SQL Server Express 4GB Limit

Question

Quick question: is the 4GB limitation on EACH database or for the installed instance of SQL Server? As you know you can create more than one DB in an instance of SQL Server.

Answer 1

Yes. It's per database, not total. If you want to be really clever you have store a lot more than 4GB by spreading it over multiple databases (or even multiple instances).

Answer 2

Note that size limit for each database has been raised to 10GB in SQL Server Express 2008 R2

Answer 3

The 4GB limit is on each database.

Answer 4

According to SQL Server 2005 Express Edition Features:

Scalability and Performance

• Supports one CPU, but can be installed on any server
• 1 gigabyte (GB) addressable RAM
• 4 GB maximum database size