AWS RDS for SQL Server: Editions, Licensing & Setup (2026)

Short answer

RDS SQL Server has two licensing models: License Included (Enterprise, Standard, Web, Express) and Bring Your Own Media, where you bring licences with Software Assurance through License Mobility (Enterprise, Standard, Developer).
AWS lists SQL Server 2025, 2022, 2019, 2017 and 2016 engine versions; SQL Server 2016 reached RDS end of support on 14 July 2026 and new 2016 instances can no longer be created.
There is no sysadmin, OS access, xp_cmdshell, FILESTREAM, log shipping, Service Broker endpoints or SQL Server replication; check the unsupported list before you migrate.
Connect from SSMS with the endpoint and port separated by a comma (endpoint,1433) and SQL Server Authentication, or join the instance to Active Directory for Windows logins.
Licence cost dominates the bill: newer unbundled instance types show the SQL Server licence as a separate per-vCPU charge, and Optimize CPU can reduce it.

How we know: Research-based: editions, licensing models, versions, limits, unsupported features and connection steps were checked against the Amazon RDS User Guide and the Amazon RDS for SQL Server pricing page on 8 October 2026. We have not run RDS for SQL Server instances for this guide; the setup and SSMS steps are AWS's documented procedure, and no performance claims are made.

What RDS SQL Server is

RDS SQL Server (Amazon RDS for SQL Server, often searched as RDS MSSQL) is AWS's managed service for Microsoft SQL Server. AWS runs Windows, installs and patches SQL Server, takes automated backups and handles Multi-AZ failover; you get a SQL Server endpoint and a master login with limited privileges. AWS documents that RDS uses SQL Server Database Mirroring, Always On Availability Groups or block-level replication (for Web Edition) for Multi-AZ, and that Multi-AZ needs no additional licensing.

The trade-off is control. You cannot RDP to the host or run as sysadmin; advanced administrative tasks go through RDS-provided stored procedures, and every instance includes an rdsadmin database that RDS uses to manage it. If you need full OS access, AWS offers RDS Custom for SQL Server or SQL Server on EC2 instead.

Supported editions and versions

The engine value you pass to RDS selects the edition: sqlserver-ee, sqlserver-se, sqlserver-web, sqlserver-ex and sqlserver-dev-ee. Each edition supports a different range of instance classes, which is often the deciding factor for small workloads.

RDS for SQL Server editions (AWS User Guide and pricing page, checked 8 October 2026)
Edition	Licensing model on RDS	Instance classes (examples from AWS's list)	Notes
Enterprise	License Included or BYOM	xlarge and up (for example db.r6i.xlarge to db.r6i.32xlarge)	Full feature set
Standard	License Included or BYOM	large and up	Uses only part of very large instances: AWS cites the limits of 24 cores, 4 sockets and 128 GB RAM
Web	License Included only	db.t3.small up to about 4xlarge or 8xlarge	Microsoft licence terms restrict it to public, internet-accessible web workloads
Express	License Included only	db.t3.micro to db.t3.xlarge	Free edition; suitable for development and small non-production use
Developer	BYOM only (your own installation media)	xlarge and up on selected families	All Enterprise features, non-production use only; no SQL Server licence fee

Versions

AWS's version page lists engine versions for SQL Server 2025 (17.00), 2022 (16.00), 2019 (15.00), 2017 (14.00) and 2016 (13.00). AWS stopped allowing new SQL Server 2016 instances from 15 January 2026 and ended support on 14 July 2026, scheduling remaining 2016 instances to move to SQL Server 2019. All engine upgrades on RDS for SQL Server are started by you; major upgrades are never automatic, and minor upgrades are automatic only if you enable that option.

Licensing: License Included vs Bring Your Own Media

AWS describes two licensing models for RDS for SQL Server. What other sources call "BYOL" is, on RDS for SQL Server, Bring Your Own Media (BYOM).

License Included (LI). The SQL Server licence is part of the RDS price, together with hardware and RDS management. Available for Enterprise, Standard, Web and Express. You do not need to buy SQL Server licences separately.
Bring Your Own Media (BYOM). You use existing SQL Server licences through Microsoft's License Mobility through Software Assurance, so you need licences with active Software Assurance. AWS charges no SQL Server licence fee; you still pay for compute, storage, I/O, data transfer and Windows OS fees. Available for Enterprise and Standard (SQL Server 2019, 2022 and 2025), and for Developer Edition.

BYOM has documented conditions. You download the SQL Server RTM installation media (ISO) from Microsoft and upload it to Amazon S3; RDS installs from it and applies cumulative updates. BYOM engine versions are specific to your account and Region, in-place major version upgrades are not supported (you create a new instance and migrate with native backup and restore), and SSAS and SSRS are not supported. AWS License Manager can track BYOM vCPU usage at no extra charge, but licence compliance remains your responsibility.

Unbundled pricing and Optimize CPU. For newer instance types (AWS lists M7i, R7i, M8i, R8i, M8a and R8a) the bill shows the instance price and the SQL Server licence (per vCPU-hour) separately. On Intel instances of 2xlarge and above, simultaneous multithreading is disabled by default, halving vCPUs and therefore licence charges, and you can customise core counts further. Instances with 4 vCPUs or fewer cannot be reduced, because Microsoft charges for a minimum of 4 vCPUs.

What RDS SQL Server does not support

AWS publishes a list of SQL Server features that are not available on RDS. The ones most likely to block a migration:

Extended stored procedures including xp_cmdshell, FILESTREAM and FileTables
Database log shipping, SQL Server replication, Service Broker endpoints and T-SQL endpoints (CREATE ENDPOINT)
Maintenance plans, Policy-Based Management, Performance Data Collector, PolyBase and Stretch Database
Database snapshots (RDS supports only DB instance snapshots), backup to Azure Blob Storage and server-level triggers
The TRUSTWORTHY property, because it needs the sysadmin role
CLR only in SAFE mode on 2016 and earlier, and not at all on 2017 and later; SSAS is not supported with SQL Server 2022, and SSIS is not supported with SQL Server 2025

Other documented limits: the number of databases per instance depends on instance size and availability mode (for example 30 on micro to medium Single-AZ classes, and up to 100 on xlarge and larger Single-AZ); General Purpose SSD storage tops out at 16 TiB and Provisioned IOPS at 64 TiB; you cannot rename a database in a Multi-AZ deployment; and ports 1234, 1434, 3260, 3343, 3389, 47001 and 49152 to 49156 are reserved.

Setting up Amazon RDS for SQL Server

AWS's getting-started walkthrough uses Easy create with Express Edition. For a configured build, the documented sequence is:

Create the VPC, subnet group, security group, parameter group and option group first. AWS states that DB instances are created with a firewall that prevents access, so you must add a security group rule, and that parameter and option groups should exist before you create the instance.
In the console choose Create database, Microsoft SQL Server, then the edition and the licence model (License Included or BYOM).
Choose the engine version, instance class from that edition's range, storage (minimum 20 GiB) and Single-AZ or Multi-AZ.
Set the master username and password (or Secrets Manager), and optionally join an Active Directory domain, either AWS Managed Microsoft AD or self-managed AD, for Windows Authentication.
In the security group, allow inbound TCP 1433 (or your chosen port) only from your application servers or admin IP range.

Connecting to RDS SQL Server with SSMS

AWS documents this SSMS procedure:

Open SQL Server Management Studio; in Connect to Server choose Server type Database Engine.
For Server name, enter the endpoint and port separated by a comma, not a colon, for example database-2.xxxx.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com,1433. The default port is 1433.
Choose SQL Server Authentication, enter the master user name and password, and connect.
Run SELECT @@VERSION to confirm. You will see the usual system databases plus rdsadmin, which RDS uses for its own management objects and stored procedures.

If the login is rejected, see error 18456, login failed for user; if the server cannot be found or the connection is refused, check the security group, public access setting and port, and see error 53 and error 10061. For alternatives to SSMS (Azure Data Studio, DBeaver, DataGrip) see the best SQL Server GUI tools.

Pricing

Prices from the provider's official pricing pages, checked 8 October 2026, region US East (N. Virginia), in USD, excluding tax. List prices only; discounts, commitments and your actual usage change the bill.

RDS for SQL Server is billed per instance-hour, storage, I/O, backups and data transfer, like other RDS engines, but the hourly rate depends heavily on the edition and licensing model. Under License Included the licence is inside the hourly rate (bundled instance types) or shown as a separate per-vCPU-hour line (unbundled types). Under BYOM there is no SQL Server licence charge, and Developer Edition has no licence fee. Express is the lowest-cost edition and appears in the AWS Free Tier for accounts created before 15 July 2025.

Look up rates for your edition and class on the AWS pricing page or in the AWS Pricing Calculator.

Rate stated on the RDS for SQL Server pricing page
Item	Rate (USD)	Note
T3 CPU credits (Unlimited mode)	0.144 per vCPU-hour	Charged when average CPU exceeds the baseline; higher than the 0.075 rate AWS lists for RDS for PostgreSQL and MySQL

Frequently asked questions

Does Amazon RDS for SQL Server support BYOL?

AWS calls its bring-your-own-licence option for RDS for SQL Server Bring Your Own Media (BYOM). You need SQL Server licences with active Software Assurance and License Mobility rights, you upload the installation media to S3, and AWS charges no SQL Server licence fee. BYOM covers Enterprise and Standard Edition (2019, 2022 and 2025) and Developer Edition.

Which SQL Server versions does AWS RDS SQL Server support?

AWS lists SQL Server 2025, 2022, 2019 and 2017 engine versions, plus 2016, which reached RDS end of support on 14 July 2026 with remaining instances scheduled to move to 2019. Use the describe-db-engine-versions CLI command for the exact minor versions in your Region.

Can I use SQL Server Developer Edition on RDS?

Yes, for non-production use. It has all Enterprise features, you provide the installation media, and you pay only for AWS infrastructure.

Is sysadmin available on Amazon RDS MSSQL?

No. The master user has limited privileges, and features that need sysadmin, such as the TRUSTWORTHY property, are unsupported. Use the stored procedures that RDS provides for administrative tasks such as native backup and restore with .bak files.

Why can't SSMS connect with endpoint:1433?

SQL Server clients separate host and port with a comma, so use endpoint,1433, as AWS's instructions say.

Sources

Checked 8 October 2026.

How we research cloud database guides: our editorial method. CodeWithSQL earns nothing from the providers mentioned.