Azure AI Foundry Quota Tier Upgrade Email - How do I stay on the Free Tier?

Question

I received an email stating that my Azure AI Foundry/OpenAI quota is eligible for an automatic upgrade from Free Tier to Tier 1.

The email states that if I do not take any action within 3 days, the quota tier will be automatically upgraded. It also says that I can remain on the Free Tier by using the provided opt-out link. However, the link only redirects to the quota tiers documentation and does not provide any option to opt out.

I checked Azure Subscription settings, Usage + Quotas, and Azure AI Foundry settings but could not find any Auto Upgrade, NoAutoUpgrade, or Tier Upgrade Policy setting.

How can I opt out of the automatic quota tier upgrade and remain on the Free Tier? Also, does this quota tier upgrade affect billing or only quota limits?

Thank you.

Answer 1

Based on my own research the AI answer is incorrect about not changing the cost: if you upgrade your Azure AI services from the Free Tier to Tier 1 (Pay-As-You-Go), any free monthly allowances from the old tier do not carry over, and you will be billed strictly for the actual usage you consume under the paid tier's rates. If your usage is strictly zero, your cost will be zero, but after upgrading to Tier 1 even if staying under a previous free quota will still incur standard charges.

I disabled the Auto Tier Upgrade using PowerShell, you can check your current tier with this:

$Subscription = '00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000'
az login --subscription $Subscription --skip-subscription-discovery
$Token = az account get-access-token --resource https://management.azure.com --query accessToken -o tsv
$Headers = @{
	"Authorization" = "Bearer $Token"
	"Content-Type" = "application/json"
}
$Response = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/$subscription/providers/Microsoft.CognitiveServices/quotaTiers?api-version=2025-10-01-preview" -Method GET -Headers $Headers -UseBasicParsing
$Response.content

Then disabled it with:

$BodyData = @{ "properties" = @{ "tierUpgradePolicy" = "NoAutoUpgrade" } } | ConvertTo-Json
$Response = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/$Subscription/providers/Microsoft.CognitiveServices/quotaTiers/default?api-version=2025-10-01-preview" -Method PATCH -Headers $Headers -Body $BodyData -UseBasicParsing
$Response.content

If you check current level immediately to confirm it will still tell you the old tierUpgradePolicy, give it 5 to 10 min and check again and should show the NoAutoUpgrade

Answer 2

I think Free Tier stays by using the opt‑out link in the mail and, when it shows nothing, asking Azure Support to keep the quota on Free Tier. Tier change touches quota limits and not the pricing model.

Answer 3

Opt-out from automatic quota tier upgrades is controlled by a flag on the Foundry side, not via a visible setting in the Azure portal.

To remain on the Free Tier, the NoAutoUpgrade flag must be set for the account so that the quota tier is not automatically increased as usage grows. The documentation specifies:

“To opt out, you can set the following flag to NoAutoUpgrade… The opt out feature is preview and may be subject to change/removal in the future.”

Because this feature is in preview and there is no exposed UI in the Azure portal or Azure AI Foundry portal in the provided documentation, the opt-out must be applied through the mechanism referenced in the email (or via support if the email link is not functioning as intended). The email is expected to be the primary channel to request/trigger NoAutoUpgrade for that resource/tenant; if the link only opens documentation and provides no action, the next step is to open a support request so that the flag can be set on the backend.

Regarding billing: the quota tier system is described as a way to adjust rate limits (RPM/TPM) and capacity, not pricing. The documentation states that quota tiers are introduced to “improve the Foundry Models experience and reduce friction as workloads scale” and that previously approved quota increases are retained. It also notes that some customers use quota to manage billing, but explicitly calls out that this is not an Azure best practice and points to Cost Management for billing control. This indicates that tier changes affect available quota (rate limits and capacity) and not the pricing model itself.

In other words:

• Opt-out is done by setting the NoAutoUpgrade flag; if the email link does not expose this, a support path is required.
• The automatic upgrade from Free Tier to higher tiers changes quota limits (RPM/TPM and capacity), not the cost structure; billing should be managed via Cost Management rather than relying on quota tiers.

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References:

• Azure OpenAI in Microsoft Foundry Models quotas and limits
• Manage Azure OpenAI in Azure AI Foundry Models quota
• Manage Azure OpenAI in Microsoft Foundry Models quota (classic)
• Azure OpenAI in Azure AI Foundry Models quotas and limits
• Auto-upgrade Azure OpenAI resources to Microsoft Foundry