Azure for Visual Studio subscribers

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Are there any geographic or service restrictions impacting this benefit?

Azure subscriptions created via the Visual Studio Subscriptions benefit may be restricted in ways paid subscriptions aren't. Certain geographies may not be available for creating VMs and Azure services, and certain service types may not be available. There may be a lower default quota than on paid subscriptions.

Are there any other limitations I should be aware of?

The monthly Azure credit for Visual Studio subscribers is for development and testing only and doesn't carry a financially backed SLA. We reserve the right to suspend any instance (VM or cloud service) that runs continuously for more than 120 hours or if we determine that the instance is being used for production. We're making this capacity available to Visual Studio subscribers on a best-effort basis; there's no guarantee of capacity availability.

The monthly credit doesn't apply toward purchase of the following services:

  • Support plans
  • Application Insights
  • Visual Studio subscriptions
  • Azure DevOps
  • Visual Studio App Center
  • Third-party branded products
  • Products sold through the Visual Studio Marketplace
  • Products otherwise sold separately from Azure (for example, Microsoft Entra ID P2)

To purchase these services, you need to remove your spending limit and provide a credit card for billing.

How much does it cost?

There's no cost to use these credits. They're included in your Visual Studio subscription. When you run out of the credit that's allotted for the month, you won't be able to continue using it until it resets the next month.

Can I use my monthly Azure credits to run production applications?

Monthly Azure credits for Visual Studio subscribers are specifically for individual dev/test usage only. To run production workloads, you need to upgrade to a paid Azure subscription such as pay-as-you-go pricing.

Where do I find more information?

You can learn more about how your Azure credits work by visiting our Monthly Azure credits for Visual Studio subscribers page.

How do I get started?

To learn how to set up your Azure credits, see the 'Activation steps' section of our Azure credit article.

My organization has multiple Visual Studio subscribers. Can their monthly Azure credits be pooled?

Credit pooling isn't available. This benefit is for personal use by the Visual Studio subscriber.

What are the monthly Azure credits?

Azure monthly credits provide you with the ability to explore and try various Azure services at no cost. Examples include:

  • Host a static website
  • Publish an ASP.NET site to Azure
  • Deploy a containerized website
  • Deploy a website to a virtual machine
  • Integrate your data and services using serverless backend
  • Deploy a Python web app

For more information about how you can use Azure credits, visit Monthly Azure credits for Visual Studio subscribers

Can I use my work account to sign in?

You must activate the credits using the email associated with your Visual Studio subscription, or your alternate account. Check out our Alternate identities article for more information about using alternate identities.

What happens to my Azure resources when my subscription expires?

When your Visual Studio subscription ends, you're no longer eligible to receive Azure monthly credits. You begin receiving emails from Azure, reminding you to either renew, purchase a new Visual Studio subscription, convert your current Azure subscription to pay-as-you-go, or move your existing Azure resources to another subscription. The emails say when assets will be disabled and deleted, and instructions on how to purchase a subscription or transfer your Azure resources to a new subscription.

You can get help with Azure issues and questions by submitting a request.