Azure Free Account: What You Get and How to Sign Up

The credit: 30 days

A $200 credit (or the same amount in your billing currency) to spend on Azure services within 30 days of signing up. Use it on services outside the free list, or on usage above the free amounts. Whatever is left after 30 days is gone.

Popular services: 12 months

Free monthly amounts of popular services for your first 12 months, such as burstable virtual machines (small VMs that run cheaply at low load), managed PostgreSQL and MySQL databases, and a container registry. These keep going after you upgrade.

Always-free services

A long list of services with a free monthly amount that never expires, for new and existing customers alike: Azure Functions, Azure DevOps, Cosmos DB, a serverless Azure SQL Database allowance, Container Apps and more.

Spending protection

The account has a spending limit equal to the credit. When the credit runs out, Azure stops your services instead of charging your card. You only pay once you choose to upgrade.

You upgrade to pay-as-you-go

You keep the 12 months of free services and the always-free amounts, and you pay normal rates only for use above them (our guide to Azure pricing explained shows how those rates work). Upgrade early and you still keep the leftover credit until the 30 days from sign-up are up.

You do nothing

Your subscription and services are disabled. Virtual machines are stopped and deallocated (released, so they cost nothing), and data in storage accounts turns read-only. To use them again, you have to upgrade.

Where the upgrade button lives

Search the portal for Subscriptions, open the subscription from your free sign-up, and select Upgrade subscription in the bar at the top, or the upgrade banner if the button is missing.

You name the subscription, pick a support plan, and select Upgrade. The card on file becomes your payment method.

A Microsoft or GitHub account

Use an existing Outlook, Hotmail or other Microsoft account, or create one during sign-up. Signing in with GitHub shares your profile and email so Microsoft can find or create a matching Microsoft account; it gets no access to your code.

A phone that can get a text or call

Azure sends a code by text or phone call. Internet-based (VoIP) numbers do not work, and the phone has to receive messages from a US number.

A credit or debit card

Used to check your identity, not to charge you. Prepaid and virtual cards are refused. In Hong Kong and Brazil, only credit cards work. You may see a small temporary hold, about one dollar, which disappears within a few days.

A matching country

The country you pick has to match your card’s billing address. If your country is not in the list, the offer is not available there. The free account does not cover Azure Government, Azure China or other sovereign clouds.

Azure for Students

It is for students at an accredited, degree-granting university or college (two- to four-year programs). Online courses (MOOCs) and paid training from companies do not count.

You can renew it every year while you are still a student. It includes the same free monthly amounts, plus free developer tools from the Azure Education Hub. If the credit runs out, you can upgrade to pay-as-you-go; if you do not, the subscription is canceled.

Watch your free service usage

Search the portal for Subscriptions and open the one from your free sign-up. The overview shows your remaining credit, a Top free services by usage tile, and costs by resource.

Usage shows up one to two days after you use something, so a quiet page on day one does not mean nothing is running.

Spot a service about to go over

Select View all free services to open the full table. The Status column warns you before a meter goes over, with values such as Exceeds on (a date) or Exceeded on (a date).

The tooltip on the top left of that grid also tells you when your 12 months of free services end.

Set a budget with an email alert

In the subscription, select Budgets, then Add. Pick a monthly amount, then add alerts at, say, 50% and 90% of it, and your email address.

A budget only warns you; it never stops anything. On a brand new subscription, budgets can take up to 48 hours to become available.

Mind the extras

A free VM still comes with a disk, a public IP address and network traffic, each with its own meter and free amount. Check them on the usage page after your first day.

Marketplace is billed apart

Azure Marketplace items, support plans and most third-party services are not paid by the credit, and can charge your card even with the spending limit on. Azure shows a warning before you create one.

Click around the portal

Create a resource group in the portal, open it, then delete it. It costs nothing and teaches the layout every other service uses.

A small virtual machine

Create a Linux or Windows VM in the B1s size, which the free account covers for 750 hours a month for 12 months, about one VM running all month. Stop it from the portal when you are not using it.

A serverless function

Azure Functions runs a small piece of code when something happens, such as a web request. The first million requests a month are always free.

A free SQL database

Azure SQL Database has a free serverless allowance each month. Create it with Start free in the Azure SQL hub, and by default it pauses until next month instead of charging once the allowance is used.

Sign in and check the subscription

Shows the subscription your commands will use. Look for the one from your free sign-up.

az login
az account show --output table

A practice resource group

Create a group, list it, and delete it again. An empty group is free.

az group create --name rg-test --location eastus
az group list --output table
az group delete --name rg-test --yes

Free trial isn’t available

You have had an Azure subscription before, of any kind. The free trial is for people new to Azure. Sign up for pay-as-you-go instead, which still includes the free monthly amounts.

Card declined

Prepaid and virtual cards are refused. Check the number, expiry date and billing address, and make sure the address matches the country you picked. Microsoft’s declined card guide lists other causes.

No verification code

Wait up to four minutes. Check the country code, try Call me instead of a text, or use another phone. VoIP numbers never work.

Card step hangs

The card check needs third-party cookies. Allow them in your browser settings for the sign-up, refresh the page, or restart the browser and try again.

You are not eligible for an Azure subscription

Usually a mismatch: check your profile email, address and phone, and your card details. You may already have a Microsoft account with the same details.

We cannot proceed with sign-up

Sign in at account.microsoft.com, open Your info, and fill in valid billing and shipping details. Then try again, or in a different or InPrivate browser window.