Merge pull request #891 from HeidiSteen/heidist-regions

[azure search] free tier deletion policy

Author: prmerger-automator[bot]

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

@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ A few service properties are fixed for the lifetime of the service. Before creat
 
 Paid (or billable) search occurs when you choose a billable tier (Basic or higher) when creating the resource on a billable Azure subscription.
 
-To try Azure AI Search for free, [open a trial subscription](https://azure.microsoft.com/pricing/free-trial/?WT.mc_id=A261C142F) and then create your search service by choosing the **Free** tier. You can have one free search service per Azure subscription. Free search services are intended for short-term evaluation of the product for nonproduction applications. Generally, you can complete all of the quickstarts and most tutorials, except for those featuring semantic ranker (it requires a billable service).
+To try Azure AI Search for free, [open a trial subscription](https://azure.microsoft.com/pricing/free-trial/?WT.mc_id=A261C142F) and then create your search service by choosing the **Free** tier. You can have one free search service per Azure subscription. Free search services are intended for short-term evaluation of the product for nonproduction applications. Generally, you can complete all of the quickstarts and most tutorials, except for those featuring semantic ranker (it requires a billable service). Free services that are inactive for an extended period of time can be deleted by Microsoft to make room for other services.
 
 Alternatively, you can use free credits to try out paid Azure services. With this approach, you can create your search service at **Basic** or higher to get more capacity. Your credit card is never charged unless you explicitly change your settings and ask to be charged. Another approach is to [activate Azure credits in a Visual Studio subscription](https://azure.microsoft.com/pricing/member-offers/msdn-benefits-details/?WT.mc_id=A261C142F). A Visual Studio subscription gives you credits every month you can use for paid Azure services. 
 
@@ -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. 
 
 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, it might be deleted to free up capacity, especially if the region is under capacity constraints.
 
 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 might be deleted to free up capacity if the region is under capacity constraints.
+
 ## Next steps
 
 Sign up for an Azure trial subscription: