Trying to enable Copilot for Cosmos DB.

Question

Trying to enable Copilot for Cosmos DB.

Dylan Olney 140

Hi,

I have developed a web application for a clinical trials company using an Azure web app service, and a Cosmos DB instance. The app is in production and they use it in their daily operations. However, they have recently requested the ability to query the database using natural language, via the web app.

For example, they might type in something like "How many participants in study X are over the age of 75?". On the back-end, MS Copilot for Cosmas DB would then process this text, generate an actual Cosmos query, execute it, and return a result.

Is this even something that MS Copilot for Cosmas DB can do? The thing is, is that I can't seem to enable it in the Azure portal so that I can play around with it and see how it works.

I followed some steps which said it must firstly be registered under the “Preview Features” section in the subscription. Once registered here, the option to enable it should appear under the “Features” section of the Cosmos DB instance.

I successfully registered it under "Preview Features", yet the option to enable it in the “Features” section of cosmos DB is not there. It just doesn't appear in the checkbox list of things that can be enabled. Neither can I see any sign of this feature in the data explorer.

Any advice or help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Your truly,
Dylan Olney

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3 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Senthil kumar 2,500

Hi @Dylan Olney

I will give some tips you can check in your side and give your feed back.

Prerequisite :

first check below prerequisite in your side.

Copilot for Cosmos DB can generate natural‑language queries → SQL → execute → return results.

But you cannot enable it unless your Cosmos DB account meets all of these conditions:

✔ Azure subscription must be Pay‑As‑You‑Go or Enterprise

Free trial subscriptions cannot enable Copilot for Cosmos DB.

✔ Cosmos DB must be Core (SQL) API

Mongo, Cassandra, Gremlin, Table API → not supported.

✔ Region must be one of the supported Copilot regions

Copilot is not available in all Azure regions.

✔ Account must be vCore‑based serverless or provisioned throughput

Some older accounts created before 2023 cannot enable Copilot.

This is why the checkbox never appears.

Solution :

Solution 1:

Build your own NL → SQL pipeline using Azure OpenAI

This is the recommended production approach.

Pipeline:

User enters natural language

Azure OpenAI generates SQL

Backend validates SQL (very important)

Backend executes SQL against Cosmos DB

Return results

This works today, in any region, any subscription.

Solution 2 :

Create a new Cosmos DB account in a supported region

If you want to experiment with Copilot inside the portal:

Create a new Cosmos DB Core (SQL) account

Region: East US, West US, West Europe, or South Central US

Subscription: Pay‑As‑You‑Go (not free trial)

Then the Copilot toggle will appear.

Thanks.

Dylan Olney 140 Reputation points

2026-09-17T11:25:02.2133333+00:00
Hi @Senthil kumar ,

Thanks for your response.

In the first response above, @kagiyama yutaka is suggesting that this feature never actually got included as something that you can enable in the portal.

Whatever about that, I'm pretty sure that at least the first two conditions you mentioned in your response are met. However, I'm not so sure about these other two:

Region must be one of the supported Copilot regions. Do you know how I can find out what regions are supported? Creating a new database in a supported region, if this is what the issue is, is not really an option, as I need this functionality for an existing, in-production Cosmos DB instance.

Account must be vCore‑based serverless or provisioned throughput. I don't know about either of these things. Do you know how I can find out?

If I can't enable it due to one or both of the above conditions, or if it's simply something that can't be enabled in the portal, period, then I guess I'll need to look into the Azure Open AI solution you both mentioned.

Thanks again,

Dylan.
Senthil kumar 2,500 Reputation points

2026-09-17T12:01:34.97+00:00
Dear @Dylan Olney

regions list.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/reliability/regions-list?tabs=all

Account must be vCore‑based serverless or provisioned throughput.

✔ Step 1 — Open your Cosmos DB account

Azure Portal → Azure Cosmos DB → select your database.

✔ Step 2 — Go to Settings → Features

This page shows the capacity mode.

✔ Step 3 — Look for one of these labels:

You will see one of the following:

“Provisioned throughput”

This means your account uses RU/s.

Copilot supports this.

“Serverless”

This means your account is serverless.

Copilot supports this.

“vCore‑based”

This is the new compute model.

Copilot supports this.

“Autoscale”

This is still provisioned throughput (autoscale RU/s).

Copilot supports this.

“Free Tier”

Free tier accounts do not support Copilot.

Thanks
Dylan Olney 140 Reputation points

2026-09-17T14:26:45.45+00:00

It turns out I was barking up the wrong tree with MS Copilot for Cosmos DB. Even if I could enable it, it is exclusively a feature within the Azure Portal UI and the Azure CLI. There is no way to programmatically send user text to it and receive a query back. A quick query on Google AI said that I'll need to construct my own Text-to-NoSQL engine using an LLM ( Large Language Model, such as Azure OpenAI, or OpenAI ). How to go about this, I have no idea yet...
Senthil kumar 2,500 Reputation points

2026-09-17T15:04:06.96+00:00

I will attached the sample code for your reference.

Thanks.text_to_cosmos.txt
Dylan Olney 140 Reputation points

2026-09-17T15:35:26.2033333+00:00

Thank you @Senthil kumar . I'll have a look at this.

Answer 2

kagiyama yutaka 5,490

I think Copilot for Cosmos DB has never been part of the Portal UI, so nothing appears under Features. Copilot is just in the Cosmos DB extension in VS Code, and NL→SQL in an app is done by wiring Azure OpenAI yourself. The preview toggle shown in old docs never shipped in the Portal.

kagiyama yutaka 5,490 Reputation points

2026-09-18T00:10:43.88+00:00

Thanks for the updates. In my opinion, Cosmos DB Copilot only works inside the VS Code extension. It is not in the Portal or the CLI, and there is no API. For apps, the simple path is user text → Azure OpenAI → Cosmos DB SQL → your code runs it. The Portal/CLI Copilot shown in old preview docs never shipped.

Answer 3

Dylan Olney 140

It turns out I was barking up the wrong tree with MS Copilot for Cosmos DB. Even if I could enable it, it is exclusively a feature within the Azure Portal UI and the Azure CLI. There is no way to programmatically send user text to it and receive a query back. A quick query on Google AI said that I'll need to construct my own Text-to-NoSQL engine using an LLM ( Large Language Model, such as Azure OpenAI, or OpenAI ). How to go about this, I have no idea yet...

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