Generally Available: Azure SQL Managed Instance Next-gen General Purpose

UrosMilanovic

Microsoft

Nov 18, 2025

Improved performance and TCO with 500 databases per instance, 32TB of storage, and IOPS and memory slider.

Overview

Next-gen General Purpose is the evolution of General Purpose service tier that brings significantly improved performance and scalability to power up your existing Azure SQL Managed Instance fleet and helps you bring more mission-critical SQL workloads to Azure. We are happy to announce that Next-gen General Purpose is now Generally Available (GA) delivering even more scalability, flexibility, and value for organizations looking to modernize their data platform in a cost-effective way.

The new #SQLMINextGen General Purpose tier delivers a built-in performance upgrade available to all customers at no extra cost. If you are an existing SQL MI General Purpose user, you get faster I/O, higher database density, and expanded storage - automatically.

Summary Table: Key Improvements

Capability	Current GP	Next-gen GP	Improvement
Average I/O Latency	5-10 ms	3-4 ms	2x lower
Max Data IOPS	30-50k	80k	60% better
Max Storage	16 TB	32 TB	2x better
Max Databases/Instance	100	500	5x better
Max vCores	80	128	40% better

But that’s just the beginning.

The new configuration sliders for additional IOPS and memory provide enhanced flexibility to tailor performance according to your requirements. Whether you require more resources for your application or seek to optimize resource utilization, you can adjust your instance settings to maximize efficiency and output.

This release isn’t just about speed - It’s about giving you improved performance where it matters, and mechanisms to go further when you need them.

Customer story - A recent customer case highlights how Hexure reduced processing time by up to 97.2% using Azure SQL Managed Instance on Next-gen General Purpose.

What’s new in Next-gen General Purpose (Nov 2025)?

1. Improved baseline performance with the latest storage tech

The SQL Managed Instance General Purpose tier is designed with full separation of compute and storage layers. The Classic GP version uses premium page blobs for the storage layer, while the Next-generation GP tier has transitioned to Azure’s latest storage solution, Elastic SAN. Azure Elastic SAN is a cloud-native storage service that offers high performance and excellent scalability, making it a perfect fit for the storage layer of a data-intensive PaaS service like Azure SQL Managed Instance.

Simplified Performance Management

With ESAN as the storage layer, the performance quotas for the Next-gen General Purpose tier are no longer enforced for each database file. The entire performance quota for the instance is shared across all the database files, making performance management much easier (one fewer thing to worry about). This adjustment brings the General Purpose tier into alignment with the Business Critical service tier experience.

2. Resource flexibility and cost optimization

The GA of Next-gen General Purpose comes together with the GA of a transformative memory slider, enabling up to 49 memory configurations per instance. This lets you right-size workloads for both performance and cost. Memory is billed only for the additional amount beyond the default allocation. Users can independently configure vCores, memory, and IOPS for optimal efficiency.

To learn more about the new option for configuring additional memory, check the article: Unlocking More Power with Flexible Memory in Azure SQL Managed Instance.

3. Enhanced resource elasticity through decoupled compute and storage scaling operations

With Next-gen GP, both storage and IOPS can be resized independently of the compute infrastructure, and these changes now typically finish within five minutes - a process known as an in-place upgrade. There are three distinct types of storage upgrade experiences depending on the kind of storage upgrade performed and whether failover occurs.

In-place update: same storage (no data copy), same compute (no failover)
Storage re-attach: Same storage (no data copy), changed compute (with failover)
Data copy: Changed storage (data copy), changed compute (with failover)

The following matrix describes user experience with management operations:

Operation	Data copying	Failover	Storage upgrade type
IOPS scaling	No	No	In-place
Storage scaling*	No*	No	In-place
vCores scaling	No	Yes**	Re-attach
Memory scaling	No	Yes**	Re-attach
Maintenance Window change	No	Yes**	Re-attach
Hardware change	No	Yes**	Re-attach
Update policy change	Yes	Yes	Data copy

* If scale down is >5.5TB, seeding

** In case of update operations that do not require seeding and are not completed in place (examples are scaling vCores, scaling memory, changing hardware or maintenance window), failover duration of databases on the Next-gen General Purpose service tier scales with the number of databases, up to 10 minutes. While the instance becomes available after 2 minutes, some databases might be available after a delay. Failover duration is measured from the moment when the first database goes offline, until the moment when the last database comes online.

Furthermore, resizing vCores and memory is now 50% faster following the introduction of the Faster scaling operations release.

No matter if you have end-of-month peak periods, or there are ups and downs of usage during the weekdays and the weekend, with fast and reliable management operations, you can run multiple configurations over your instance and respond to peak usage periods in a cost-effective way.

4. Reserved instance (RI) pricing

With Azure Reservations, you can commit to using Azure SQL resources for either one or three years, which lets you benefit from substantial discounts on compute costs. When purchasing a reservation, you'll need to choose the Azure region, deployment type, performance tier, and reservation term.

Reservations are only available for products that have reached general availability (GA), and with this update, next-generation GP instances now qualify as well. What's even better is that classic and next-gen GP share the same SKU, just with different remote storage types. This means any reservations you've purchased automatically apply to Next-gen GP, whether you're upgrading an existing classic GP instance or creating a new one.

What’s Next?

The product group has received considerable positive feedback and welcomes continued input. The initial release will not include zonal redundancy; however, efforts are underway to address this limitation. Next-generation General Purpose (GP) represents the future of the service tier, and all existing classic GP instances will be upgraded accordingly. Once upgrade plans are finalized, we will provide timely communication regarding the announcement.

Conclusion

Now in GA, Next-gen General Purpose sets a new standard for cloud database performance and flexibility. Whether you’re modernizing legacy applications, consolidating workloads, or building for the future, these enhancements put more power, scalability, and control in your hands - without breaking the bank.

If you haven’t already, try out the Next-gen General Purpose capabilities for free with Azure SQL Managed Instance free offer. For users operating SQL Managed Instance on the General Purpose tier, it is recommended to consider upgrading existing instances to leverage the advantages of next-gen upgrade – for free.

Welcome to #SQLMINextGen.

Boosted by default. Tuned by you.