Incorrect trial expiration date (July 1, 2026) and unexpected automatic switch to pay-as-you-go

Hello Pasquale Marzaioli

It looks like the alert you’re seeing is actually pointing to the end of your 12-month “free services” period (July 1, 2026), not the 30-day $200-credit trial period. A quick breakdown:

1. Azure Free Account has two phases: a) 30 days or $200 credit—whichever you hit first. b) 12 months of selected free services once you’ve upgraded to Pay-As-You-Go.
2. On day 31 (or when your $200 ran out), Azure automatically flips you to Pay-As-You-Go. That’s by design, you can’t revert to “trial,” but you keep: • Any unused $200 credit (valid until 30 days after sign-up) • All of your 12-month free-services allotment (which in your case ends July 1, 2026)
3. You won’t be charged until you either use up your $200 credit, exhaust your free-services quotas, or consume any service outside those free tiers.

What you can do right now:

• Go to Azure Portal > Subscriptions > [Your Subscription] > Overview. Confirm that:

“Spending limit” is still On (that prevents any live billing until your credits or quotas are exhausted).

The “Free services for 12 months” card shows an expiration of July 1, 2026.

• Under Cost Management + Billing > Usage + charges, you can download a daily usage report to verify you haven’t incurred any actual charges.

If you’re still seeing unexpected billing, please raise support request to Azure Billing team.

Please follow below steps:

Azure Billing support request link: create a support request.

1.From the resource menu, in the Help section, select Support + Troubleshooting. In the Support + Troubleshooting pane on the right, type "Billing" in the search box, select Billing, and then click Next.

2.Select the subscription and click Next. You will be presented with some suggestions to resolve your issue. If none of these apply, please follow the steps below.

3.Scroll down and you will find an option to Contact Support. From there, select Create a support request.

4.Enter the problem description (Issue type - Billing, Subscription, Summary - Billing, Problem type - Assistance with Bill, Problem subtype - Help with a billing discrepancy)

5.If the solutions appear again, click on 'Return to support request'. Click Next, and you will then be able to create the billing support ticket.

Kindly let us know if the above suggested solution helps or you need further assistance on this issue.

Reference docs:

• Unexpected charges in Free Trial: https://aka.ms/UnexpectedCharges-FreeTrial

• Re-enable/upgrade Azure Free subscription: https://aka.ms/EnableFreeSub

• Avoid unexpected billing: https://aka.ms/AvoidCharges-FreeAccount

Thanks,

Suchitra.

Hello Pasquale Marzaioli,

Greetings! Thanks for raising this question in Q&A forum.

We completely understand your concern — receiving a trial expiration notice dated July 1, 2026 when today is only May 23, 2026, and having your subscription automatically switched to pay-as-you-go as a result, is clearly a billing system error on Microsoft's side. This type of premature conversion sometimes happens due to a backend date calculation bug or a billing event being triggered by a condition other than the actual trial end date — such as exhausting your free credit balance before the calendar trial period ends. Either way, this is something that needs to be corrected by Microsoft's billing team and cannot be self-resolved from the portal.

Here are the steps to get this sorted out as quickly as possible:

Step 1: Immediately check your remaining free trial credit balance

Before assuming this is purely a system error, first verify whether your free trial credits were exhausted early — which is a separate trigger for automatic pay-as-you-go conversion even within the trial period. Go to:

Azure Portal → Subscriptions → Your Subscription → Overview → look for the Credit balance or Free trial remaining indicator

If your credits ran out before July 1, this would explain the premature switch even though the calendar date is still in the trial window. This is important context to share with Microsoft support.

Step 2: Set a spending limit immediately to avoid unexpected charges

As a precaution while this is being investigated, make sure your spending limit is enabled to prevent any accidental billing on your converted pay-as-you-go subscription. Go to:

Azure Portal → Subscriptions → Your Subscription → Spending Limit → turn it On if it is currently disabled

This will pause billable resource usage rather than charge you if any limit is reached.

Step 3: Check your subscription status and conversion date in billing

Go to:

Azure Portal → Cost Management + Billing → Billing Account → Subscriptions → click your subscription → look at the Offer type and the Conversion date

Take a screenshot of this screen showing the offer type (pay-as-you-go) and the date it was changed. This is key evidence for your support case.

Step 4: Review your invoice and charges to confirm no billing has occurred yet

Go to:

Azure Portal → Cost Management + Billing → Invoices → check if any invoice has been generated after the conversion date

If no invoice exists yet and your usage is minimal, the billing may not have kicked in yet. If a charge has already appeared, note the amount and the date for your support ticket.

Step 5: Open an Azure Billing Support Ticket — this is the most critical step

This issue cannot be resolved through Q&A alone — the billing team needs to manually review and correct your subscription status. The good news is that billing support is free regardless of your support plan. Go to:

Azure Portal → Help + Support → New Support Request and fill in:

• Issue type: Billing
• Service: Subscription Management
• Problem type: Subscription converted unexpectedly
• Severity: B (Moderate)

In the description, clearly state:

• Your subscription was automatically converted to pay-as-you-go before your trial end date
• The notification showed an expiration date of July 1, 2026, which is in the future
• Today's date is May 23, 2026, and your trial should still be active
• You are requesting: (1) investigation into why the premature conversion was triggered, (2) restoration of your trial subscription status, and (3) confirmation that no charges will apply due to this error

Step 6: As an alternative — contact Microsoft Billing support directly

If the portal keeps redirecting you away from the ticket form (as other users have experienced), you can contact Azure Billing support directly at:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/global-customer-service-phone-numbers-c0389ade-5640-e588-8b0e-28de8afeb3f2

Billing issues are handled at no extra cost and the team is empowered to reverse erroneous conversions and credit any charges that resulted from a system error.

If this answer helps you kindly accept the answer which will help others who have similar questions.

Best Regards,

Jerald Felix.