Azure free account FAQ

At the end of your first 30 days or after you spend your $200 credit (whichever comes first), we'll ask you if you want to move to pay-as-you-go pricing. If you move to pay as you go, you'll keep getting free services and you'll only pay for what you use beyond the free monthly amounts. If you don't move to pay as you go, you can't purchase Azure services beyond your $200 credit—and eventually your account and services will be disabled.

Yes. You can sign up directly for pay as you go. This will enable you to immediately use services beyond the free amounts at pay-as-you-go rates. You'll still get monthly free amounts of popular services for 12 months² and more than 55 services that are always free, but you won't receive the $200 credit.

We’ll notify you so you can decide if you want to move to pay-as-you-go pricing, enabling you to purchase Azure services beyond free amounts. If you do, you’ll keep getting access to all the free services. If you don’t, your account and services will be disabled. To resume usage, you'll need to move to pay as you go.

When you sign up for an Azure free account, you get $200 credit. In the first 30 days, any services you use beyond their free amounts will be deducted from that $200 credit. When you've used up your $200 credit or 30 days have passed (whichever happens first), you'll need to upgrade by moving to pay-as-you-go pricing. That way, you can keep getting free amounts of services and purchase services beyond their free amounts as needed. The cost of those services is charged to the payment method you provide.

If you decide not to move to pay-as-you-go pricing after your first 30 days or once you've used up your $200 credit (whichever happens first), any services you've deployed will be decommissioned and you won't be able to access them. To regain access, move to pay as you go within the following 30 days.

You can see your remaining credit under Microsoft Cost Management in the Azure portal.

If you move to pay-as-you-go pricing before the end of 30 days, you won’t lose your credit. When you move to pay as you go, any credit you have remaining will still be available for the full 30 days from when you created your free account.

Once you move to pay-as-you-go pricing, certain types of popular services are available in free monthly amounts for 12 months. If you're using any of these services after 12 months, they'll continue to run and you'll be billed at pay-as-you-go rates. You'll continue to receive monthly free amounts of more than 55 services that are always free.

All you need is a phone number, a credit card or a debit card (non-prepaid), and a Microsoft account or a GitHub account. Only credit cards are accepted in Hong Kong and Brazil.

We use the phone number and credit card or debit card for identity verification to validate that account holders are real people and not bots. We don't charge your credit card or debit card anything when you sign up for Azure, but you may see a one-dollar verification hold on your credit card or debit card account. The hold is temporary and will be removed, never charged to you.

You can sign up with either a Microsoft account or a GitHub account.

Use the "Sign in with GitHub" option on the Azure sign-in page. When you first sign into a Microsoft product with your credentials, GitHub will ask for your permission to consent. GitHub will share with Microsoft the name and public and private email addresses on your GitHub account to check if you already have a Microsoft account. If it looks like you already have an account, you’ll have the option to use that account and add your GitHub account as a login method. Otherwise, a new account will be created and linked to the GitHub account.

Microsoft is committed to user privacy. The request for profile information is used to check for the presence of an existing Microsoft account and to create an account if needed. Once your information enters the Microsoft ecosystem, it’s protected by the Microsoft terms of service and isn’t shared without your permission. Connecting a GitHub identity to a Microsoft account will not give Microsoft any code access.

The Azure free account provides access to all Azure services and does not block customers from building their ideas into production. The Azure free account includes certain types of specific services—and certain amounts of those services—for free. To enable your production scenarios, you may need to use resources beyond the free amounts. If you choose to move to pay as you go, you’ll be billed for those additional resources at pay-as-you-go rates.

No, your credit can’t be applied to Azure Marketplace offers. However, many Azure Marketplace partners offer free trials and/or free tier plans for their solutions.

You can only purchase products on Azure Marketplace once you’ve moved to pay-as-you-go pricing.

There is a limit of one account with free services and $200 credit per new customer.

The Azure Hybrid Benefit cannot be combined with the free credit. If you move to pay-as-you-go pricing at the end of your first 30 days or after you spend your credit, then you will be able to use your Azure Hybrid Benefit.

No, but after you use your credit, you can move to pay as you go and purchase Spot Virtual Machines at deep discounts compared to pay-as-you-go pricing for virtual machines.