How is Microsoft for Startups Milestone 3 ($25,000) evaluated, and how long after meeting the 60-day workload requirement does the credit increase apply?

Question

Details

We are on Microsoft for Startups and currently at the $5,000 credit tier

(Milestone 2, business verification complete).

Per the documented Milestone 3 requirement — 5 or more active Azure workloads

sustained for approximately 60 days, each maintaining at least $1 in spend —

our subscription has now met that:

• 9 distinct Azure services with billed usage in the current month (AI/Foundry models, PostgreSQL, Container Apps, Load Balancer, Container Registry, Container Instances, Virtual Network, Storage, DNS)
  • Each has been above the $1 threshold continuously for 60+ days
  • Current month-to-date spend is approaching the $5,000 allocation
  Questions:

1. Is the workload count based on distinct billed service names, or on something else (resource providers, resource types, meters)?
2. Once the 60-day requirement is met, how long does the automatic evaluation typically take to apply the new credit limit?
3. If usage reaches the allocation cap before the milestone upgrade is applied, what happens to services running on the subscription?
4. Is there a way to see current milestone progress in the Startups portal?

Any guidance on where this is reviewed would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Hi Rick,

Microsoft currently states that Milestone 3 is $25,000 after using 5 or more Azure workloads for approximately 60 continuous days. The 60-day period starts once the required number of workloads are active and each has at least $1 in spend. Each workload must remain above that threshold throughout the period.

A workload is defined as an Azure service actively used in the solution, with examples including VMs, AI services, databases, and application hosting. Based on that definition, your different services such as AI/Foundry, PostgreSQL, Container Apps, Container Registry, etc. can count as separate workloads.

Once the requirement is met, Microsoft says the account is automatically evaluated and upgraded. There is no separate Milestone 3 application.

If the $5,000 credits are exhausted before the upgrade is applied, the subscription transitions to pay-as-you-go, so the Azure resources continue running and usage is billed normally.

The Microsoft for Startups Azure Portal also provides credit milestone tracking, so the milestone status can be checked from the Startup experience.