SQL Server 2025 Licensing: Per Core, Server + CAL and VMs

SQL Server 2025 is licensed two ways. Per Core, for Enterprise or Standard: license every physical core, at least four per processor, or, with Software Assurance or a subscription, the virtual cores of each VM, at least four per VM. Server + CAL, for Standard only: one server license per instance plus a CAL for every user or device. At Microsoft’s list prices Enterprise is $15,123 and Standard $3,945 per 2-core pack, and Standard is also $989 per server plus $230 per CAL.

Whether Software Assurance (SA), a subscription or pay-as-you-go sits on a license decides most of the rest: licensing a single VM by core, unlimited virtualization on Enterprise, free passive fail-over replicas, Azure Hybrid Benefit and the right to move to the next version. This guide covers the 2025 rules and how to license real deployments. What changed from 2022, with every price side by side, is in the SQL Server 2022 vs 2025 comparison; the 2022 rules are in the SQL Server 2022 licensing guide, and every release with its support dates in SQL Server versions and support dates.

SQL Server 2025 became available on 18 November 2025 and follows Microsoft’s Fixed Lifecycle Policy, with mainstream support to January 2031 and extended support to January 2036 (Microsoft Lifecycle). The Product Terms for SQL Server list it as the current version (available 11/25), with SQL Server 2022 as the prior version (11/22).

SQL Server 2025 licensing at a glance

Sources for the table: Microsoft’s SQL Server 2025 licensing guidance, the Product Terms and the SQL Server 2025 editions page. Microsoft publishes the 2025 licensing guide as that web page; the downloadable PDF guide and licensing datasheet on its SQL Server licensing documents page are still the 2022 editions.

SQL Server 2025 list prices

Microsoft’s SQL Server 2025 pricing sheet lists these open no-level estimated retail prices in US dollars:

Per core that is $7,561.50 for Enterprise and $1,972.50 for Standard, so an Enterprise core costs about 3.8 times a Standard core. The “Standard edition perpetual 1 server license” on a quote is the $989 server license of the Server + CAL model; it needs a CAL for every user or device on top. The sheet also notes that paid 2025 editions reached Enterprise Agreement, Enterprise Agreement Subscription and MPSA customers on 18 November 2025 and other channels in January 2026, and that Standard can be bought online from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft does not publish a price for Software Assurance, and its guidance says SA can only be added to perpetual licenses at the time of purchase. These are list prices: your agreement, CSP partner or reseller sets what you pay. The 2022 prices, which are the same, are side by side in the 2022 vs 2025 comparison.

Two models, still

Per Core. You assign core licenses to the physical server or, with SA or a subscription, to each virtual OSE. No CALs: users and devices are unlimited. This is the model for internet-facing and extranet workloads, and for any server whose users you cannot count.

Server + CAL. The 2025 licensing guidance says you may run one instance of SQL Server in a single physical or virtual OSE for each server license, and you may stack server licenses on a device to run more instances. Every user or device that accesses SQL Server or any of its components needs a CAL, including indirect access and devices nobody attends, and multiplexing or pooling “does not reduce the number of CALs required.” One CAL lets that user or device reach any number of licensed SQL Servers. Server + CAL is not available with pay-as-you-go billing.

CALs follow the server version. The Product Terms say a CAL allows access to the corresponding version of the server software or earlier versions, so users of a SQL Server 2025 server need SQL Server 2025 CALs. A 2022 CAL without SA does not cover it.

Enterprise Server/CAL is a remnant. The Product Terms let existing customers renew SA on those server licenses, but new ones are no longer sold, and Microsoft’s editions page caps an Enterprise instance under Server + CAL at 20 cores.

Per Core on a physical server

When you license the physical server you license all of its physical cores, with a minimum of four core licenses per physical processor. Not four per server, and not sixteen per server. Microsoft’s core-based licensing models page puts the 8-per-processor and 16-per-server minimums on Windows Server, not on SQL Server, and adds that hyper-threading does not change the number of core licenses a physical server needs.

• One socket, two cores: four core licenses (two 2-packs).
• One socket, eight cores: eight core licenses (four 2-packs).
• Two sockets, eight cores each: 16 core licenses (eight 2-packs). The 16 is two times eight, not a SQL Server minimum.
• The same two-socket server running Windows Server still has the Windows minimum of 16 core licenses per server. That rule is in the Windows Server 2025 licensing guide; keep it off the SQL line.

Without SA or a subscription, the two editions reach differently on a licensed server:

• Enterprise: any number of instances across physical or virtual OSEs, up to the number of core licenses assigned. Sixteen Enterprise core licenses on the host: up to 16 OSEs.
• Standard: any number of instances, only in the physical OSE. To run Standard per core in a VM you license the VM, and that needs SA or a subscription.

Standard’s 32 cores is a product limit, not a purchase minimum. The 2025 editions page caps a Standard instance at the lesser of 4 sockets or 32 cores and a 256 GB buffer pool (24 cores and 128 GB on 2022 and earlier), and the licensing guidance adds that for Standard “32 cores” means 32 hardware threads. A server with more cores than that can still run Standard, but you license every physical core and the instance uses at most 32 of them.

The VM rule did not reverse

Since SQL Server 2022, licensing an individual virtual OSE by core is available only for subscription licenses or licenses with active Software Assurance. The Product Terms and the 2025 guidance both keep it, and pay-as-you-go through Azure Arc carries the same option. How to count a VM:

1. Count the virtual cores allocated to the virtual OSE.
2. If a virtual core maps to more than one hardware thread, license each hardware thread it maps to.
3. Apply the minimum of four core licenses per virtual OSE.
4. Buy in 2-packs.

With SA or a subscription you may also move a licensed virtual OSE to another server in the same server farm as often as you need. That right covers Server + CAL licenses too when they run in a VM.

Server + CAL is the one way to run Standard in a VM on licenses without SA. The Product Terms let you “use one Running Instance of server software in either a Physical OSE or Virtual OSE on a Licensed Server for each License it acquires,” with no SA condition on that sentence. The SA condition sits on the next one: with SA or a subscription on the server license and on every CAL, you may reassign the license to any server in the same server farm as often as needed. Without it, a license can be reassigned no sooner than 90 days after the last reassignment, except for permanent hardware failure.

“Standard includes two VMs per licensed host” is a Windows Server rule. It does not apply to SQL Server. VMware clusters, DRS and host affinity are covered in SQL Server on VMware: licensing the host, the VM or the cluster.

Unlimited virtualization is not the default

License every physical core on the host with Enterprise core licenses and keep SA, a subscription or pay-as-you-go on them. Then you may run any number of SQL Server instances in an unlimited number of VMs on that host. The grant applies under the per core model only, and it is not in the base Enterprise license: the editions page footnotes it to Software Assurance.

Without SA, the same fully licensed Enterprise host is capped at one OSE per core license assigned. More VMs than that means more core licenses on that host. Unlimited virtualization also does not travel: the guidance says it does not apply under License Mobility, and Microsoft’s Azure Arc licensing documentation says it is not available on infrastructure from the listed providers, where VMs can only be licensed by virtual cores.

Through Azure Arc, unlimited virtualization is a separate physical core license resource that covers at least 16 physical cores and can be paid by the hour or backed by Enterprise licenses with SA or a subscription.

Containers are OSEs

The Product Terms treat a container as a virtual OSE, and the physical or virtual cores available to it as hardware threads. A single container is licensed like a VM: core licenses for its cores, minimum four, and SA or a subscription to license it on its own. Docker, containerd or Kubernetes make no difference.

The unlimited containers benefit changes the count. With SA or a subscription, when you license a virtual OSE by core with Standard or Enterprise, you may run any number of containers inside that licensed OSE, and they are not counted as OSEs of their own. It is not a right to run unlimited containers on an unlicensed host, and it does not apply under License Mobility.

Failover is three replicas, and they must be passive

For each licensed physical or virtual OSE with SA or a subscription, the 2025 licensing guidance and the “Fail-over Rights” section of the Product Terms let you run, without licensing them:

1. One passive fail-over replica for high availability in a separate OSE.
2. One passive fail-over replica for disaster recovery in a separate OSE.
3. One passive fail-over replica for disaster recovery in a single VM or instance on Azure.

A passive replica is one that is not serving SQL Server data to clients or running active SQL Server workloads. The two disaster recovery replicas must be asynchronous and manual. The licenses the replica would otherwise need may not exceed those covering the primary, so a replica on a bigger server is not fully free. You may run the primary and its disaster recovery replicas together for brief disaster recovery tests every 90 days, and run consistency checks, log and full backups and resource monitoring on any replica. The replicas can be availability group secondaries or failover cluster instance nodes. Pay-as-you-go through Azure Arc carries the same rights, and its documentation is precise about what counts: a readable secondary with active user connections is not passive, and an active failover cluster instance is not.

The Product Terms add that these rights need SA on both the server licenses and any CALs, and do not apply when SQL Server is deployed under License Mobility through SA. The guidance is plain about the rest: licenses without SA or non-subscription licenses do not include disaster recovery or high availability rights, including fail-over clusters. On those, every replica is licensed like any other OSE.

Edition still limits the topology. The editions page gives Standard basic availability groups (two replicas, one database each) and two-node failover cluster instances; full Always On availability groups, with up to eight secondaries, are Enterprise.

Power BI Report Server is in the 2025 license

The Product Terms split the right by version:

• SQL Server 2025: you may run Power BI Report Server on the licensed server under Standard or Enterprise core licenses, with or without SA, on as many cores as the SQL Server core licenses assigned, minimum four per OSE.
• Versions before 2025: the right applies only to Enterprise core licenses with active SA, and it ends when SA ends.

The Reporting Services consolidation FAQ confirms there is no SSRS 2025, that existing RDL reports run on Power BI Report Server, that the SQL Server 2025 key installs it, and that SSRS 2022 is supported until 11 January 2033. A 2022 Standard server without SA does not pick up the 2025 right; it needs 2025 licenses. Publishing shared Power BI reports through Power BI Report Server still needs a Power BI Pro User SL.

What SA (or a subscription) actually adds on 2025

Sources: the benefit list in the 2025 licensing guidance and the benefits table in the Azure Arc licensing documentation; a dash means the source does not list the right for that payment option. The Flexible Virtualization Benefit lets you run SQL Server on an Authorized Outsourcer’s shared or dedicated servers, still licensed by VM. License Mobility covers an Authorized License Mobility Partner’s shared servers, without unlimited virtualization or unlimited containers.

Pay-as-you-go through Azure Arc

Pay-as-you-go is the third way to pay, beside perpetual licenses and subscriptions. You connect the server to Azure Arc, set the license type to pay-as-you-go, and Azure bills SQL Server by the hour: $0.375 per Enterprise core and $0.100 per Standard core, or $274 and $73 a month. What Microsoft’s Azure Arc licensing and billing documentation says:

• Usage is metered per OSE on the virtual cores of a VM, or the physical cores of a server without VMs, with a minimum of four cores per OSE; the highest edition installed in the OSE sets the meter.
• Hourly charges apply only when SQL Server runs on the machine during any part of the hour and the machine is online.
• It carries the rights of SA or a subscription listed above, including licensing by VM, fail-over replicas and, for Enterprise, unlimited virtualization on a licensed host.
• It supports core-based licensing only. A Server + CAL instance connected to Arc is set to “license only”, even with SA.
• If the machine stays disconnected from Azure for more than 30 days, the pay-as-you-go subscription expires and you are no longer authorized to use the software.
• Developer, Evaluation and Express are reported on free meters.

Azure Hybrid Benefit

Azure Hybrid Benefit lets core licenses with SA or a subscription pay for SQL Server in Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance or SQL Server on Azure VMs. It is not one-for-one across editions. The appendix of the 2025 guidance gives:

The guidance points to the eligibility table in the Product Terms for the binding numbers. Moving workloads, dual use and the ratios per service are covered in Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server: the rules that decide the saving.

Editions and their limits

Source: Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2025. The vector data type, native JSON, regular expressions and REST endpoint calls are listed for all three editions; they do not change how you count cores. Feature by feature, the paid editions are compared in SQL Server Standard vs Enterprise.

SQL Server 2025 edition changes to know

• Web edition is not available for 2025. The guidance says SQL Server 2022 Web may remain available to hosters under SPLA. A 2025 “Web” line on a quote does not exist.
• Developer is two editions. Enterprise Developer has every Enterprise feature, Standard Developer every Standard feature. Both are free and licensed “solely for development, testing, and demonstration purposes”; the guidance adds that test data must be removed before deploying to production. Stage a Standard estate on Standard Developer, not on Enterprise features you will not have.
• Evaluation runs Enterprise features for up to 180 days, then has to become Standard or Enterprise for production.
• Express is free, now includes everything that was in Express with Advanced Services, and is capped at 50 GB per database, 1 socket or 4 cores, and 1,410 MB of buffer pool.
• Discontinued in 2025: Data Quality Services, Master Data Services, Azure Synapse Link and Purview access policies, per What’s new in SQL Server 2025. They stay supported on 2022 and earlier. If they are why a server runs SQL Server, the upgrade is a product decision before it is a core count.

Components stay together

The guidance is short: the software components of a single SQL Server license cannot be separated, and any OSE running any licensed component of SQL Server needs a license. If the Database Engine runs in one OSE and Analysis Services, Integration Services or Power BI Report Server in another, both OSEs are fully licensed. Microsoft’s Azure Arc documentation says the same from the other side: an associated service needs its own license only when it is installed without the Database Engine on that machine. Management tools are not part of the count: SQL Server Management Studio is free for personal or enterprise use, according to Microsoft’s SSMS FAQ.

Worked examples at list price

All figures use the US list prices above and leave out Windows Server, Software Assurance and any discount. Each virtual core is assumed to map to one hardware thread.

1. A two-socket physical server

Two processors with eight cores each, SQL Server installed on the host, no VMs. License all 16 physical cores: eight 2-packs. Standard: 8 × $3,945 = $31,560. Enterprise: 8 × $15,123 = $120,984. Hyper-threading does not add licenses on a physical server. A small one-socket, two-core server still takes the four-core minimum: $7,890 Standard or $30,246 Enterprise.

2. Server + CAL for a known user base

An internal application on an eight-core server, used by 40 named people. Server + CAL: $989 + 40 × $230 = $10,189, against $15,780 per core (four packs). Server + CAL stays cheaper up to 64 CALs on that server ($15,709) and costs more from 65 ($15,939). A second Standard server for the same 40 people adds only $989, because one CAL reaches any number of licensed SQL Servers: $11,178 for both, against $31,560 per core. Count every user and device, including those behind a web tier, a pooled connection or an integration account.

3. One small VM

A VM with two virtual cores runs SQL Server Standard. The four-core minimum applies: two 2-packs. With SA: $7,890 plus the SA. As a subscription: 2 × $1,418 = $2,836 a year. Pay-as-you-go: 4 × $73 = $292 a month if it runs all month. On perpetual Standard core licenses without SA there is no per core route into a VM at all; Server + CAL ($989 plus CALs) is the option that remains, or Enterprise core licenses assigned to the host.

4. Licensing the host or the VMs

A host with two 12-core processors runs SQL Server in several VMs. Enterprise subscriptions on all 24 physical cores, twelve packs, cost 12 × $5,434 = $65,208 a year and cover unlimited VMs with Enterprise features. Standard subscriptions per VM cost $709 per virtual core a year. At 91 virtual cores (about $64,519) Standard per VM is still cheaper; from 92 virtual cores, 23 four-core VMs, Enterprise on the host costs less at list. Without SA or a subscription, the same 24 Enterprise core licenses would allow at most 24 OSEs.

5. A primary with three replicas

An eight-core Enterprise primary with a high availability secondary in the same data center, a disaster recovery secondary in a second site and a disaster recovery replica in an Azure VM. With SA or a subscription on the primary’s licenses, and all three replicas passive, you license the primary only: four packs, $60,492 perpetual plus SA or $21,736 a year as a subscription. If the HA secondary is made readable and serves reports, it is no longer passive and needs its own licenses. Without SA, every replica is licensed like any other OSE.

6. Containers on a Kubernetes node

A worker VM with eight virtual cores runs six SQL Server Standard containers of two cores each. Licensed one by one, each container is an OSE with the four-core minimum: 24 core licenses, twelve packs. Licensed as one virtual OSE with SA or a subscription and the unlimited containers benefit: eight core licenses, four packs, $5,672 a year on subscription, for any number of containers on that VM.

What to have this week

Before the next true-up, Enterprise Agreement amendment or CSP quote, put together a SQL Server position, not an install list:

1. Every instance, edition, version and OSE type. Physical, VM or container; 2025 against leftover 2022; Developer, Express and leftover Web kept apart from production.
2. Cores the way Microsoft counts them. Physical cores with the four-per-processor minimum, or virtual cores per VM with the four-core minimum and the thread mapping. Not the Windows 16-core minimum. Host and cluster topology from Infrastructure Mapper tells you which VMs share a host.
3. Whether SA, a subscription or pay-as-you-go covers each license. That one fact decides VM licensing, unlimited virtualization, fail-over replicas, Azure Hybrid Benefit and the right to run 2025.
4. CAL counts for any Standard Server + CAL licenses, users and devices, multiplexing included, and on the 2025 CAL version.
5. Which replicas are really passive. A readable secondary that answers queries is licensed.
6. What you own against what you run, by edition and version.

LICENSEWARE’s Microsoft Deployment Manager builds that requirement from SQL Server and Windows Server deployment data, counting cores the way Microsoft does.

Questions

How much does SQL Server 2025 cost?

At Microsoft’s list prices, Enterprise is $15,123 and Standard $3,945 per 2-core pack, with at least four cores per processor. Standard is also sold as $989 per server plus $230 per CAL. Subscriptions are $5,434 and $1,418 per 2-core pack a year, and pay-as-you-go through Azure Arc is $274 or $73 per core a month. Developer and Express are free.

How much is a SQL Server 2025 Standard license?

$3,945 per 2-core pack, so $7,890 for the four-core minimum on one processor and $15,780 for an eight-core server. Under Server + CAL it is $989 for the server and $230 for each user or device; on an eight-core server that is the cheaper model up to 64 CALs.

Do I need SQL Server 2025 CALs for 2025 servers?

Yes, under Server + CAL. The Product Terms let a CAL access its own version of the server software or earlier ones, so a 2022 CAL without SA does not cover a 2025 server. Per Core licenses need no CALs at all.

Does SQL Server need 16 cores per server?

No. SQL Server needs at least four core licenses per physical processor, and four per VM. The 16-core minimum per server is a Windows Server rule.

Can I run SQL Server Standard in a VM without Software Assurance?

Not under Per Core: licensing a VM by core needs SA, a subscription or pay-as-you-go. Under Server + CAL, yes: the Product Terms let one server license cover one running instance in a physical or virtual OSE, without an SA condition. SA or a subscription on the server license and CALs adds moving it within a server farm as often as needed.

Is SQL Server 2025 free?

Three editions are. Enterprise Developer and Standard Developer are free for development, testing and demonstration only. Express is free and capped at 50 GB per database, 4 cores and 1,410 MB of buffer pool. Evaluation runs for 180 days. Production use of Standard or Enterprise needs licenses.

Is there a SQL Server 2025 licensing guide PDF?

Microsoft publishes the 2025 licensing guide as a web page, SQL Server 2025 licensing guidance. The PDF licensing guide and licensing datasheet still offered on its licensing documents page are the SQL Server 2022 editions. Prices are in the one-page SQL Server 2025 pricing PDF.

Can I run SQL Server 2022 on 2025 licenses?

Yes, under volume licensing. The Product Terms let you run a prior version or a lower edition in place of the licensed one, and the 2025 license’s use rights still apply.

What is the SQL Server 2025 compatibility level?

170. Microsoft’s compatibility level reference lists 170 as the default for SQL Server 2025, with 100 to 170 supported. It has no effect on licensing.

Sources

• SQL Server 2025 licensing guidance (models, minimums, VM licensing, 32-core Standard, fail-over, SA benefits, Azure Hybrid Benefit appendix, Developer, Evaluation, components, Web): microsoft.com/licensing/guidance/SQL
• Product Terms, SQL Server, EA/EAS (versions, Server/CAL, Per Core, virtual OSE, containers, unlimited virtualization, fail-over rights, Power BI Report Server, Enterprise Server/CAL, CAL versions): Product Terms for SQL Server
• Product Terms, universal license terms (prior versions and lower editions, 90-day reassignment): Product Terms for all software
• SQL Server 2025 pricing (list prices, subscriptions, pay-as-you-go, availability): Microsoft, SQL Server 2025 pricing (PDF)
• SQL Server licensing documents (2025 guidance as a web page, 2022 PDF guide and datasheet): Microsoft Licensing documents, SQL Server
• Core-based licensing models (SQL Server four per processor, hyper-threading; Windows Server 8 and 16): Core-based licensing models
• Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2025 (scale limits, availability groups, Developer editions, unlimited virtualization footnote, Enterprise Server + CAL 20-core cap): Microsoft Learn
• What’s new in SQL Server 2025 (edition changes, discontinued services): Microsoft Learn
• SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc, licensing and billing (pay-as-you-go metering, benefits, unlimited virtualization license, passive replicas, associated services): Microsoft Learn
• Reporting Services consolidation FAQ (no SSRS 2025, Power BI Report Server rights and key, SSRS 2022 support): Microsoft Learn
• Lifecycle (release and support dates): SQL Server 2025
• ALTER DATABASE compatibility level (170 for SQL Server 2025): Microsoft Learn
• SQL Server Management Studio FAQ (cost): Microsoft Learn