August 2026 announcements

This article provides the announcements for Microsoft Partner Center for August 2026.

Drive more marketing ROI in FY27

New Omdia research shows how high-growth partners are winning today’s buyers. Is your marketing strategy ready?

  • Date: August 24, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: All partners

According to Omdia research, stronger marketing performance comes down to a handful of strategic shifts: investing in the moments that influence buyers, building multitou​ch journeys, putting every available marketing investment to work, and modernizing operations with AI and measurement.

Partners who modernize how they go to market will be better positioned to influence customers and drive return on investment (ROI). By using co-operative (co-op) funding and Partner Marketing Center Pro, you can put these modern strategies into action.

Evolved FY27 co-op guidance and resources outline a clearer path to invest in the demand generation activities that drive stronger returns. By using Partner Marketing Center Pro, you unlock AI-powered capabilities to execute faster and at scale.

Read the latest blog post to learn more about how the buying journey has evolved, and how you can capture more demand with these investments.

Next steps

Guide every Copilot-in-30 trial with a personalized 30-day success plan

Guide every Copilot-in-30 trial with a personalized 30-day success plan.

  • Date: August 24, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: CSP authorized partners

The Copilot Success Planner is now available to help partners support customers participating in the 25-user, 30-day Microsoft 365 Copilot Business trial. The planner provides a personalized learning plan for each trial user and a separate roadmap for the company’s sponsor/administrator who is coordinating the trial experience, including guidance for setup, communications, progress tracking, and end-of-trial evaluation and planning discussions.

A successful trial starts with clear guidance on where to begin and how to build Copilot into everyday work. The Success Planner helps do that by turning the customer’s input into a personalized plan for the entire trial team. The customer’s sponsor/admin completes a short, guided experience about the organization's industry, priorities, and ways of working, and the planner uses those inputs to generate a personalized 30-day learning plan for each of the 25 trial users, along with a roadmap.

Each user's plan aligns to the four weeks of the trial: Outlook in Week 1; Teams/meetings in Week 2; Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in Week 3; and agents in Week 4. If the sponsor leaves Copilot Cowork enabled, the plan also includes Cowork prompts in Weeks 3 and 4. Every guided action identifies the app to use, provides a recommended prompt they can copy, and links to a relevant Microsoft support article.

The sponsor/admin’s roadmap includes suggested pre-trial setup activities, weekly checkpoints, and a value summary that can help inform post-trial discussions with the customer’s leadership team and with partners.

For partners, the planner provides a clear structure for the four weeks between trial kickoff and the conversion conversation. It gives customers a guided experience while helping partners maintain consistent touchpoints throughout the trial.

The Copilot Success Planner is available at no cost and requires no sign-in, so it can be shared with a customer before the trial is transacted.

Next steps

  • Share the Copilot Success Planner with your customers’ sponsor/admin before transacting the trial, so the team begins Day 1 with a plan in place
  • Download the updated Copilot in 30 launch kit to access the customer invitation template and partner-ready assets
  • Ask your customer’s sponsor/admin to share their success plan (i.e. PDF document) link before the trial kickoff and the value readout at Day 30, then use those insights to inform your conversion conversation
  • Refer to the Microsoft 365 Copilot Partner FAQ for answers to common questions about the trial

Dragon Copilot Physician apps and agents

Dragon Copilot Physician apps and agents in Microsoft Marketplace empower partners to embed custom capabilities directly within Dragon Copilot.

  • Date: August 20, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: Healthcare partners

Software development companies building solutions for healthcare often face three key challenges:

  • Reaching clinicians at the point of care: Many solutions require users to leave their primary workflow, creating friction and reducing adoption.
  • Complex commercialization and deployment: Software companies must navigate multiple procurement, contracting, and deployment processes to get solutions into healthcare organizations.
  • Limited scalability of innovation: Delivering specialty-specific AI capabilities across health systems traditionally requires significant custom integration effort.

Dragon Copilot Physician apps and agents provide partners in the United States with a standardized platform to embed their innovations directly into physicians' workflows while taking advantage of Microsoft Marketplace for discovery, procurement, fulfillment, and scale. Instead of building standalone applications, navigating complex integrations, or managing lengthy customer deployments, partners can publish AI-powered solutions that are easily discoverable, purchasable, and deployable through Microsoft Marketplace and surfaced directly within the Dragon Copilot experience. This creates a new distribution and monetization channel for healthcare software providers, empowering them to reach more customers, accelerate time to market, simplify deployment, and drive greater adoption by delivering value where clinicians already work.

Partners can now:

  • Publish healthcare AI apps and agents using a dedicated Dragon Copilot Marketplace offer type.
  • Reach healthcare customers through Microsoft Marketplace rather than relying solely on direct sales motions.
  • Deliver capabilities directly within the Dragon Copilot user experience, where clinicians are already documenting, querying information, and automating tasks.
  • Use Microsoft's existing Marketplace commerce, fulfillment, and discovery infrastructure instead of building custom distribution models.

This shift moves partners from building isolated healthcare AI experiences to becoming part of an extensible Dragon Copilot ecosystem.

For partners, the release is designed to deliver:

  • Streamlined route to market through Microsoft Marketplace.
  • Expanded customer reach to healthcare organizations adopting Dragon Copilot.
  • Higher solution adoption by placing AI capabilities directly in clinician workflows.
  • New monetization opportunities through a dedicated Dragon Copilot app and agent offer type.
  • Reduced integration and deployment friction through a standardized platform approach.
  • Differentiation and innovation at scale, allowing partners to deliver specialized capabilities such as clinical insights, revenue cycle management, prior authorization, documentation enhancement, and clinical decision support.

Region availability: This release is available in the United States.

Next steps

Learn more about Dragon Copilot Physician apps and agents in Microsoft Marketplace.

Grow your security practice at IT Nation

Help SMB customers become AI-ready while sharpening your security practice—meet Microsoft at IT Nation Connect ANZ 2026.

  • Date: August 14, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: CSP distributors, CSP indirect resellers, CSP direct bill partners, and software development companies

AI adoption is opening new opportunities for small and medium-sized business (SMB) customers, but security and governance have to come first. Join Microsoft at IT Nation Connect ANZ 2026 to learn how to position security as the foundation for AI readiness using Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Microsoft Defender, and Microsoft Purview, so you can strengthen customer protection, increase security suite attach, and grow recurring security services revenue.

Attend the featured Microsoft-sponsored session, “From Legacy Managed Service to Secure AI Service with Microsoft,” on Thursday, August 27, from 1:00–1:45 PM, at the Hilton Sydney. In this session, we’ll discuss how agentic AI is changing the way organizations work through autonomous agents that plan, decide, and act across business systems.

Explore emerging challenges such as agent sprawl, permission misuse, and unintended actions, and learn practical approaches to establish governance, trust, and control for secure AI adoption.

Next steps

Microsoft Copilot app update

Prepare customers for a simpler, unified Microsoft Copilot app experience.

  • Date: August 14, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: All partners

Starting August 18, 2026, Microsoft will introduce updates to the Microsoft Copilot web, desktop, and mobile app experiences to make it easier for users to distinguish between their work and personal accounts. The updates include clearer account indicators, a simplified app name and icon, and a transition of the web app URL from m365.cloud.microsoft to copilot.cloud.microsoft. Users are automatically redirected unless access to the new URL is blocked within their organization.

The updated Microsoft Copilot app experience is designed to help users more easily identify whether they are using a work or personal account through new visual indicators, including account labels, a green shield for Microsoft Entra work accounts, and distinct backgrounds. The app also adopts a simplified Microsoft Copilot name and icon, and the web experience moves to copilot.cloud.microsoft, with automatic redirection from m365.cloud.microsoft. Security, compliance, and governance controls remain unchanged.

An early preview of the updated Windows and Mac desktop app experience is planned on August 18, with broad deployment beginning in mid-September. Additional guidance will be provided through Message Center communications.

Next steps

Partners should work with customers to:

  • Verify that copilot.cloud.microsoft isn't blocked by existing network, proxy, firewall, or access policies
  • Add *.cloud.microsoft to organizational allow lists, where appropriate
  • Validate connectivity and review network readiness for the URL transition
  • Review the Microsoft 365 Copilot Partner FAQ, to-reseller OFT, and related partner guidance for more information

Monthly Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program update

This month’s updates continue to enhance partner differentiation and readiness across high-demand solution areas. Key changes include specialization updates that integrate AI capabilities, revised skilling and performance requirements, and streamlined qualification frameworks to support partner growth and agility.

  • Date: August 13, 2026
  • Workspace: Membership
  • Impacted audience: Partners enrolled in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program

MAICPP Agreement update coming September 1, 2026

As part of its standard business operations, Microsoft periodically reviews and updates the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program Agreement to ensure alignment with current practices and regulatory requirements. The agreement was updated and made available for your review on July 1, 2026. Beginning September 1, 2026, the updated terms take effect automatically. Your organization doesn't need to take action, provide a signature, or acknowledge the update. To review the updates, access the updated Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program Agreement preview.

Changes to Specializations and Solutions Partner Designations

Updated Solutions Partner designation badges

The names of the customer-facing Solutions Partner badges are now updated to align to the three commercial solution areas: AI Business Solutions, Cloud & AI Platforms, and Security. The six solution paths (Business Applications, Data & AI (Azure), Digital & App Innovation (Azure), Infrastructure (Azure), Modern Work, and Security) remain the foundation for requirements, scoring, and specializations. By using badges aligned to the three commercial solution areas, you can more easily position your capabilities, support seller conversations, and show credibility where it matters most: in front of customers.

How the badges map

  • Business Applications and Modern Work: now Solutions Partner for AI Business Solutions
  • Data & AI (Azure), Digital & App Innovation (Azure), and Infrastructure (Azure): now Solutions Partner for Cloud & AI Platforms
  • Security: remains Solutions Partner for Security

What stays the same

Your path to attainment doesn't change. You still attain designations through the same six solution paths, with the same partner capability score metrics and technical requirements. No new paths are being introduced, and no existing ones are being removed. Your eligibility for benefits and incentives remains the same, continuing to align to the solution path you enroll in. Specializations still map to the same solution paths, with the same criteria, differentiation, and benefits.

No action is required—your designations, requirements, benefits, and specializations remain unchanged. MAICPP admins can sign in to Logo Builder to see the updated badge names and certified letter, and refresh your customer-facing materials to reflect the new names where applicable.

Frontier Partner badge retirement and Frontier Partner specialization transition

As announced at MCAPS Start for Partners in July 2026, the Frontier Partner badge retires at the end of June 2027. Partners who hold the badge can continue to use it in fiscal year 2027 (FY27) as long as they continue to meet the requirements. Partners who meet the requirements find the badge in Logo Builder (accessible by MAICPP Admins). Partners can continue to achieve the Frontier Partner badge in FY27. After June 2027, no partner can use the badge regardless of when they attained it. Partners should explore and pursue the Frontier Partner specialization, which expands on the capabilities represented by the Frontier Partner badge. The specialization will be available in Partner Center soon in FY27.

Skilling updates due to retiring certifications

The following skilling changes went live July 30, 2026:

Specialization Retiring Certification Replacement / New Certification
Service Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Field Service Functional Consultant Associate Dynamics 365 Contact Center AI Engineer Associate
AI Apps on Microsoft Azure Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate Azure AI Cloud Developer Associate
Sales Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Customer Experience Analyst Associate Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Sales AI Consultant Associate
Cloud Security; Infrastructure and Database Migration; Azure Virtual Desktop Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate Cloud and AI Security Engineer Associate
Infrastructure and Database Migration (New addition — no retirement) Microsoft Certified: SQL AI Developer Associate

The following skilling changes occurred to the following Solutions Partner designations on July 30, 2026. All changes apply to both Enterprise and SMB tracks:

Impacted SPD Certification Level Retiring Certification Replacement / New Certification
Business Applications Intermediate Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Customer Experience Analyst Associate Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Sales AI Consultant Associate
Digital & App Innovation Intermediate (Step 2) Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate Azure AI Cloud Developer Associate
Digital & App Innovation Intermediate (Step 2) (New addition — no retirement) GitHub Certified: Agentic AI Developer
Security Intermediate (Step 1) Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate Cloud and AI Security Engineer Associate
Business Applications Intermediate Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Functional Consultant Associate Microsoft Certified: Intelligent Applications Builder Associate
Business Applications Intermediate Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Field Service Functional Consultant Associate Dynamics 365 Contact Center AI Engineer Associate

Certifications and Applied Skills are regularly updated throughout their lifecycle, which can impact specializations and Solutions Partner designations. In the case of a retiring certification or applied skill impacting a specialization or Solutions Partner designation, the following are true:

  • Skilling achieved before retirement remains valid for one year.
  • Add new skilling if the replacement skilling applies to those specializations and designations.
  • We detail the new requirements in Partner Center as they go into effect.

Update to the Advanced skilling metric for the Solutions Partner for Modern Work designation

The Microsoft 365 Certified: Collaboration Communications Systems Engineer Associate has been removed from the Advanced skilling metric for the Solutions Partner for Modern Work designation in the coming months. This certification was counted in both intermediate and advanced metrics, and is now only be counted in the intermediate section.

Upcoming specialization mergers

As of July 31, 2026, three new specializations were created by merging existing specializations:

  • The Analytics on Microsoft Azure, Data Warehouse Migration to Microsoft Azure, and Business Intelligence specializations merged into a new Analytics on Microsoft Azure specialization. Partners who were enrolled in Analytics or Data Warehouse Migration were enrolled into the new merged Analytics specialization with the same anniversary date. New criteria are:

    • Solutions Partner Designation: no change
    • Performance: Your company must achieve a total of $15,000 of Azure Consumed Revenue (ACR) in the last three months across three customers from Eligible Strategic Pillars: Azure Databricks, Fabric F SKU, and/or Rest of Analytics.
    • Skilling: Your organization must have at least five individuals who passed the following certifications (two of the four certifications listed below must be held by at least two individuals).
      • Fabric Data Engineer Associate
      • Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate
      • Power BI Data Analyst Associate
      • Azure Databricks Data Engineer Associate
    • Audit: A new audit checklist will be posted for the merged specialization.

  • The Low Code Application Development and Intelligent Automation specializations merged into a new Agentic Business Solutions specialization. Partners who were enrolled in Low Code or Intelligent Automation were enrolled into the new merged Agentic Business Solutions specialization with the same anniversary date. New criteria are:

    • Solutions Partner Designation: no change
    • Performance: Your organization can achieve the performance requirements through one of two pathways:
      • Pathway One: two unique customers as new deployments, including at least one customer using Power Automate with a flow in production and one customer using a Power Apps application with a minimum of five users in production. Association Type: PAL.
      • OR Pathway Two: two new customer deployments of Copilot Studio with minimum $10,000 TTM each (non-recurring). Association Type: CPOR, CSP T1, CSP T2, CSPCPOR.
    • Skilling:
      • Your company must have at least five individuals who passed at least one of the following certifications: Power Platform Functional Consultant Associate, Intelligent App Builder, or AI Agent Builder Associate.
      • AND your company must have at least two individuals who passed the following certifications: Power Platform Developer Associate (minimum one individual) or Power Automate RPA Developer Associate (no minimum number of individuals).
      • AND your company must have at least two individuals who passed the following certification: Agentic AI Business Solutions Architect.
    • Microsoft Marketplace: Your organization must have at least one consulting service offer for Power Apps, Power Automate, Copilot Studio, or Power Virtual Agents published on Microsoft Marketplace, with the corresponding products tagged in the offer.

  • The Kubernetes on Microsoft Azure and Migrate Enterprise Applications to Microsoft Azure specializations merged into a new App Modernization on Microsoft Azure specialization. Partners who were enrolled in Kubernetes or Migrate Enterprise Applications were enrolled into the new merged App Modernization specialization with the same anniversary date. New criteria are:

    • Solutions Partner Designation: no change
    • Performance: Your company must achieve a total of $15,000 of Azure Consumed Revenue (ACR) in the last three months from Eligible Strategic Pillars: App Platform Services, Container Services, Developer Services and Platform, GitHub Copilot, Integration Services, Serverless, and/or Supporting Services.
    • Skilling: Your organization must have at least three individuals who passed the following certifications (one certification from each of the three certification groups listed below must be held by at least one individual):
      • DevOps Engineer Expert
      • Azure Developer Associate OR Azure AI Cloud Developer Associate
      • Azure Administrator Associate
    • Audit: A new audit checklist will be posted for the merged specialization.

Audit checklists for all four security specializations

As of July 30, Microsoft moved to an audit-based model for all four Microsoft Security Specializations: Cloud Security, Data Security, Identity & Access Management, and Threat Protection. The new audit validates whether partners can deliver Microsoft Security solutions in real customer environments.

This audit is conducted by an independent, third-party auditor. The duration of the audit will depend on scheduling between the auditor and the partner. The audit is funded by the partner and conducted every two years.

Partners get a six-month extension to their anniversary date to allow time to prepare for the audit.

Partners will receive a Pass or No Pass result upon completion of the audit process, including if they withdraw from the audit.

How you can prepare your partners today:

Coming soon

Updates to Sales, Service, Finance, and Supply Chain Specializations

In August, four AI Business Solutions specializations will be updated. The Sales, Service, Finance, & Supply Chain specializations will all receive the following changes:

  • The eligible deployments will now be defined by MAU instead of MCV
  • The gross growth performance requirement is being removed
  • Microsoft Marketplace tags are being updated to match current products

Agentic Security Specialization coming in FY27

The Agentic Security Specialization, currently in design, recognizes partners who use AI to detect, investigate, and respond to threats at machine speed. These partners help customers stay protected in the era of intelligent agents. Built on proven expertise in Data Security, Identity and Access Management, and Threat Protection, the specialization combines advanced security skilling with a rigorous audit that validates real-world agentic AI capabilities. The Agentic Security Specialization gives customers confidence in partners who can meet that challenge. It recognizes those leading the shift to AI-powered defense and sets a new standard for security excellence.

Improvements to specialization audit reporting

In late August 2026, partners can withdraw their audit directly in Partner Center. Doing so changes their status to Audit Withdrawn and notifies the audit team. Partners can reapply for the audit as soon as they're ready, with no cooldown period.

In September 2026, partners can view their Security or Azure Module A status in Partner Center. For specializations that require a Module A component, Partner Center displays their most recent Module A date for that solution area and when it will be required to take again.

Windows Server 2016 Extended Security Updates: CSP price list republish

The Windows Server 2016 Extended Security Updates (ESU) Year 1–3 offers are now available. Due to a publishing delay, these offers were not included in the August 2026 CSP price list at its regular monthly publication.

  • Date: August 13, 2026
  • Workspace: Pricing
  • Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners

The CSP price list will be republished mid-month on August 13, 2026, at which point the products and their pricing will be visible in Partner Center. Until then, partners might not see these offers in price list downloads or pricing views.

The following products are impacted by this update:

Product Name Product ID
Extended Security Updates for Windows Server Standard Core DG7GMGF0HPVV
Extended Security Updates for Windows Server DC Core DG7GMGF0HPVW

Next steps

  • No partner action is required at this time.
  • The offers and associated pricing will appear in the CSP price list following the mid-month republish on August 13, 2026.
  • Partners who downloaded the August 2026 price list prior to the republish should download the refreshed version to capture these offers.

CSP software pricing update effective October 1, 2026

A 5% cost of capital uplift applies to annual-term CSP software subscriptions billed monthly.

  • Date: August 12, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: All CSP partners transacting annual-term software subscriptions with monthly billing plans.

Correction:

An earlier communication about this pricing update included an incorrect effective date. The correct effective date is October 1, 2026. Disregard the previously communicated date and refer to the updated guidance in this article. We apologize for any confusion.

Updated guidance:

Starting October 1, 2026, Microsoft applies a 5% cost of capital uplift for Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) software subscriptions (such as SQL Server, Windows Server, Client Access Licenses, and System Center) with annual-term commitments billed monthly.

This update aligns pricing treatment across sales channels while preserving monthly billing flexibility for customers. You can continue offering customers billing that aligns with their cash flow and purchasing preferences. There's no change to annual billing or month-to-month subscriptions.

For existing annual-term CSP software subscriptions billed monthly, the 5% uplift takes effect at renewal on or after October 1, 2026.

No system updates required:

No system updates or Partner Center changes are required for this change. You can continue to support customers through existing operational, sales, and renewal processes.

Be sure to communicate this update in advance to any customers with subscription renewals on or after October 1, 2026.

Next steps

Review the FAQ for details on which subscriptions are impacted and how the uplift is applied.

Enter the CSP Copilot Partner Council Contest

Share your top Microsoft 365 Copilot customer success story for a chance to join the SMB Copilot Partner Council and attend an exclusive NYC event.

  • Date: August 10, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: CSP direct bill partners and CSP indirect resellers enrolled in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program.

The FY27 CSP Copilot Partner Council contest invites eligible partners to share their strongest Microsoft 365 Copilot customer success story. Twenty winners earn a seat on the SMB Copilot Partner Council and attend an expenses-paid networking and readiness event with Microsoft in New York City from October 20–22, 2026.

Entries are open through August 31, 2026, and must include evidence of at least 25 Microsoft 365 Copilot seats.

Next steps

Questions

Email copilotcouncil@microsoft.com with any questions regarding the contest or the Copilot Partner Council.

Manage agents across multiple tenants

Manage agents across customer and subsidiary tenants from a new, single experience in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

  • Date: August 10, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: CSP distributors, CSP indirect resellers, CSP direct bill partners, and systems integrators (SIs)/global systems integrators (GSIs)

As organizations scale their use of agents, consistent management across multiple customer or subsidiary tenants becomes increasingly important.

Now in public preview, multi-tenant agent management in the Microsoft 365 admin center enables administrators to view and manage agents across the tenants they govern from a single experience. Administrators can view a consolidated agent inventory, add agents, install or block agents across eligible tenants, review tenant-specific risk, and activity insights (Agent 365 license required), use the tenant switcher to move directly into a governed tenant without signing out or maintaining separate administrator accounts.

For Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners managing customer tenants through Granular Delegated Admin Privileges (GDAP), multi-tenant agent management reduces repetitive administrative tasks, streamlines deployments, and supports consistent governance across customer environments. Actions remain scoped to the administrator’s delegated role in each customer tenant.

Next steps

Explore multi-tenant agent management in the Microsoft 365 admin center and manage agents across your customer tenants from a single administration experience.

Note

To view an end user’s agent activity and risky-agent insights, an Agent 365 license must be assigned to that user.

Invoice generation delayed for some partners

Invoice generation is currently delayed for a small percentage of partners. Microsoft is actively working to resolve the issue.

  • Date: August 7, 2026
  • Workspace: Billing
  • Impacted audience: CSP distributors and direct bill partners

Microsoft identified a delay in invoice generation affecting approximately 7% of partners. As a result, impacted partners might experience a delay in the availability of their invoices and related reconciliation files in Partner Center.

Microsoft is actively working to address the issue and restore normal invoice generation timing. Affected invoices are generated and made available as soon as the issue is resolved.

No action is required from partners. Invoices remain accurate, and only their availability timing is affected. Partners can continue to access previously generated invoices and reconciliation files as usual.

We appreciate your patience as we work to resolve this issue and provide the most accurate and timely billing information possible.

Security and compliance offers for partners

Use these key Microsoft security and compliance offers to re-engage customers, accelerate deals, and expand security and compliance opportunities.

  • Date: August 6, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: CSP distributors, indirect resellers, direct bill partners, and scale solution providers (SSPs).

Key current Microsoft promotions and offers are available now, designed to support you in starting new customer conversations, re-engaging with existing opportunities, and accelerating deals. These offers support customers’ needs, from Microsoft 365 Copilot governance and compliance to Microsoft 365 upgrades and advanced security adoption. Match the right offer to each customer’s starting point and verify current eligibility before presenting them with pricing.

50% off Microsoft Purview Suite for Business Premium—extended

  • The offer: 50% off enhanced data protection on the Microsoft Purview Suite for Business Premium.
  • Who qualifies: Customers who license Business Premium together with Microsoft 365 Copilot Business or Microsoft 365 Copilot.
  • Why it matters: As customers adopt Microsoft 365 Copilot, data security, protection, and governance become increasingly important. Use this offer to position Microsoft Purview as a key component of a secure and compliant Microsoft 365 Copilot deployment.
  • Available through: December 31, 2026 (limited-time offer).

Microsoft 365 E5, Defender, and Purview suite through the CSP channel – extended

  • The offer: 10% and 15% discount respectively for Microsoft 365 E3 and Microsoft 365 E5 with three-year and one-year subscription terms, and 10% off the Defender Suite and the Purview Suite.
  • Who qualifies: New-to-Microsoft 365 E5 customers, or Defender and Purview Suites, with Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) one-year and/or three-year subscription terms; offer stacking isn't allowed.
  • Why it matters: This promotion creates an opportunity to upsell customers from Office 365 to the full Microsoft 365 E5 suite, including productivity, collaboration, AI, end-to-end security, data security, and compliance. For customers who aren't yet committed to ME3 and/or ME5, attach Defender and Purview suites for advanced security and compliance capabilities.
  • Available through: September 30, 2026.

New CSP security add-ons—price update

  • The offer: Expand advanced security opportunities for Microsoft 365 E3 customers with new CSP add-ons. New security add-on offers are available now via CSP, with consistent pricing across Enterprise Agreements (EA) and CSP: Microsoft Entra ID P2; Defender for Endpoint P2 add-on for Microsoft 365 E3; and Defender for Office 365 P2 add-on.
  • Why it matters: Consistent pricing across CSP and EA purchasing models simplifies customer conversations and reduces licensing complexity, making it easier for partners to attach advanced security capabilities and expand their service scope.
  • Who qualifies: Customers who want to upgrade to advanced security, but aren't ready to commit to ME5 or Defender and Purview suites - particularly Microsoft 365 E3 customers ready to add capabilities.
  • Available now.

Next Steps

Review each offer and match it to your customers’ starting points:

  • On-premises or Office 365 today: Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 CSP 10% promotion or Accelerate with Microsoft 365 E5
  • Already on Business Premium and evaluating Microsoft 365 Copilot: 50% off Purview Suite for Business Premium to ensure the smooth rollout of AI
  • Already on Business Premium with Microsoft 365 Copilot: 50% off Purview Suite for data protection
  • Microsoft 365 E3 customer ready for more security: New CSP security add-ons (Entra ID P2, Defender for Endpoint P2, Defender for Office 365 P2)

Confirm current eligibility, terms, and end dates on the linked Partner Center announcement pages before presenting pricing to a customer.

Join the Microsoft Security Partner Community on LinkedIn to connect with peers, exchange best practices, and stay informed on Microsoft Security programs, events, and opportunities.

Updated Solutions Partner badge names

Customer-facing Solutions Partner badges now align to the three commercial solution areas. Your requirements, benefits, and paths stay the same.

  • Date: August 5, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: Training services partners

New badge names, same technical foundations

At MCAPS Start for Partners, which took place on July 22, 2026, Microsoft announced an update to the names of the customer-facing Solutions Partner badges to align to the three commercial solution areas: AI Business Solutions, Cloud & AI Platforms, and Security. The six solution paths (Business Applications, Data & AI (Azure), Digital & App Innovation (Azure), Infrastructure (Azure), Modern Work, and Security) remain the foundation for requirements, scoring, and specializations. The naming update improves how your capabilities are represented in-market - through three commercial solution area badges that signify related skills in a clearer, more impactful way to customers. With badges aligned to the three commercial solution areas, you can more easily position your capabilities, support seller conversations, and show credibility where it matters most: in front of customers.

How the badges map:

  • Business Applications and Modern Work is now Solutions Partner for AI Business Solutions
  • Data & AI (Azure), Digital & App Innovation (Azure), and Infrastructure (Azure): now Solutions Partner for Cloud & AI Platforms
  • Security: remains Solutions Partner for Security

What stays the same:

Your path to attainment doesn't change. You still attain designations through the same six solution paths, with the same partner capability score metrics and technical requirements. No new paths are introduced, and no existing ones are removed. Your eligibility for benefits and incentives remains the same, continuing to align to the solution path you enroll in. Specializations still map to the same solution paths, with the same criteria, differentiation, and benefits. In short: the work you already invested still counts.

Next Steps

No action is required - your designations, requirements, benefits, and specializations remain unchanged.

Sign in to Partner Center to see the updated badge names, and refresh your customer-facing materials to reflect the new names where applicable.

Questions

For more information, refer to the Solutions Partner program resources in Partner Center, or reach out to your Partner Development Manager.

Windows 365: Service plan name update from Windows 365 Frontline to Windows 365 Flex

Starting September 3, 2026, Windows 365 Frontline service plans are renamed to Windows 365 Flex. This is a branding update only. There are no changes to functionality, licensing, user entitlements, provisioning, or billing.

  • Date: August 4, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: All partners with Windows 365 Frontline customers

The Windows 365 Frontline SKUs of all types are renamed to Windows 365 Flex SKUs and are available for purchase starting on September 3, 2026.

These SKUs remain available for purchases with the current “Frontline” naming convention through Sept 2, 2026.

What this change means for your business:

After this change, your customers might notice that service plans previously displayed as Windows 365 Frontline show as Windows 365 Flex in Microsoft licensing and administration experiences.

This update doesn't:

  • Change user access or entitlements
  • Affect existing Cloud PCs
  • Require reassignment of licenses
  • Change service capabilities or functionality
  • Modify billing or licensing rights

Windows 365 Flex users and administrators continue to receive the same Windows 365 service experience following the rename.

Next steps

  • No action is required. This update reflects a service-plan naming change and doesn't introduce new features, retire existing functionality, or alter current customer entitlements.
  • If your organization maintains internal documentation, reports, automation, scripts, ticketing workflows, compliance records, or operational procedures that reference the Windows 365 Frontline service-plan name, update those references to Windows 365 Flex after the rename is visible in your tenant.
  • If you created custom reporting or inventory processes that display service-plan names, validate those experiences after the rollout is complete.
  • To learn more about this SKU and how to message it to customers, visit the support page.

Microsoft 365 promotion updates

Advance Microsoft 365 growth opportunities with extended E3 offers, eligible E7 promotions, and growth margin planning.

  • Date: August 3, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: CSP distributors, indirect resellers, direct bill partners, and scale solution providers (SSPs).

To support continued customer acquisition and upsell opportunities for Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners, key Microsoft 365 E3 promotions now continue through December 31, 2026.

At the same time, Microsoft 365 E7 promotional offers retire on October 1, 2026, as Microsoft evolves partner investments toward growth margin - expanding beyond promotional transactions to sustain customer growth over time.

Together, these promotional updates give you a clear path to growing Microsoft 365 opportunities today while strengthening your long-term growth strategy.

Extended Microsoft 365 E3 promotions

The following Microsoft 365 E3 offers remain available through December 31, 2026:

Product Offer / discount Promotion type Availability
Microsoft 365 E3 10% off, 3-year New-to-offer Through December 31, 2026
Microsoft 365 E3 20% off, 1-year Targeted offer Through December 31, 2026

These offers provide additional opportunities to:

  • Acquire new Microsoft 365 customers and expand license-count opportunities
  • Upgrade eligible Office 365 customers to Microsoft 365 E3
  • Build security, productivity, and AI-readiness conversations that can grow over time

Microsoft 365 E7 promotions retire October 1, 2026

Eligible Microsoft 365 E7 promotional purchases remain available through September 30, 2026. If you have active Microsoft 365 E7 opportunities in your pipeline, prioritize those transactions before these promotions retire.

Current eligible retirement offers include:

Product Offer / discount
Microsoft 365 E7 10% off, 1-year
Microsoft 365 E7 15% off, 1-year
Microsoft 365 E7 15% off, 3-year

Details:

  • Microsoft 365 E7 promotional offers remain available for eligible customer purchases through September 30, 2026
  • New promotional transactions aren't available beginning October 1, 2026
  • Existing subscriptions purchased before retirement continue according to contracted terms

Start building your growth margin strategy

The strongest Microsoft 365 opportunities come from deploying new workloads, expanding usage, deepening engagement, and turning early investments into lasting business outcomes. Growth margin reflects that shift by rewarding sustained customer growth and deployment success over time, so you can:

  • Align sales, customer success, and service motions around ongoing Microsoft 365 usage and value realization
  • Reduce reliance on limited-time promotional offers and foster longer-term customer relationships and expansion opportunities
  • Expand Microsoft 365, AI, security, and workload conversations across the customer lifecycle

Next steps

  • Review customer opportunities that might benefit from extended Microsoft 365 E3 promotions through December 31, 2026
  • Identify eligible Microsoft 365 E7 opportunities and complete qualifying promotional transactions before September 30, 2026
  • Review the Global Promotion Readiness Guide and growth margin resources to start planning your Microsoft 365 growth strategy

Copilot in 30 now generally available

Copilot in 30, a partner-led Microsoft 365 Copilot Business trial offering, is now available through Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners.

  • Date: August 3, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: CSP authorized partners (global admin and billing admin roles) who support SMB customers with fewer than 300 employees.

Copilot in 30 is a new limited-time Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partner-led Microsoft 365 Copilot Business trial offering. It's now available in CSP New Commerce through December 31, 2026.

Through Copilot in 30, partners can introduce Copilot to more customers through a simple, repeatable framework built for scale. Built for organizations with fewer than 300 employees, the motion combines a 25-user, 30-day Microsoft 365 Copilot Business trial with resources and guidance to help customers identify priority users, explore relevant use cases, and evaluate potential value before broader deployment.

New customer evaluation tool coming soon

To support Copilot in 30, in mid-August Microsoft is introducing a new customer evaluation tool built to make this trial an even more practical, role-relevant experience for your customers. Customers select their industry and receive tailored prompts and scenarios they can use in their day-to-day work, making it easier to experience Copilot in the flow of their work, identify the most valuable use cases, and capture feedback throughout the trial.

Next steps

  • Download the updated Copilot in 30 launch kit to access partner-ready assets, customer guidance, and campaign materials.
  • Explore the new Copilot Success Microskilling series, available from August 3, 2026. The series is designed to enable partners to accelerate planning, customer targeting, trial execution, and reporting through ASPX. An additional Copilot Success Planner microskilling resource will be available on August 14, 2026.
  • Start transacting Microsoft 365 Copilot Business trials via CSP New Commerce starting August 1, 2026 using product ID: CFQ7TTC0MM8R and SKU ID: 006Z.
  • Stay tuned for further details on the customer evaluation tool to see how to tailor the Copilot in 30 for your customers.
  • Review the Microsoft 365 Copilot Partner FAQ for frequently asked questions related to the trial.

Updated benefits redemption process

The updated process for redeeming the benefits provided in your benefits offering is now live.

  • Date: August 3, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: All partners

Microsoft streamlined how partners access and redeem the seat-based cloud and Azure benefits attached to benefits offerings.

Benefits are now redeemed through a guided experience that starts in Partner Center and is completed via a 0 USD purchase flow, so that benefits can be deposited into the billing account used for offer purchases and are easy to manage.

Azure credits - including credits for GitHub Enterprise and GitHub Copilot Enterprise - are now redeemed through an updated experience in Partner Center. The credits are deposited directly onto a Billing profile, eliminating the previous steps of assigning a user, copying an activation link, and creating a new Azure subscription.

Additionally, effective November 1, 2026, Microsoft aligns the expiration date for each benefit to the date your offer was purchased, not the date a benefit was first redeemed. The alignment of benefit expiration date and package membership end date provides a more consistent renewal experience between offer membership and benefits availability.

Partners notice the following changes to their experience in Partner Center:

  • The new guided experience in Partner Center completes with a 0 USD purchase in the admin center each time you activate a seat-based cloud benefit included in your offer
  • The Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA) billing account used for the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program purchase ties to benefits, and partners can only redeem benefits on tenants under that billing account (not third-party tenants)
  • Partners see clearer benefits-related information in Partner Center, such as redemption status, quantity, and expiration alignment
  • Individual benefits show an expiration date that matches the package membership end date

This update doesn't change your benefits. Instead, it modernizes the redemption experience by replacing key based activation with a secure, streamlined redemption model tied to your billing account.

The new redemption experience is now live in your region and applies to partners who purchase or renew their packages moving forward.

Next steps

Read the blog and visit Microsoft Learn for more details about these updates.

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