free tier deletion policy

Author: HeidiSteen

articles/search/search-create-service-portal.md

@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ Basic and Standard are the most common choices for production workloads, but man
 
 :::image type="content" source="media/search-create-service-portal/select-pricing-tier.png" lightbox="media/search-create-service-portal/select-pricing-tier.png" alt-text="Screenshot of Select a pricing tier page." border="true":::
 
-Search services created after April 3, 2024 have larger partitions and higher vector quotas at every billable tier.
+Search services created after April 3, 2024 have larger partitions and higher vector quotas at every billable tier. Free services that remain inactive for an extended period of time (many months) might be deleted to make room for other services.
 
 Remember, a pricing tier can't be changed once the service is created. If you need a higher or lower tier, you should re-create the service.
 

articles/search/search-limits-quotas-capacity.md

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ author: HeidiSteen
 ms.author: heidist
 ms.service: azure-ai-search
 ms.topic: conceptual
-ms.date: 09/19/2024
+ms.date: 10/17/2024
 ms.custom:
   - references_regions
   - build-2024

articles/search/search-sku-tier.md

@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ Tiers include **Free**, **Basic**, **Standard**, and **Storage Optimized**. Stan
 
 :::image type="content" source="media/search-sku-tier/tiers.png" lightbox="media/search-sku-tier/tiers.png" alt-text="Pricing tier chart" border="true":::
 
-**Free** creates a [limited search service](search-limits-quotas-capacity.md#subscription-limits) for smaller projects, like running tutorials and code samples. Internally, system resources are shared among multiple subscribers. You can't scale a free service, run significant workloads, and some premium features aren't available. You can only have one free search service per Azure subscription.
+**Free** creates a [limited search service](search-limits-quotas-capacity.md#subscription-limits) for smaller projects, like running tutorials and code samples. Internally, system resources are shared among multiple subscribers. You can't scale a free service, run significant workloads, and some premium features aren't available. You can only have one free search service per Azure subscription. If the service is inactive for an extended period of time (many months), it might be deleted to free up capacity if the region is constrained.
 
 The most commonly used billable tiers include:
 

articles/search/search-try-for-free.md

@@ -150,6 +150,9 @@ You can create a search service that doesn't consume credits. Here are some poin
 
 Review the [service limits](search-limits-quotas-capacity.md) for other constraints that apply to the free tier.
 
+> [!NOTE]
+> Free services that remain inactive for an extended period of time (many months) might be deleted to free up capacity if the region is constrained.
+
 ## Next steps
 
 Sign up for an Azure trial subscription: