Identities for Visual Studio subscribers

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When you activate your Visual Studio subscription, we link the identity (or login) that you used during activation with the Visual Studio subscription. This way, we can recognize you on the Visual Studio subscriber portal, in Azure DevOps, and in Azure.

In Azure DevOps, we check your Visual Studio subscription status each time you log in. We grant you features automatically within each organization in which you're a member. Because these features are included as a subscriber benefit, it's free to add you as a member in any Azure DevOps organization when using an identity that is linked to your Visual Studio subscription.

In Azure, we check your Visual Studio subscription status when you activate your monthly Azure DevTest individual credit that is a subscriber benefit.

Within the Visual Studio subscriber portal, you may be able to add an alternate identity -- in addition to the identity you used during activation. This way you can also add a work or school account (which you use when logging into Visual Studio, Microsoft 365, or your corporate or school network), allowing you to access Azure DevOps using both your personal account and your work or school account.

Add an alternate account to your subscription

Adding an alternate account to your Visual Studio subscription allows you to access certain subscription benefits with a different identity than that to which the subscription is assigned. These benefits include things like Azure DevOps and Azure, and the Visual Studio IDE. In the past, this was possible only if your Visual Studio subscription used a Microsoft Account (MSA). We've extended this functionality for work or school accounts in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD).

Note

An alternate ID only allows you to use that second ID to activate Azure credits and Azure DevOps, and to sign in to the Visual Studio IDE. It can't be used to sign in to the subscription portal at https://my.visualstudio.com. You still need to use the ID to which the subscription is assigned to sign in to the portal.

Add the alternate account

  1. Sign in to the Visual Studio subscriber portal with your Microsoft account (https://my.visualstudio.com).

  2. Select the Subscriptions tab.

  3. Choose Add alternate account.

  4. Add your work or school account.

    Add work or school account

  5. Use your work or school account to sign in to Azure DevOps (https://{youraccount}.visualstudio.com).

Your alternate account is added to the Visual Studio subscription, allowing both identities to utilize the benefits of the subscription that require you to sign in with the alternate account (IDE, Azure DevOps, and Azure).

FAQ

Q: Why doesn't Azure DevOps recognize me as a Visual Studio subscriber?

A: Azure DevOps should automatically recognize your subscription when you sign in using your primary or alternate identity. If not, you can try a few things:

  • Check that you have an active Visual Studio subscription that includes Azure DevOps as a benefit.
  • Confirm that you're using a login/identity that is either the primary or alternate identity for your Visual Studio subscription. Many people, for example, will also have a Visual Studio Dev Essentials membership associated with a different sign-in ID. Attempting to sign in to other subscriptions with that ID will fail unless those subscriptions are associated with that email address.
  • Visit the Visual Studio subscriber portal at least once before you sign in to Azure DevOps.

If Azure DevOps still doesn't recognize your subscription, contact Azure DevOps support.

Resources

Visual Studio subscriptions support

See also

Next steps

For more information about using Azure, Azure DevOps or Visual Studio IDE, check out these resources: