A unit inside Cosmos DB that holds data and serves throughput, capped at 50 GB and 10,000 RU/s. Logical partitions are hashed onto these, and the service manages and splits them for you.
Read more: Microsoft Learn
In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains Physical partition in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
Related terms
- Cross-partition query
Also known as a fan-out query: in Azure Cosmos DB, a query with no partition key filter, which therefore has to visit each physical partition in turn. Each partition visited costs roughly 2.5 RU or more, so these queries consume more request units.
- Hot partition
A Cosmos DB physical partition that handles far more than its share of traffic because the partition key is unevenly distributed. The result is 429 throttling and throughput (RU/s) going unused elsewhere.
- In-partition query
Filtering a Cosmos DB query on one exact partition key value means only the matching physical partition is asked, which costs less than fanning out across partitions.