Free trials for SaaS offers in Microsoft Marketplace

Free trials let customers evaluate your software as a service (SaaS) offer before they commit to a paid subscription. For SaaS offers sold through Microsoft, you can configure a free trial on paid plans in Partner Center. Customers can use the plan at no charge during the trial period, and the subscription automatically converts to the paid plan unless the customer cancels before the trial ends or disables auto-renew.

Free trials help customers validate your solution while keeping the purchase, subscription lifecycle, billing transition, and cancellation experience managed through Microsoft Marketplace.

How SaaS free trials work

For transactable SaaS offers, configure free trials at the plan level. Each eligible plan can have its own free trial setting and trial duration.

You can configure SaaS free trials for 1 to 180 days. Free trials are available for SaaS plans that use the flat rate, per user, and metered pricing models.

During the free trial, the SaaS subscription is active. The customer can access your service, but the customer isn't charged for the plan during the free trial period. When the trial ends, the subscription converts to the paid plan unless the customer cancels before the trial period ends or disables auto-renew.

Note

SaaS plan-level free trials are different from listing-only free trials. Listing-only free trials are configured as a listing option for SaaS offers that aren't sold through Microsoft. Plan-level free trials apply to transactable SaaS offers sold through Microsoft.

Requirements for SaaS free trials

Plan-level free trials have the same technical requirements as other transactable SaaS plans sold through Microsoft.

Before you configure a free trial, your SaaS offer must:

  1. Integrate with the SaaS Fulfillment APIs.
  2. Configure a landing page URL for customer account setup and management.
  3. Configure a connection webhook to receive subscription lifecycle notifications.
  4. Support Microsoft Entra ID single sign-on for customers who are redirected to your landing page.

For more information, see:

Create a SaaS free trial

You configure free trials on the plan’s Pricing and availability page in Partner Center.

To enable, update, or turn off a free trial:

  1. In Partner Center, open your SaaS offer.
  2. Go to Plan overview, and then select the plan you want to update.
  3. On the Pricing and availability page, go to Free Trial.
  4. Turn on Free trials are turned on for this plan.
  5. Select Configure free trials for this plan.
  6. Enter the trial duration in days. The duration must be between 1 and 180 days.
  7. Save your changes.

After you configure the trial, the Free Trial section shows the selected trial duration, for example: Trial duration: 10 days.

To change the trial duration later, select Configure free trials for this plan, update the duration, and save your changes. To turn off free trials for the plan, turn off Free trials are turned on for this plan and save your changes.

Changes to free trial settings apply only to new trials. Customers who already started a trial keep the trial terms that were available when they started the trial.

For detailed plan setup steps, see Create plans for a SaaS offer.

Customer experience

When a customer selects a trial-enabled SaaS plan, the customer subscribes to the plan through Microsoft Marketplace. During the trial period, the subscription is active so the customer can use the SaaS service without being charged.

Customers can cancel before the trial ends to prevent the subscription from converting to paid.

When the trial ends, the subscription automatically converts to the paid plan unless the customer cancels before the trial period ends or disables auto-renew.

Customer actions during a trial

Customers can take the following actions during a free trial.

Customer action Result
Cancel during the trial The trial ends and the subscription doesn't convert to paid.
Upgrade to paid before the trial ends The customer purchases the paid version of the product, billing starts for the selected paid plan, and the free trial ends immediately.
Change to another trial-enabled plan in the same offer The trial period doesn't restart. The remaining trial period continues on the new plan.
Change to a plan that doesn't have a free trial The free trial ends immediately and billing starts for the selected paid plan.

For more information, see:

API and webhook behavior

Free trial subscriptions use the same SaaS fulfillment APIs and webhook events as other SaaS subscriptions.

Use the subscription APIs to activate trial-enabled subscriptions, identify whether a subscription is currently in a free trial, identify which available plans have free trials configured, change a customer from a free trial to a paid plan, and cancel a free trial before it converts to paid.

For more information, see:

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