If you run Azure Monitor Workspace at scale, you've probably had to request a higher ingestion limit at some point. A new service rolls out, a cluster scales out, or cardinality creeps up, and suddenly usage is close to your limit. Until now, the fix was a manual request, and you were at risk of throttling until the new limit was applied.
Today we're announcing the public preview of Auto-scale for ingestion limits in Azure Monitor workspace (AMW). When you turn on Auto-scale, Azure Monitor adjusts your workspace's ingestion limits automatically based on your actual usage. Limits go up as your metrics volume grows and come back down when usage stays low for a sustained period of time.
Why Auto-scale?
Static ingestion limits create problems in both directions:
- Throttling risk: When usage grows faster than your limit, metrics can be dropped. You lose visibility right when your environment is changing.
- Manual work: Raising a limit means opening a support request and waiting for it to be applied.
- Over-provisioning: To avoid repeat requests, teams often ask for far more headroom than they need.
Auto-scale removes this balancing act. Your limits track your real usage, so you can spend less time managing quotas and more time using your observability data.
Key capabilities
- Turn on Auto-scale for your workspace
During public preview, Auto-scale is an opt-in setting for each workspace. When it's on, the system keeps your ingestion limit at a healthy level compared with your usage:
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- Scale up: When ingestion approaches the upper utilization threshold, your limit is raised to help prevent throttling.
- Scale down: When utilization stays low for a sustained period, unused capacity is reclaimed. Ingestion isn't affected.
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You can turn on Auto-scale in the with an ARM API update or in the Azure portal.
Azure CLI:
$resourceId = "/subscriptions/<subscriptionId>/resourceGroups/<resourceGroupName>/providers/Microsoft.Monitor/accounts/<azureMonitorWorkspaceName>/metricsContainers/default"
az resource update --ids $resourceId --api-version 2026-09-03-preview --set properties.limits.enableAutoScale=true --force-string
To turn Auto-scale off, set enableAutoScale=false. Your limits then stay fixed and you manage them manually, the same as today.
[Coming soon] Azure portal:
In the Azure portal, navigate to the Azure Monitor Workspace -> Limits and Usage to enable Auto-scale.
Note: Azure portal support for this feature is being deployed in phases and is expected to be available in all regions in the coming weeks.
- See every scale change in the Activity Log
When Auto-scale is enabled, any change in the ingestion limits is recorded in the workspace's Activity Log. You get a clear history of when your limits changed and in which direction.
- Set up alerts on limits, usage and scale events
You can create Azure Monitor alerts on:
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- Ingestion usage compared with your current limits, such as events per minute ingested and active time series. See set up recommended alerts for Azure Monitor Workspace to learn more.
- Dropped events or time series. See Monitor ingestion health to learn more.
- Any scale event triggered by Auto-scale. See Create an activity log alert rule to learn more.
Once you set up these alerts, you will be notified whenever limits change, or when usage trends need a closer look.
What about billing?
Auto-scale doesn't change what you pay. It only adjusts your ingestion limit (the quota ceiling). Billing is still based on what you actually ingest.
When should you use Auto-scale?
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Turn on Auto-scale if |
Keep Auto-scale off if |
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Your metrics volume grows over time or varies with deployments |
You need a hard, fixed ingestion cap to control volume |
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You want to avoid throttling without filing limit requests |
You prefer to manage limits manually through existing processes |
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You want limits that match your real usage instead of padded headroom |
If you don't turn on Auto-scale, nothing changes. Your workspace behaves exactly as it does today.
Get started
- Open your Azure Monitor workspace in the Azure portal or use the ARM command above.
- Turn on Auto-scale for ingestion limits.
- Check the Activity Log for scale events and set up alerts on usage and scale changes.
- Set up recommended alerts for your Azure Monitor Workspace to monitor your ingestion limits and utilization.
We want your feedback
This is a public preview, and your input will shape general availability. Tell us how Auto-scale works for your workloads at AMW Auto-scale feedback form.
Microsoft