared servers from any Authorized Outsourcer. Furthermore, customers are not required to fill out the License Mobility Verification Form.

For more details see the Flexible Virtualization Benefit Licensing Guide.

Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server

With the Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server customers may move SQL Server subscription Core licenses or Core licenses with active SA to Azure and consume the following Azure SQL Services at a discount (comparing to standard pay-as-you-go rates):

• vCPU-based service tiers of Azure SQL Database (excluding serverless),
• Azure SQL Managed Instance,
• SQL Server in Azure Virtual Machines,
• SQL Server Integration Services.

The number of vCores that can be used on Azure for each SQL Server Core license (Ratio of Qualified Licenses to Azure vCores) depends on the tier of Azure SQL services and SQL Server edition. For example:

• 1 core of SQL Server Standard Edition gives
  • 1 vCPU of SQL Server Standard edition on Azure VMs, or
  • 1 vCPU of Azure SQL Managed Instance - General Purpose, or
  • 1 vCPU of Azure SQL Database - General Purpose / Hyperscale.
• 4 cores of SQL Server Standard Edition give
  • 1 vCPU of SQL Server Enterprise edition on Azure VMs, or
  • 1 vCPU of Azure SQL Managed Instance - Business Critical, or
  • 1 vCPU of Azure SQL Database - Business Critical.
• 1 core of SQL Server Enterprise Edition gives
  • 1 vCPU of SQL Server Enterprise edition on Azure VMs, or
  • 4 vCPUs of SQL Server Standard edition on Azure VMs, or
  • 1 vCPU of Azure SQL Managed Instance - Business Critical, or
  • 4 vCPUs of Azure SQL Managed Instance - General Purpose, or
  • 1 vCPU of Azure SQL Database - Business Critical, or
  • 4 vCPUs of Azure SQL Database - General Purpose / Hyperscale.

For the complete license conversion table see the Microsoft Azure Product Terms.

Azure Hybrid Benefit also applies to Azure Dedicated Host.

Additionally, it provides 180 days of dual-use rights (on-premises or third-party cloud, and in Azure) to allow for data migration.

When using SQL Server on Azure under Azure Hybrid Benefit rights, customers should indicate such use through the Azure portal or with the Azure command line APIs.

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How much do SQL Server licenses cost?

As per the SQL Server 2022 pricing page the approximate costs for different license types are as follows (in US$):

• Enterprise Edition (2-core pack) - $15,123
• Standard Edition (2-core pack) - $3,945
• Standard Edition (server) - $989
• Standard Edition (CAL) - $230

Core licenses are sold in packs of two. That is, one SKU, called 2 core pack, contains two core licenses.

The yearly Software Assurance cost can be estimated at 25% of the base license cost.

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See also:
MS SQL Server Standard Edition Licensing Calculator
MS SQL Server Enterprise Edition Licensing Calculator
MS Windows Server Licensing Calculator
MS Windows Server Licensing FAQ