Azure sponsorship grant reactivation

Question

I checked the balance and I have 2000$ amount but it is indicated that Sponsorship is not active. When I am trying to reactivate the renewed grant (found in the email) It is mentioned that I need a credit card, but what I need a credit card for this? How can a I reactive grant?

Answer 1

Hello Tamar, it sounds like you’ve successfully renewed your $2,000 Azure Sponsorship grant but your subscription is still marked “Not active,” and the portal is asking for a credit card when you try to reactivate. Here’s what’s going on and how to finish the reactivation:

1. Why a credit card is required • Even though you won’t be billed until you exceed your $2,000 grant, Azure uses a credit-card check to verify your identity and to cover any overages beyond your sponsorship balance. • This is a one-time step when you renew or activate a sponsorship—after you add a valid card, you won’t be charged unless you actually go over your grant.
2. Reactivation steps for a Nonprofit Azure Sponsorship a. Go to the Nonprofit Hub portal: https://nonprofit.microsoft.com b. Sign in with the same account you used to claim the grant. c. Select “Nonprofit grants” from the top menu and locate your $2,000 Azure grant. d. Click the “Renew now” button next to the grant. e. Follow the guided wizard—confirm your eligibility, accept terms, and when prompted, add your credit-card details for verification. f. After confirmation, you’ll get an email that your grant has been reactivated.
3. Verify in the Azure Portal • Sign in to https://portal.azure.com and go to Subscriptions. • Find your sponsorship subscription (offer ID ms-azr-0036p or similar). • If it’s still disabled, click “Reactivate” in the command bar—Azure will run diagnostics and flip it back to Active. • It can take up to 24 hours after card validation for all resources to resume, but most come back online within minutes.
4. If you still can’t reactivate Please share: • The exact error message or prompt you see when adding your credit card. • Your subscription ID and tenant ID (no secret keys—just the GUIDs). • Whether you’ve already created or linked a Billing Profile in Cost Management + Billing.

Reference links

1. Renew your Azure Sponsorship grant (Nonprofit Hub)
2. Reactivate a disabled Azure subscription
3. Manage Billing Profiles & payment methods

Answer 2

Hello Tamar Jangulashvili,

Greetings!

Thanks for raising this question in Q&A forum.

This is a very common situation with Azure Sponsorship grants. The reason you're seeing the "Sponsorship not active" message even though you have a $2,000 balance is likely because the previous sponsorship subscription has expired or been disabled, and the system requires you to go through a reactivation flow. The credit card prompt during reactivation is not meant to charge you it is simply used as a verification method to confirm your identity and serve as a backup payment method in case your sponsorship credits run out. You will not be billed as long as your grant balance is active and sufficient.

Here's how you can go about reactivating it:

1. Use the reactivation link from your email Open the grant renewal email you received and click the reactivation link. This should take you directly to the Azure sponsorship activation page.
2. Sign in with the correct Microsoft account Make sure you are signed in with the same account that is associated with the sponsorship grant. Using a different account is a common reason reactivation fails.
3. Add a credit card when prompted Go ahead and add a valid credit card on the activation page. This is only for identity verification and as a safety net. As long as you stay within your $2,000 sponsorship balance, your card will not be charged.
4. Complete the activation Once the card is added and the form is submitted, your sponsorship subscription should become active and the $2,000 balance should be available for use.
5. If the reactivation link doesn't work Go to https://www.microsoftazuresponsorships.com, sign in, and check if your grant is listed there. You can also try to activate it directly from that portal.
6. Still stuck? Raise a support request Go to Azure Portal → Help + Support → New Support Request, select Billing as the issue type, and explain that your sponsorship shows a balance but is not active. The billing support team handles these cases quickly and can manually reactivate it for you.

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

Best Regards,

Jerald Felix.