Does Azure elastic DB charge per developer?

Question

So I've been getting my feet wet in Azure SQL databases, and one of the question that I can't quite figure out is whether Azure charges per SQL developer on top of the database costs. If there's a team of 5 DB administrators, are they all allowed to build tables/extract data as long as the SQL database pool is being paid for?

It's just confusing because the price is a lot lower than what I'd expect, and I want to make sure I'm not missing any gotcha's that could multiply the cost. How is it possible it's only $606/month for 400 databases with 1TB of total storage?? Am I missing something super obvious??

Seems like we can just add DBA groups to a DB resource group

Pricing calculator for an elastic SQL database pool for 1TB for $606

Also... some additional assumptions and questions (sorry):

-Azure DB bills ONLY on the transactions and storage used in the database

-Elastic pool DB allows for hundreds of DBs to be created for near-zero cost, so does that include backup DBs (Proof of concept/Test/Support DBs)?

Answer 1

How is it possible it's only $606/month for 400 databases with 1TB of total storage??

Under the vCore pricing model that will buy you only a few cores, and a limited amount of RAM. See Resource limits for elastic pools using the vCore-based purchasing model limits for the details. So your 400 databases are sharing a small pool of resources. You may need to scale up the pool based on your workload.

In the General Purpose tier your database files are stored on Azure premium storage, and 1TB of Premium SSD storage costs only $135/month.

Azure DB bills ONLY on the transactions and storage used in the database

Under DTU and VCore models there is no charge for transactions. You've paid for the capacity and may do what you want. Backup storage is extra. See the pricing calculator for details. There are no "charges per SQL developer on top of the database costs".

Answer 2

The price of an elastic pool is based on the number of eDTUs of the pool, if you choose the DTU pricing model. The price of an elastic pool is independent of the number and utilization of the elastic databases within it, the number of transactions, the storage consumed and is also independent of the developers or users using those databases.

If you choose the vCore pricing model, pricing is based on the number of virtual cores, the compute generation you choose (Gen4/Gen5), licensing cost and the storage used by the databases and backups. You can save money if you apply for the Azure Hybrid Benefit or apply to reserve licensing. Again pricing is independent of the number of databases, number of transactions or users using it.