September 2026 announcements

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

Reminder: Check Inventory API retiring September 25, 2026

Reminder: A new Check Inventory by Resource Type API is now available. The previous Check Inventory API will retire on September 25, 2026.

  • Date: September 18, 2026
  • Workspace: APIs
  • Impacted audience: All partners using Partner Center APIs for inventory checks.

As previously announced, a new Check Inventory by Resource Type API is now available, enabling partners to check inventory for catalog items filtered by a specific resource type. Microsoft introduced this new API to handle the growing complexity of Azure services, where availability also depends on resource type. By requiring a resourceType parameter, it enables more scalable and performant inventory checks to address data growth challenges without changing the API response contract. This API replaces the existing Check Inventory API, which retires on September 25, 2026.

Next steps

  • Review the Check Inventory by Resource Type API documentation for supported resource types and usage examples.
  • Update your integrations to use the new API before September 25, 2026.

Usage-based billing is default on for new Microsoft 365 Copilot Business licenses starting November 2, 2026

Usage-based billing is default on for new Microsoft 365 Copilot Business licenses starting November 2, 2026

  • Date: September 16, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: CSP partners (distributors, indirect resellers, direct bill, SSPs), systems integrators, and software development companies selling Microsoft 365 Copilot Business

Starting November 2, 2026, new Microsoft 365 Copilot Business licenses that you purchase through Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) include usage-based billing by default. Pay-as-you-go is the default billing configuration to help customers access eligible usage-based experiences, including Copilot Cowork, Work IQ APIs, and GitHub Copilot Harness, with less billing setup. This configuration also provides flexibility to expand usage over time, based on business needs.

Key details

  • Effective date: November 2, 2026
  • Applies to: New purchases of Microsoft 365 Copilot Business (standalone and bundles) through CSP.
  • Usage-based billing: Pay-as-you-go is the default billing configuration.

What this means for partners:

  • Less setup friction: New Copilot Business licenses include the Azure subscription setup needed for usage-based billing.
  • More focus on adoption: You can spend more time helping customers activate high-value scenarios and realize business outcomes, with less effort spent on multistep billing configuration.
  • Greater growth opportunity: Early usage creates a natural path to expanded consumption, upsell conversations, and the Copilot Cowork activation incentive.

Next steps

Prepare for the change:

  • Familiarize your teams with the upcoming change and the preset monthly limit.
  • Help your customers understand their usage-based billing options as they adopt eligible experiences.
  • Consider usage-based scenarios, including Copilot Cowork, Work IQ APIs, and GitHub Copilot Harness, as part of customer adoption planning.

Resources:

Unified for Partners: Future of support

Prepare for Unified for Partners and explore how you can scale more efficiently with enhanced support capabilities.

  • Date: September 17, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: CSP partners (direct bill, distributors, SSPs)

Unified for Partners (UfP) is a modern support offering built to equip partners to reduce friction, enhance resolution quality, and support customers across AI, security, data, and cloud environments.

Scheduled for full release later in fiscal year 2027 (FY27), UfP equips partners to resolve more issues in-house through stronger diagnostics, knowledge resources, support orchestration, customer success practice builders, and access to Microsoft expertise when needed.

UfP also introduces a growth-aligned approach that scales with a Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) business, so partners can invest in operational excellence while creating greater predictability in support planning.

Partners can take advantage of key UfP benefits to further differentiate their business by attaining a Support Services designation, which validates support capabilities for customers.

Now is the time to evaluate support maturity, strengthen operational processes, and prepare for the future of partner support.

Next steps

Windows Server 2016 Extended Security Updates: CSP price list republish

Updated pricing for Windows Server 2016 Extended Security Updates (ESU) Year 1–3 offers is now available. A pricing discrepancy affecting these offers has been corrected, and Partner Center reflects the updated pricing as of September 8, 2026.

  • Date: September 16, 2026
  • Workspace: Pricing
  • Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners

Correction

An earlier version of the August 2026 CSP price list included incorrect pricing information for Windows Server 2016 Extended Security Updates (ESU) offers. The pricing is corrected and now appears in Partner Center and the refreshed price list. Partners should disregard the previously published pricing and refer to the updated price list for current pricing guidance.

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

  • Partners who downloaded the August 2026 price list before the correction should download the latest version to ensure they're using the corrected pricing information.
  • We apologize for any confusion this issue caused.

Office LTSC 2021 end of support

Office LTSC 2021, Project LTSC 2021, and Visio LTSC 2021 nearing end of support.

  • Date: September 15, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: All partners, including Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners and advisors

Support for Office Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) 2021, Project LTSC 2021, and Visio LTSC 2021 ends on October 13, 2026. After this date, these products no longer receive updates, security fixes, or technical support.

These products have served organizations for many years, particularly in specialized or regulated environments. However, continuing to use unsupported versions after end of support might expose organizations to security vulnerabilities, compliance risks, and reduced reliability due to the absence of future updates or security patches.

This end-of-support milestone presents an opportunity for partners to help customers modernize their productivity environments by transitioning to cloud-based alternatives.

For most customers, Microsoft 365 provides key benefits, including:

  • Up-to-date experiences, with continuous security updates, feature enhancements, and innovation
  • Enterprise-grade security and management, designed to support Zero Trust architectures and flexible work scenarios
  • Scalable and flexible licensing, allowing customers to adjust services as business needs evolve

Customers who move to Microsoft 365 suites gain access to cloud-backed desktop versions of familiar apps such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, along with web and mobile access across multiple devices.

Partners should note that Microsoft 365 Copilot is supported only on cloud-backed apps included in Microsoft 365 suites, and on-premises versions of Office aren't eligible. In addition, the Azure Information Protection (AIP) labeling client for perpetual Office has been retired.

In cases where regulatory, connectivity, or technological constraints prevent the use of cloud solutions, customers might consider the latest supported on-premises alternatives, including Office LTSC 2024, Project LTSC 2024, and Visio LTSC 2024.

Next steps

Partners are encouraged to take the following actions:

  • Engage early with customers still using Office LTSC 2021, Project LTSC 2021, or Visio LTSC 2021 to communicate the October 13, 2026, end-of-support date and associated risks.
  • Prioritize Microsoft 365 E3 when guiding customers toward supported alternatives, with Office 365 E3 or Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise as appropriate fallback options.
  • Assess customer constraints related to connectivity, regulation, or offline requirements to determine the most appropriate support path.
  • Leverage available resources to address common concerns related to cost, migration complexity, or limited usage scenarios.

Partners should begin proactive outreach now to ensure customers have sufficient time to plan and transition before support ends.

New incentives for Microsoft Copilot Cowork adoption

Drive eligible Microsoft Copilot Cowork adoption to earn an activation bonus.

  • Date: September 10, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners

On September 1, 2026, Microsoft launched the Copilot Cowork Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) Activation Incentive, creating an additional earning opportunity for partners to be rewarded for driving customer adoption and usage of Copilot Cowork. This investment recognizes the critical role partners play in helping customers realize value from AI and accelerating consumption growth.

Combined with existing CSP incentives, this investment provides CSP indirect resellers and direct bill partners with even more ways to grow their earnings while helping customers successfully adopt and scale Copilot Cowork.

Next steps

Learn more about the opportunity in the incentives guide.

Join Partnering for Success Together

Register for the monthly partner skilling session on September 23 to stay up to date on the latest partner updates and turn them into customer impact.

  • Date: September 9, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: All partners

Customer expectations are evolving quickly. Staying ahead of new opportunities, offerings, and go-to-market priorities can help you move faster, build stronger customer relationships, and drive business growth.

Join us on September 23 for the first session in our Partnering for Success Together series, a monthly partner skilling session hosted on the Microsoft Partner Skilling Hub. Designed to help you stay informed and prepare to act, the session covers the latest updates across Microsoft's commercial solution areas, investments designed to strengthen partner enablement, and practical guidance to support your go-to-market success.

As a participant, you’ll:

  • Stay up to date on key announcements and partner opportunities across Microsoft's commercial solution areas.
  • Deepen your understanding of Microsoft investments designed to accelerate partner enablement.
  • Identify actionable go-to-market strategies that can help you drive faster customer impact.

Whether you're looking to strengthen your go-to-market readiness, align with the latest priorities, or uncover new opportunities for growth, register for this first session in an ongoing series to stay ahead.

Next steps

Register now on the Microsoft Partner Skilling Hub.

Automatic onboarding for Microsoft Sentinel

Microsoft Sentinel automatic onboarding for managed customers begins in September 2026.

  • Date: September 9, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: Managed security service providers (MSSPs) and partners managing Microsoft Sentinel customers

Starting in September 2026, Microsoft will begin automatically onboarding managed customers that didn't move to the unified Microsoft Sentinel experience in the Microsoft Defender portal.

Microsoft will manage the scheduling, customer notifications, and technical onboarding. Affected tenant administrators receive an in-portal banner and admin email about 30 days before their onboarding date. Existing third-party connectors, content, and data remain in place.

What this change means for you

To prepare for this change, review customers with multiple Microsoft Sentinel workspaces and consider the following information:

  • Microsoft selects one primary workspace for Microsoft Defender XDR alerts and incidents.
  • XDR-dependent content in secondary workspaces might stop functioning after the primary workspace is established.
  • To maintain content from secondary workspaces, migrate affected analytics rules, automation rules, playbooks, and workbooks to the primary workspace.
  • For special handling or to request a different primary workspace, email MSSP-Sentinel-Support@microsoft.com with the tenant ID and preferred workspace resource ID.

No action is required for other managed customers.

As a related reminder, the Microsoft Sentinel experience in the Azure portal retires on March 31, 2027.

Next steps

Learn more about Microsoft Sentinel in the Microsoft Defender portal.

Dynamics 365 Activate now in limited public preview

Assess Salesforce environments and prepare for faster, AI-powered migrations with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Activate.

  • Date: September 9, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: Partners supporting Salesforce-to-Dynamics 365 migrations, including global systems integrators (GSIs), systems integrators (SIs), and implementation teams

Microsoft is introducing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Activate, a new unified, AI-assisted tool designed for customers and partners to more easily move from legacy business applications to agentic solutions with greater speed and confidence. It's built to enhance your implementation team's understanding of customers' existing environments, plan what comes next, and prepare for migration to Dynamics 365.

Dynamics 365 Activate will begin with a limited public preview focused on Salesforce-to-Dynamics 365 migrations. The experience uses AI to analyze data, processes, customizations, and dependencies, giving implementation teams a clearer blueprint for transformation.

Partners can use these insights to assess Salesforce environments faster, determine what to preserve, simplify, or redesign around AI and agents, and identify migration risks and dependencies earlier. This approach empowers teams to focus more time on solution architecture, industry expertise, and change management.

Additional Dynamics 365 implementation scenarios, including enterprise resource planning (ERP), will follow as Microsoft expands the experience.

Next steps

CSP price list republish: Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 Extended Security Updates

Now available: Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 Extended Security Updates (ESU) Year 1–3 offers.

  • Date: September 8, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners

The Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 Extended Security Updates (ESU) Year 1–3 offers are now available. Due to a publishing delay, these offers weren't included in the September 2026 Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) price list at its regular monthly publication.

The CSP price list will be republished on September 8, 2026, at which point this update will be reflected in Partner Center. Until then, partners might not see these offers in price list downloads or pricing views.

The following product is impacted by this update:

Product name Product ID
Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 ESU DG7GMGDZQ4KS

Next steps

Download the refreshed September 2026 price list after the republish on September 8 in the pricing workspace.

ASPX updates to uncover opportunities

ASPX is now an action engine that helps partners find the right customers, clear adoption blockers, and prioritize the opportunities most likely to grow Copilot.

  • Date: September 8, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) distributors, CSP indirect resellers, CSP direct-bill partners, scale solution providers (SSPs), and global systems integrators and systems integrators (GSIs/SIs)

AI Business Solutions & Security Partner eXperience (ASPX) is evolving from a reporting tool into an action engine. It surfaces signals that make it easier to identify customer readiness, adoption barriers, and opportunities across the Microsoft 365 Copilot journey.

Five FY27 priorities span the partner journey:

  • Free-to-paid: Stop guessing who's ready to buy. ASPX surfaces high-intent signals, including license requests and users reaching free usage limits, so you can focus paid Copilot conversations on accounts already showing demand.
  • Microsoft 365 E7 targeting: Find the customers most likely to expand. Prioritize Microsoft 365 E7 opportunities using telemetry, usage, and licensing data instead of broad account lists.
  • Microsoft Copilot Cowork usage: Turn AI usage into growth. Identify which customers are already realizing value through Copilot Cowork, and focus engagement where adoption is accelerating.
  • Frontier account targeting: Know which customers are ready for what's next. Frontier signals highlight tenants positioned to adopt the next wave of AI workloads.
  • API v1.5: Bring ASPX data into the tools you already use. A simpler integration, reduced from more than 80 endpoints to four, includes streaming and improved documentation to keep your CRM and reporting workflows ready for future ASPX data.

Together, these priorities support your journey from identifying opportunities and driving adoption to expanding usage, monetizing value, and scaling the motion.

Next steps

Questions

Contact your Partner Development Manager or visit the ASPX support resources for more information.

Business Applications roadmap content moving

Microsoft Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Dataverse content is moving to the AI at Work roadmap.

  • Date: September 4, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) distributors, CSP indirect reseller partners, CSP direct-bill partners, scale solution providers (SSPs), software development companies (SDCs), and global systems integrators and systems integrators (GSIs/SIs)

Starting in September 2026, roadmap content for Microsoft Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Dataverse will move to the AI at Work roadmap, creating a single destination for Microsoft 365, Copilot, agents, and Business Applications roadmap updates.

Microsoft is transitioning from twice-yearly release waves to continuous roadmap and change communications.

Existing roadmap items with public preview or general availability dates on or after June 1, 2026, are expected to migrate to the new roadmap after September 2026. As part of this change, there won't be a September 2026 Release Wave 2 announcement. Instead, Microsoft will archive Release Plans on Microsoft Learn and retire Release Planner by November 15, 2026.

This change affects roadmap communications only. Product release schedules, deployment processes, Message Center notifications, and product documentation remain unchanged.

Partners can also access roadmap data through the Microsoft Release Communications Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server at no cost and without a sign-in requirement.

Next steps

New CSP sandbox offer construct preview

Prepare for the shift to consumption-based offers: Validate the flex spend plan in the sandbox environment starting September 1, 2026.

  • Date: September 2, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: All CSP segments (direct bill, indirect resellers, distributors) and SSPs, as well as SDCs and GSIs/SIs preparing to integrate with the flex spend plan.

Microsoft is continuing to evolve its business toward consumption-based offers, and Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners play an important role in that future. On September 1, Microsoft will make a storage and database test product, flex spend plan, available in the sandbox environment.

CSP partners can then integrate with and validate a flex spend plan. While this test product doesn't represent a final production offer, Microsoft plans to use this same construct for several other consumption products in the future.

The flex spend plan is designed to support capabilities such as a single agreement that can cover multiple eligible products or services, monthly billing rather than full upfront prepayment, coverage across the full-year commitment period, and auto-renewal.

The sandbox test product might not represent the final production offerings. Its purpose is to help partners prepare for future consumption products that use the same construct and strengthen their readiness for the continued shift toward consumption. Note: trials, promotions, and related incentive structures for the new offer type won't be available with the September 1 sandbox test product.

Next steps

Use the sandbox offer now to build readiness:

  1. Integrate with the new offer type.
  2. Test and validate the purchase, billing, and management experience.
  3. Identify any required system or operational changes.
  4. Prepare for future production offers built on the new construct.

Learn more in the FAQ and the Microsoft Learn Document.

Purchase order mapping in Microsoft Marketplace

By connecting Microsoft Marketplace purchases to purchase orders, customers can better manage spend while partners unlock more customer opportunities. Purchase order mapping empowers customers to allocate their Marketplace spend, helping them buy with confidence while partners accelerate growth.

  • Date: September 1, 2026
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: Any partner with a Marketplace listing.

Microsoft is making it easier for customers to buy, manage, and scale solutions through Microsoft Marketplace. Purchase order mapping helps organizations allocate Marketplace purchases with existing procurement and financial processes.

For partners, this means access to customers who require their cloud and AI spending to align with their purchase orders. By helping organizations fit Marketplace purchases into established business workflows, partners can simplify purchasing conversations and support faster, more confident buying decisions.

As customers expand their Marketplace investments, purchase order mapping helps reinforce trust in the purchasing process while supporting the controls organizations expect. When Marketplace spend is aligned to purchase orders, customers can allocate costs to specific business needs and connect to their procurement systems. This can support a smoother path to adoption, increased Marketplace engagement, and greater opportunities for partner growth.

Next steps

Learn more about how to align cloud investments to your purchase orders for Microsoft Marketplace.

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