Visual Studio Cloud Subscriptions are purchased in the Visual Studio Marketplace and billed through an Azure subscription. You select or create an Azure subscription to manage billing for your purchases.
To compare subscription types, benefits, and pricing, visit Visual Studio pricing.
This article answers common questions about how to purchase, bill, and manage Visual Studio Cloud Subscriptions.
General purchasing questions
Can I buy Visual Studio Cloud Subscriptions using a Purchase Order?
No. All Visual Studio Cloud Subscriptions must be purchased using an Azure subscription. To buy a subscription, use the Visual Studio Marketplace and select an Azure subscription for billing.
What types of Azure subscriptions can be used to buy Visual Studio Cloud Subscriptions?
Visual Studio Cloud Subscriptions are billed through Azure subscriptions. You can buy them in the Visual Studio Marketplace and select or create an Azure subscription during purchase. Most Azure subscriptions can be used for billing, including:
- pay-as-you-go subscriptions
- Enterprise Agreement (EA)
- Cloud Solution Providers (CSPs)
Some Azure subscription types aren't supported for billing, including:
- Azure Free Trial subscriptions
- Azure subscriptions provided as part of Visual Studio subscriber benefits
Am I required to buy other Azure services?
No. You don't need to purchase any Azure services. You can use an Azure subscription only for billing Visual Studio Cloud Subscriptions.
Where can I view my billing and usage data?
To view your billing and usage data, visit the Understand Azure billing.
Enterprise Agreement (EA) customers
Can I use an Enterprise Agreement to buy Visual Studio Cloud Subscriptions?
Yes, you can use an Azure subscription associated with your Enterprise Agreement (EA) to purchase Visual Studio Cloud Subscriptions. You must have Contributor access or higher on the Azure subscription. To buy subscriptions, use the Visual Studio Marketplace and select your EA-backed Azure subscription for billing.
How can I tell whether I have the necessary privileges to buy services in the Visual Studio Marketplace through my organization's Enterprise Agreement?
You can check your access in the following ways:
Try to make a purchase in the Visual Studio Marketplace.
Select Buy for a service and choose an Azure subscription. If you can select your EA-backed Azure subscription, you likely have the necessary privileges.
Check your role in the Azure portal.
Sign in to the Azure portal and go to Cost Management + Billing. If you have access to the billing account and can view or manage subscriptions, you likely have the required privileges.
If you don't have access, contact your organization's Enterprise Administrator and ask to be assigned the appropriate role. If you don't know who your administrator is, you can use the Contact my Admin feature in the Visual Studio Subscriptions portal. For more information, visit Contact a subscriptions admin.
Can I use the Azure Monetary Commitment funds from my Enterprise Agreement to buy Visual Studio Cloud Subscriptions?
No, these prepaid funds aren't eligible for purchasing Visual Studio Cloud Subscriptions. When you choose an Azure subscription that was created for your EA to purchase Visual Studio Cloud Subscriptions, the charges appear on your next "overage" invoice. Typically these charges are invoiced monthly, but due to historical rules for some EA customers, an overage invoice might not be issued for several months. Consult a licensing specialist for your EA if you need to know what number of extra purchases trigger an overage invoice. These purchases aren't eligible for Azure Monetary Commitment funds.
How charges are processed
How are monthly cloud subscription charges processed?
At the first purchase, we bill a prorated quantity to cover the remaining days in the current month. For instance, if a purchase of 10 Visual Studio Professional monthly cloud subscriptions was made on April 15, we would charge for five subscriptions because 50% of the month remains. On May 1, and each month thereafter until you cancel, the full 10 units are billed.
When you increase the paid quantity later, we also prorate the increased units to cover the remaining days in the current month. So if you bought one more Visual Studio Professional monthly cloud subscription on May 10, we would bill roughly 0.677 units (21 days remaining in the 31-day month of May).
How are annual cloud subscription charges processed?
At each purchase, we bill the full quantity purchased immediately. Charges aren't spread over the year, and there's no proration. If you buy annual cloud subscriptions at different times in the year, subscriptions renew in different months. We don't make all of a customer's annual cloud subscriptions coterminous in the way that's common with Microsoft volume licensing agreement purchasing.
How do cancellations work?
When you cancel a Visual Studio Cloud Subscription, you're canceling automatic renewal. The subscription continues until its normal renewal date and then simply expires. At expiration, the Visual Studio subscriber can no longer use Visual Studio or any other benefits from the subscription.
With monthly cloud subscriptions, cancellations take effect the first day of the next month. If you only cancel some of your monthly cloud subscriptions, be sure to remove users on the first of the next month to ensure that the correct people continue to have active subscriptions assigned.
For annual cloud subscriptions, cancellations take effect the first day of the month following 12 months from the original purchase, or 12 months from the last annual renewal charge.
For instance, if you bought an annual subscription on January 3, it remains active until February 1 of the following year, when it automatically renews. If you cancel at any time before the renewal date, the subscription expires on that date. Partial refunds aren't provided for unsued time.
Note
Microsoft no longer offers Visual Studio Enterprise Annual subscriptions and Visual Studio Professional Annual subscriptions in Cloud Subscriptions. There's no change to existing customers experience and ability to renew, increase, decrease, or cancel their subscriptions. New customers are encouraged to go to https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/pricing/ to explore different options to purchase Visual Studio.
What kind of volume discounts are available for Visual Studio Subscriptions?
You get a 5% discount on the sixth and all subsequent subscriptions of the same type within a single billing period.
- Visual Studio Professional monthly
- Visual Studio Professional annual
- Visual Studio Enterprise monthly
- Visual Studio Enterprise annual
For example, if you buy six Visual Studio Professional monthly subscriptions and five Visual Studio Enterprise monthly subscriptions, you pay the regular price on five Professional, get a 5% discount on the sixth Professional, and pay regular price on all five Enterprise subscriptions.
The discount only applies to charges in a given monthly billing period. So, if you buy five Visual Studio Professional annual subscriptions in one month, and then you buy five more the next month, you'll pay the regular price on all 10 subscriptions. To receive the discount, all of the purchases need to occur in the same billing period.
Other questions
Can I use the monthly Azure DevTest individual credit as a Visual Studio subscriber to buy more Visual Studio Cloud Subscriptions?
No, you can't use your monthly Azure DevTest individual credit to pay for Visual Studio cloud subscriptions.
These purchases are billed through your Azure subscription. Before you make purchases, you need to remove your spending limit.
What's the difference between annual and monthly cloud subscriptions?
Monthly cloud subscriptions include Visual Studio and access to Azure DevOps Services, with billing that renews each month.
Annual cloud subscriptions include the same core benefits, along with other subscriber benefits such as Azure Dev/Test credits, software downloads, training, and support. These subscriptions are billed upfront for the full year.
Note
Annual cloud subscriptions are no longer offered for new purchases. Existing customers can continue to renew and manage their current subscriptions.
To compare subscription levels, benefits, and pricing, visit Visual Studio pricing.
Do I get new versions of Visual Studio if I buy a Visual Studio Cloud Subscription?
Yes. As new versions are released, you can download and run them. Plus you can continue to run previous versions too.
Can I buy Visual Studio Cloud Subscriptions from my software reseller?
Yes, you can, if your reseller participates in the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program.
Where can I find information about Azure invoices?
To learn how to view and understand your Azure invoice, visit the Understand your Azure invoice article in the Azure documentation.
Related resources
- Visual Studio Subscriptions Admin portal
- Visual Studio Cloud Subscription purchasing for CSPs
- For assistance with sales, subscriptions, accounts and billing for Visual Studio Subscriptions, see Visual Studio Subscriptions support.
See also
- Visual Studio pricing
- Understand your Azure invoice
- Get started with your Enterprise Agreement billing account
- Contact a subscriptions admin
Next steps
Buy Visual Studio Cloud Subscriptions now