Azure SQL Database remains inaccessible after switching Free Limit Exhaustion Behavior to BillOverUsage.

Hello Mickael !

Thank you for posting on MS Learn Q&A.

If you check the doc link below you will find that the free Azure SQL Database offer has monthly limits of 100k vCore seconds, 32 GB data storage,and 32 GB backup storage.

If you select auto-pause until next month the database becomes inaccessible until the next calendar month and if you select continue using database for additional charges / BillOverUsage the database should stay online and bill overage usage. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/database/free-offer?view=azuresql

Try to verify the actual resource state from CLI, not only the portal:

az sql db show \
  -g <resource-group> \
  -s <server-name> \
  -n <database-name> \
  --query "{status:status,useFreeLimit:useFreeLimit,freeLimitExhaustionBehavior:freeLimitExhaustionBehavior,sku:sku}"

then force the setting again from cloud shell:

az sql db update \
  -g <resource-group> \
  -s <server-name> \
  -n <database-name> \
  --free-limit-exhaustion-behavior BillOverUsage

also check that the subscription can actually accept overage charges because if it has a spending limit, Azure can disable resources for the rest of the billing period once the spending limit is reached and in that case you need to remove the spending limit or upgrading the billing restriction may be required.

The free offer behavior is controlled by the “Behavior when free limit reached” / FreeLimitExhaustionBehavior setting. It has only two valid modes:

• AutoPause: the database is auto‑paused for the rest of the month once the free limits are exhausted.
• BillOverUsage (BillForUsage): the database stays online and any overage is billed.

If the database still shows the “paused for the remainder of the month” message after switching to BillOverUsage, the effective behavior is still that of AutoPause. To unblock access, ensure that the free‑limit behavior is actually changed on the database resource and that the database is brought online:

1. Verify the current behavior in the Azure portal on the database’s Compute + Storage (or equivalent) blade and confirm that the option is set to Continue using database for additional charges rather than Auto-pause the database until next month.
2. If managing via PowerShell, use Set-AzSqlDatabase with the -FreeLimitExhaustionBehavior parameter set to BillOverUsage to enforce the change on that specific database.
3. After the setting is applied, resume the database (if a manual resume option is available) or attempt a new connection so that the serverless database auto‑resumes.

Note that when Continue using database for additional charges is enabled for a free offer database, the documentation states that this choice is one‑way and cannot be reverted back to Auto-pause the database until next month. Once the database is in this mode, it should remain online and bill for usage beyond the free limits.

If, after confirming the setting and applying it via portal or PowerShell, the database still reports that it is paused for the remainder of the month and remains inaccessible, this indicates a platform issue rather than a configuration problem. In that case, use Azure Resource Health for the database to confirm its state and open a support request with Microsoft Support so the backend state can be corrected.

References:

• Deploy Azure SQL Database for free
• Azure SQL Database free offer FAQ
• Serverless compute tier for Azure SQL Database
• FreeLimitExhaustionBehavior Enum
• Set-AzSqlDatabase
• Use Resource Health to troubleshoot connectivity for Azure SQL Database