Azure Cognitive Search Azure AI Search
Legacy names Azure Cognitive Search, Azure Search
Managed enterprise information retrieval and vector search service supporting hybrid keyword, vector, semantic ranking, and agentic RAG workflows.
Naming timeline
- Azure Search
Original managed cloud search-as-a-service offering on Azure.
- Azure Cognitive Search
Renamed to reflect built-in AI enrichment pipelines and cognitive skills during indexing.
- Azure AI SearchCurrent name
Rebranded from Azure Cognitive Search to Azure AI Search alongside GA of vector search and semantic ranker.
What is Azure Cognitive Search called now?
Azure Cognitive Search is now called Azure AI Search, with the latest change on 15 November 2023 (Microsoft Ignite 2023 Rebrand). Earlier names covered by this entry also include Azure Search. Managed enterprise information retrieval and vector search service supporting hybrid keyword, vector, semantic ranking, and agentic RAG workflows. Only the customer-facing name changed; the underlying technical identifiers remain backward compatible.
Also known as
- Foundry IQ
Technical identifiers
Technical identifiers unchanged. Only the customer-facing product name changed; the APIs, CLI commands, IAM roles and Terraform resources below keep their legacy identifiers for backward compatibility.
| ARM Resource Providers (Microsoft.*) | Microsoft.Search/searchServices *.search.windows.net |
|---|---|
| Azure CLI (az) / PowerShell | az search az search service |
| Entra ID / Azure RBAC Roles | Search Service Contributor Search Index Data Reader Search Index Data Contributor |
| Terraform Resources (azurerm_*) | azurerm_search_service azurerm_search_shared_private_link_service |
ARM resource type Microsoft.Search/searchServices, endpoint suffix *.search.windows.net, az search CLI, and azurerm_search_service remain backward-compatible.
Notes & disambiguation
- Originally launched in March 2015 as Azure Search, renamed to Azure Cognitive Search in October 2019 to reflect AI enrichment skillsets, and rebranded to Azure AI Search at Microsoft Ignite on November 15, 2023.
- In November 2025, Azure AI Search also became the underlying engine for Foundry IQ, the managed knowledge base and agentic retrieval layer in Microsoft Foundry.
- The ARM resource provider Microsoft.Search/searchServices, DNS suffix .search.windows.net, Azure CLI az search commands, Search RBAC roles, and Terraform azurerm_search_service resource remain unchanged.
Sources & official documentation
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