N family GPUs can not be added to VM because they are unavailable in Availability zones

Question

I am on the Student subscription plan and want to create a GPU accelerated VM to train a model for a University project, the N Family are the ones best fit for my needs, I requested quota increase for some of them and it got approved, however when I create my VM I can not choose them

It tells me that these sizes are not available in the Availability zone

I changed to Zones 2 and 3 and still the same problem, am I doing something wrong? Can someone help me with this problem>

Answer 1

N-series GPUs are not available in all regions or availability zones, even if your quota request was approved. Try these steps:

1. Check Region Availability – Some regions don’t support N-series VMs. Use az vm list-sizes --location <region> in Azure CLI to verify.
2. Use No-Zone Deployment – Instead of selecting an availability zone, try deploying the VM without specifying one.
3. Contact Microsoft Support – If the quota was approved but VMs are still unavailable, Azure Support can clarify region-specific limitations.

Answer 2

Hi Momen Kadry,

We noticed your feedback that the above answer was not helpful. Thank you for taking time to share feedback.

The Azure for Students account comes with certain limitations, including a maximum of 3 virtual CPUs, which prevents the creation of GPU-enabled VMs. To access GPU resources, you must upgrade to a Pay-As-You-Go subscription, though this may not be a viable option for all students. GPU Optimized VM's are the N series VM's. By default, the quota on the subscription for this type of VM's are set to 0.

As you have said you have requested quota increased and it is approved, make sure the quota increase was applied to the same region where you are trying to create the VM.

• Go to Azure Portal → Subscription → Usage + quotas
• Filter by Region and check the quota for N-series VMs.

If the VM sizes are not available in your current region, try creating the VM in another region that supports N-series VMs.

Request a quota submission here for the VM available region.

In case you want to move to pay-as-you-go offering, please check the details here.

You can try spot vm's but availability is highly variable and depends on unused capacity in your chosen region. Some N-series (GPU) VMs are available as Spot instances, but they may be evicted frequently.

We recommend submitting this feature request directly via the Azure Feedback Portal (https://feedback.azure.com). The product team will get to know your need for resources for student accounts.

If you have any further queries, please do let us know. If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and "Upvote it."