Microsoft 365 Developer Program FAQ

The Microsoft 365 Developer Program is designed to help you build people-centric, cross-platform productivity experiences that extend Microsoft 365. Join our program to get access to the tools, documentation, training, experts, and community events that you need to build great solutions for Microsoft 365 products and technologies, including:

• Excel, Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint web add-ins
• SharePoint
• Microsoft Teams
• Microsoft Graph

As a program member, you can get a free Microsoft 365 developer subscription with 25 user licenses to use to build your solutions. This subscription will remain active for as long as you’re actively developing and deploying solutions.

For more information, see Join the Microsoft 365 Developer Program and Build Microsoft 365 solutions.

You can sign up for the developer program by using one of the following account types:

• Microsoft account (created by you for personal use) - Provides access to all consumer-oriented Microsoft products and cloud services, such as Outlook (Hotmail), Messenger, OneDrive, MSN, Xbox Live, or Microsoft 365. Signing up for an Outlook.com mailbox automatically creates a Microsoft account. After a Microsoft account is created, it can be used to access consumer-related Microsoft cloud services or Azure.
• Work account (issued by an admin for business use) - Provides access to all small, medium, and enterprise business-level Microsoft cloud services, such as Azure, Microsoft Intune, or Microsoft 365. When you sign up to one of these services as an organization, a cloud-based directory is automatically provisioned in Azure Active Directory to represent your organization. For more information, see Manage your Azure AD directory.
• Visual Studio ID (created for your Visual Studio Professional or Enterprise subscriptions) - We recommend that you use this option to join the developer program from within the Visual Studio Gallery to get the full benefits as a Visual Studio subscriber.

You can only have one Microsoft 365 Developer Program account associated with your phone number. If you need to set up a new Developer Program account, for example to use a different email account or account type, you must delete your existing account first. To delete your account, sign in to your dashboard and choose Delete Profile.

Note that if you delete your Developer Program account, you can only get a subscription after you have had your existing subscription for more than 60 days.

When you join the Microsoft 365 Developer Program, you qualify to get a free Microsoft 365 E5 developer subscription. This is a special subscription designed to be used for application development only. For more information, see Set up a Microsoft 365 developer subscription.

You can have only one Microsoft 365 developer subscription through your membership in the Developer Program. If you want a new developer subscription, see How can I get a new subscription?.

Use your member ID to sign in to the Developer Program dashboard to access information about your subscription. This is the Microsoft account or Azure Active Directory-enabled email that you used to sign in when you joined the program.

Use the administrator ID that you created when you set up your developer subscription. You can find your administrator ID on the subscription tile on the Developer Program dashboard.

If you created your subscription after August 25, 2019, you have a Microsoft 365 E5 Developer subscription with 25 user licenses. Customers who joined the program before August 25, 2019, have an Office 365 E3 Developer subscription with 25 user licenses.

The Office 365 E3 Developer subscription includes the following:

• Exchange Online (Plan 2)
• Flow for Office 365
• Information Protection for Office 365 - Standard
• Microsoft Forms (Plan E5)
• Microsoft Planner
• Microsoft Search
• Microsoft Stream for Office 365 E5 SKU
• Microsoft Teams
• Mobile Device Management for Office 365
• Office 365 ProPlus
• Office for the web
• PowerApps for Office 365
• SharePoint Online for Developer
• Skype for Business Online (Plan 2)
• Sway
• To-Do (Plan 3)
• Whiteboard (Plan 2)

The Microsoft 365 E5 Developer subscription includes all the apps that are included in the Office 365 E3 Developer subscription, plus the following new features:

• Advanced analytics with Power BI
• Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) for compliance and information protection
• Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection
• Azure Active Directory for building advanced identity and access management solutions

The Microsoft 365 E5 Developer subscription includes the following:

• Azure Active Directory Premium P1
• Azure Active Directory Premium P2
• Azure Advanced Threat Protection
• Azure Information Protection Premium P1
• Azure Information Protection Premium P2
• Customer Lockbox
• Exchange Online (Plan 2)
• Flow for Office 365
• Information Protection for Office 365 - Premium
• Information Protection for Office 365 - Standard
• Microsoft Azure Active Directory Rights
• Microsoft Azure Multi-Factor Authentication
• Microsoft Cloud App Security
• Microsoft Forms (Plan E5)
• Microsoft Intune
• Microsoft MyAnalytics (Full)
• Microsoft Planner
• Microsoft StaffHub
• Microsoft Stream for O365 E5 SKU
• Microsoft Teams
• Mobile Device Management for Office 365
• Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Premium)
• Office 365 Advanced Security Management
• Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection (Plan 1)
• Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection (Plan 2)
• Office 365 Privileged Access Management
• Office 365 ProPlus
• Office Online
• Phone System
• Power BI Pro
• PowerApps for Office 365 Plan 3
• SharePoint Online (Plan 2)
• Skype for Business Online (Plan 2)
• Sway
• To-Do (Plan 3)
• Whiteboard (Plan 3)
• Yammer Enterprise

You can determine whether you have a Microsoft 365 E5 subscription or an Office 365 E3 subscription on the subscription tile on your dashboard. The tile will show either E3 or E5 under the subscription domain name.

You can only have one Microsoft 365 developer subscription associated with your Developer Program account. If you want to get a new instant or configurable sandbox, you can delete your account and set up a new one. Note that you can only get a new subscription after you have had your subscription for more than 60 days.

In Exchange Online, inbound connectors for mailflow are not supported. If you try to create an inbound connector, you will get the following error: "Error executing request. For this service offering, you can't create or update inbound connectors in your organization."

We require members of the Microsoft 365 Developer Program to adhere to the Terms and conditions. In some instances, we may not allow members who violate our terms to sign in to the program.

If you don't remember the email address you used to sign in to the program, you can use your phone number to recover it. For example, to recover a Microsoft account:

• On the Sign in page, choose Sign-in options.
• On the Sign-in options page, choose Forgot my username.
• On the Recover your username page, enter the phone number that you used to join the Microsoft 365 Developer Program.
• Enter the security code that you received.
• Select the email address that you used to join the Developer Program, and choose Sign in.

This offer does not include a subscription to Azure. Commercial transactions, such as purchasing additional paid services, are not supported on your Microsoft 365 Developer Program subscription; it is only for developing and testing your solutions.

To receive free access to Azure services, you can create a free Azure account.

Your Office 365 E3 or Microsoft 365 E5 developer subscription includes 25 user licenses, including the administrator, for development purposes only. Using this subscription for any purpose other than application development is a violation of the license agreement. For more details about the licensing restrictions, see the terms of use.

Your subscription is good for 90 days and is renewable based on valid developer activity. If you're using your subscription for development, it will be renewed every 3 months and will last indefinitely. You can find the expiration date, along with your subscription name, on your Microsoft 365 Developer Program dashboard. For more information, see Subscription expiration and renewal.

If you're joining the program through Visual Studio Enterprise or Visual Studio Professional, your subscription is automatically renewed until your Visual Studio subscription expires.

In April 2019, we transitioned to a new model where your subscription can be renewed perpetually every 90 days if you're actively using it for development. We believe that this model ensures that developers who are actively developing solutions have a subscription for as long as they need one. If you're developing frequently, your subscription never expires; it is automatically extended. If you're developing for a short time, and your subscription expires and is deleted, you can sign up for a new one.

If you prefer to have a subscription that is available for a longer time, we recommend that you get the Visual Studio Professional or Visual Studio Enterprise subscription. These programs include a free Microsoft 365 developer subscription that is good for the life of your Visual Studio subscription. To access this, go to Visual Studio | My Benefits. For more information, contact Visual Studio customer service.

We use a set of algorithms and telemetry that we get from your activity in the Microsoft 365 Developer Program and on your Office 365 E3 or Microsoft 365 E5 developer subscription to determine whether you are actively developing. We check these regularly to update your status and determine whether your subscription should be extended.

If you think we somehow missed tracking your development activity accurately, you can let us know via your dashboard. To submit a form that tells us how you are using your subscription for development, in the dashboard warning, choose the Let us know link, as shown in the following image. We will review your request and let you know if you qualify for an extension.

Your activity in the Developer Program and on your developer subscription determine whether you are actively developing and whether your subscription should be extended.

For more information about the types of activities that we track, see the terms of use.

The only way that you can extend your subscription is to do valid developer activity. If you're using your subscription to develop custom solutions, your subscription will expire and will eventually be deleted.

For more information, see Subscription expiration and renewal.

You have 30 days after your subscription expires to migrate any data. For the next 30 days, only the admin will have access to the subscription, and on day 60, the subscription and all data will be deleted.

Currently, only new Microsoft 365 Developer Program members will get a Microsoft 365 E5 Developer subscription automatically. Existing users will be offered an option to migrate to a Microsoft 365 E5 subscription.

If you choose to migrate to a Microsoft 365 E5 subscription, you can use the free tool Microsoft Mover to migrate your data. See also the following resources:

• How to migrate mailboxes from one Microsoft 365 tenant to another
• Using PowerShell to perform a staged migration to Office 365
• Migrate your content to Microsoft 365

If you choose an instant sandbox, you can cut your sandbox configuration time from days to seconds. The Microsoft 365 instant sandbox comes pre-provisioned with Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Outlook, and Office. It also includes licenses for 24 test users plus one admin, and the latest Microsoft 365 apps for your PC and Mac, including Power Apps, Power BI, Enterprise Mobility + Security, Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection, and Azure Active Directory.

In addition, you get pre-installed sample data, including the new Teams sample data pack, which simulate a small corporate environment to help you build solutions across the Microsoft 365 platform. For details, see Developer sandbox sample data.

If you choose a configurable sandbox, you will have an empty sandbox that you must populate with sample data. This sandbox can take up to two days to provision. You can choose to install the sample data packs that are available on your developer program dashboard. You can customize your domain name with this option.

To see the Microsoft Teams sample data, go to Teams in your Microsoft 365 E5 subscription. On the Teams tab, you’ll see some pre-created teams with chats from sample users in the Mark 8 Project Team. The App Studio/Dev Portal app is pre-installed and pinned to the navigation pane.

When you join the Microsoft 365 Developer Program, on your My settings page, you can link your GitHub account to your developer program account. Linking your GitHub account will accrue toward the renewal of your Microsoft 365 developer sandbox subscription. You can also choose to unlink your account by going to the Accounts linked section of your My settings page.

Currently, new Developer Program members are offered only a Microsoft 365 E5 subscription. Existing members with an Office 365 E3 subscription will have the option to keep their current subscription and continue to renew it if they don't need the new capabilities offered in Microsoft 365 E5, or do a one-time upgrade to a Microsoft 365 E5 subscription. Developer Program members can only have one subscription.

No. The free Microsoft 365 developer subscription is only subject to the Terms and conditions and not the EUDB commitments. As part of the provisioning process, however, you have the option to choose the country/region for your subscription.

Yes, you can follow these instructions to join the Microsoft 365 Developer Program and set up a Microsoft 365 developer subscription. However, if you already have a Visual Studio Enterprise or Visual Studio Professional subscription, you can get a Microsoft 365 developer subscription as a benefit. To access this, go to Visual Studio | My Benefits. For more information, contact Visual Studio customer service.

Microsoft employees cannot sign up for this offer. All Microsoft full-time employees have access to a free Visual Studio subscription that includes access to a Microsoft 365 E5 developer subscription. You can access this benefit at Visual Studio | My Benefits.

Yes, you can follow these instructions to join the Microsoft 365 Developer Program and set up a Microsoft 365 developer subscription. But even for vendors, this subscription is designed to be used for application development only. If you are not doing valid development activity, your subscription will not be renewed.

The Microsoft 365 developer subscription is only offered in English.

The Developer Program website is available in the following languages: Chinese (Simplified), French, German, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, and Spanish.

If you decide that you no longer want to participate in the Microsoft 365 Developer Program, you can end your subscription and leave the program.

1. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 Developer Program.

2. Choose Delete Profile.

3. In the Delete Profile confirmation box, choose Delete.

If you have issues setting up your subscription, see the following support resource:

• Stack Overflow

• Join the Microsoft 365 Developer Program
• Set up a Microsoft 365 developer subscription
• Use your subscription to build Microsoft 365 solutions
• Renew an expiring subscription