Azure AI Search

by Microsoft@microsoftRedmond, Washington, USANo ratings yet

Microsoft's retrieval and knowledge-base service for RAG apps, agents and enterprise search

Tool type: Search and retrieval service
Made for: Developers and enterprise teams
Runs on: Azure cloud service; Managed in Azure portal and Foundry portal; 30+ regions
Last checked: 28 Oct 2026; 2 product sources

What it does

Azure AI Search, now branded Foundry IQ, takes in enterprise content such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDF, PNG, RTF, JSON, HTML and XML files, plus data from Azure Cosmos DB, Azure SQL Database, Blob Storage, SharePoint, OneLake and the web. It produces searchable indexes and reusable knowledge bases, and returns relevant, permission-trimmed results or synthesized answers to applications and AI agents.

Developers use it to ground generative AI apps in private data. An import wizard in the Azure portal automates parsing, chunking, enrichment and embedding. Queries can combine keyword, vector and hybrid search, and agentic retrieval adds query planning, reranking and answer synthesis. A knowledge base built once can be reused across several agents. Document-level access control lists keep answers aligned with each user's permissions.

It suits developers and enterprise teams building RAG systems, agents or search engines on Azure. An Azure subscription is required, and knowledge bases also need a standard agentic retrieval plan. Costs combine capacity or serverless compute with add-ons such as agentic retrieval and semantic ranker, so estimating spend takes work. Serverless is in preview, and confidential-compute resources lack semantic ranker, agentic retrieval, skillset execution and vectorization.

What it can do

Hybrid search combining keyword and vector queries in one request
Agentic retrieval with query planning, reranking and answer synthesis
Reusable knowledge bases connecting multiple sources to many agents
Import wizard automating parsing, chunking, enrichment and embedding
Document-level ACL synchronization and query-time permission trimming
Built-in indexers for Cosmos DB, Azure SQL, Blob Storage and SQL Server on Azure VMs

Works with

Azure Cosmos DB
Azure SQL Database
Azure Blob Storage
Microsoft SharePoint
Microsoft OneLake
Azure Data Factory
Azure Logic Apps
Microsoft Foundry
Azure OpenAI

Example workflows

Ground an agent in SharePoint documents: Inputs: SharePoint and Blob Storage documents. Steps: add them as knowledge sources, group them into a knowledge base, attach it to an agent in the Foundry portal. Output: agent answers drawn from those sources, trimmed to each user's permissions.
Index files for a RAG app: Inputs: PDF and Office files in Azure Blob Storage. Steps: run the portal import wizard to parse, chunk, enrich and embed, then query with hybrid search. Output: a searchable index feeding a generative AI application.

Before you choose

Serverless pricing is labeled preview, with billing stated to begin September 13, 2026.
Agentic retrieval and semantic ranker are billed as add-ons on top of base service costs.
Confidential-compute resources cost extra and lack several features such as semantic ranker and agentic retrieval.

Listed under

Get started

Pay as you go or free trial up to 30 days

Create or sign in to an Azure account and subscription.
Create a search service in the Azure portal or Foundry portal, choosing Dedicated or Serverless.
Add knowledge sources or run the import wizard, then build a knowledge base or index.

Create an Azure account

Plans and prices

Prices in USD

Dedicated tiers (Free, Basic, Standard S1-S3, Storage Optimized L1-L2) are billed per Search Unit; Serverless is billed per Compute Unit-hour plus indexed storage. Dollar rates were not shown in the reviewed information. Azure itself offers a $200 credit for 30 days.

Dedicated (Free to L2)Usage-basedRate varies by tier and region; see rate table.

Free tier: 50 MB storage, 3 indexes
Paid tiers priced per search unit

Serverless (preview)Usage-basedRegion-dependent rate.

Scales to zero when idle
30 indexes and 5 services per region

Source: azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/search, checked 28 Oct 2026. Prices can change; check before you buy.

Sources for this overview

Product pages, documentation, and pricing checked 28 Oct 2026. Each source supports part of the overview; availability and prices can change.

Azure AI Search | Microsoft Azure ↗azure.microsoft.com
Pricing - Foundry IQ | Microsoft Azure ↗azure.microsoft.com

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What’s changed

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Where this comes from

How we research

Company website: azure.microsoft.com: product, pricing and policy pages
YC directory mirror: Batch and company name
Web search: Confirms the official site
Social accounts: Accounts the company links, and its posts on X
Human review: Checked by a person
knowledge_base

Last checked 28 Oct 2026. Every field keeps its source and date; unknown means we couldn’t confirm it.