Azure for Students (2026): $100 Free Credit, No Credit Card
$100 Azure credit + free services, no credit card
Azure for Students gives full-time university students aged 18+ $100 in Azure credit to use within 12 months. It also includes free monthly amounts of 20+ popular services for 12 months (new Azure customers only) and 65+ always-free services. No credit card is required, and you can renew each year while you remain a student.
Who is eligible
- Full-time students at an accredited, degree-granting two- or four-year institution
- Aged 18 or older (younger students can use Azure for Students Starter, which has no credit)
- Verify academic status with your school email address
- Available in the 140+ countries where Azure is commercially available
- One subscription per person; not transferable; MOOCs and for-profit trainings don't qualify
How to claim it
- Go to azure.microsoft.com/free/students
- Click Start free and sign in with a Microsoft account, then verify your student status with your school email
- No credit card is needed. Once verified, your Azure for Students subscription is created
- Use the Azure Education Hub in the Azure portal to download free developer tools and track your offer
Catches & caveats
The 18+ age requirement and 140+ country availability come from the offer terms. Microsoft's FAQ says you have 90 days after the free subscription ends to upgrade to pay-as-you-go. Students aged 13-17 can use Azure for Students Starter, which has free service tiers but no dollar credit. Microsoft's page highlights Azure OpenAI access, but we have not confirmed which models or quotas a student subscription gets.
Azure for Students gives full-time university students $100 in Azure credit, with no credit card. You have 12 months to use the credit. You also get free monthly amounts of 20+ popular services for 12 months (if you are new to Azure) and 65+ services that are always free. When the year is up, you can renew while you are still a student. You must be 18 or older and verify with your school email.
What you get
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Credit | $100, usable on most Azure services within 12 months |
| 12-month free services | Free monthly amounts of 20+ popular services (new Azure customers only) |
| Always-free services | Free monthly amounts of 65+ services |
| Developer software | Free tools from the Azure Education Hub, such as Visual Studio Community, SQL Server Developer and Windows Server |
| Credit card | Not required |
| Renewal | Yearly, while you remain a student |
| Countries | 140+ where Azure is commercially available |
Examples of the free amounts
Free amounts are used first, before your $100 credit. These are some of the monthly amounts Microsoft lists on the student page:
| Service | Free amount | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Virtual Machines (Linux or Windows) | 750 hours each of B1s, B2pts v2 (Arm) and B2ats v2 (AMD) | 12 months |
| Azure Database for PostgreSQL / MySQL | 750 hours of B1MS, 32 GB storage, 32 GB backup | 12 months |
| Azure Container Registry | 1 Standard registry, 100 GB storage | 12 months |
| Azure Vision in Foundry Tools | 5,000 transactions each for S1, S2 and S3 | 12 months |
| Azure Functions | 1M requests | Always |
| Azure Cosmos DB | 1,000 RU/s and 25 GB storage | Always |
| Azure SQL Database | 100,000 vCore seconds serverless, 32 GB storage | Always |
| App Service | Up to 10 web or API apps, 1 GB storage, 1 hour/day | Always |
| Azure AI Search | 50 MB storage, 10,000 documents, 3 indexes | Always |
| Azure Translator | 2M characters | Always |
| Azure Speech | 0.5M neural characters | Always |
| Document Intelligence | 500 pages (S0 tier) | Always |
| Azure DevOps | 5 users, unlimited private Git repos | Always |
The VM allowance is per month. A month of 31 days has 24 x 31 = 744 hours, so 750 free hours is enough to run one B1s VM all month without touching your credit. The same arithmetic applies to one B1MS PostgreSQL or MySQL server. Running two VMs of the same size at once would use 1,488 hours, and the extra 738 hours would come out of your credit.
What the credit can't be used for
According to the offer terms, the credit can't be used to buy Azure support plans, Azure DevOps, Visual Studio subscriptions, third-party branded products, Azure Marketplace products or separately licensed products such as Microsoft Entra ID Premium. Unused credit doesn't roll over and can't be moved to another subscription.
Who qualifies
- Full-time students at an accredited, degree-granting two- or four-year institution. Part-time students don't meet the terms as written.
- Aged 18 or older. Younger students can use Azure for Students Starter instead (see below).
- Verified with your school email. You must verify your academic status through your organization's email address.
- In a supported country. The offer runs in the more than 140 countries where Azure is commercially available. It excludes the US Government sovereign cloud and Azure Germany regions.
- Not a MOOC or commercial course. Massive open online courses and professional trainings from for-profit organizations don't qualify.
- One per person. The subscription isn't transferable and can't be combined with other offers unless Microsoft allows it.
Microsoft also limits how you use it. Azure for Students is for education or teaching, non-commercial research, and designing, developing, testing and demonstrating software for those purposes. It isn't meant for running a business.
Azure for Students Starter (ages 13+)
Azure for Students Starter has no credit and no time limit. It gives free tiers of Azure App Service, Azure Functions, Notification Hubs, Azure Database for MySQL, Application Insights and Azure DevOps. It is open to verified students aged 13 or older in the US and 16 or older elsewhere, and you can verify with your school email or, if your school supports it, Shibboleth. Starter begins with a $0 spending limit, so only free-tier services work until you upgrade it to pay-as-you-go, which you can do online at any time.
How to sign up
- Go to azure.microsoft.com/free/students and click Start free.
- Sign in with a Microsoft account, or create one.
- Verify your student status with your school email address.
- Accept the offer terms. No credit card is requested.
- Open the Azure portal. Your subscription is listed as Azure for Students, and the Azure Education Hub gives you the free developer tools and learning resources.
Microsoft's FAQ says you may get a monthly invoice showing your Azure for Students usage. You don't need to pay it. It shows usage that your credit has already covered. Check your remaining balance in the Azure Sponsorships portal.
When the credit runs out, the year ends, or you graduate
- Credit used up early: Microsoft emails you to choose whether to move to pay-as-you-go. If you upgrade, you keep the free monthly amounts of popular services and pay for anything above them. If you don't, your subscription is disabled.
- After 12 months: the credit expires. You can renew by signing up for the offer again on the Azure for Students site, as long as you are still a student. Microsoft emails you a reminder just before your anniversary.
- If you don't upgrade or renew: the products you deployed are decommissioned and you lose access to them. Microsoft's FAQ says you have 90 days from the end of the free subscription to upgrade to pay-as-you-go.
- After graduation: you can't renew. To keep your work, upgrade to pay-as-you-go, or move code and data out before the subscription ends.
The offer terms and Microsoft's FAQ describe the upgrade slightly differently. The terms say to contact Azure Support to move to pay-as-you-go after the credit is exhausted, while the FAQ says you can upgrade in the Azure portal. Either route leads to a paid subscription, which needs a payment method.
Using Azure for Students for AI projects
Microsoft's student page says Azure for Students gives access to technology like Azure OpenAI. Several AI services also have free amounts that don't touch your credit, including Azure AI Search, Translator, Speech, Document Intelligence, Vision and Azure Machine Learning. Good student projects include:
- A search or question-answering app over your notes, using the free AI Search tier for up to 10,000 documents.
- Transcription or translation tools using the free Speech and Translator amounts.
- Document processing, such as extracting data from forms, with 500 free Document Intelligence pages a month.
- Hosting a model-backed web app on the free App Service or Container Apps allowance, paying for model calls from the $100 credit.
Model calls through Azure OpenAI are paid usage, so they draw down your credit. Which models you can deploy, and how much quota you get, depends on the region and subscription. Check the Foundry portal before you build around a particular model. If you only need an API to experiment with, compare free AI API keys and OpenAI API pricing.
How it compares
| Offer | Credit | Card needed | Who |
|---|---|---|---|
| Azure for Students | $100 for 12 months, renewable | No | Full-time students, 18+ |
| GitHub Student Developer Pack | Includes $100 Azure credit plus many other tools | No | Verified students |
| Google Cloud free trial | $300 for 90 days | Yes | New Google Cloud customers |
| Microsoft for Startups | $200-$1,000 to start, up to $150,000 | Varies | Startups |
| Codex credits for students | $100 in Codex credits | Not stated | Students in the US and Canada |
The GitHub Student Developer Pack lists a $100 Azure credit among its benefits. Microsoft limits Azure for Students to one subscription per person, so check whether you already have one before you sign up again through another route. For more student and developer offers, see how to get free AI credits.
Common mistakes
- Leaving resources running. Resources keep consuming credit even when idle. Delete VMs, databases and test deployments you aren't using.
- Picking larger VM sizes. Only the listed sizes (B1s, B2pts v2, B2ats v2) get free hours. Other sizes are paid from the credit from the first hour.
- Running more than one free-tier VM of the same size. The 750 hours cover about one VM running all month.
- Expecting Marketplace products to be covered. They aren't, even when they run on Azure.
- Forgetting to renew. Your credit doesn't carry over. Renew when the reminder email arrives, if you are still a student.
Frequently asked questions
›Does Azure for Students need a credit card?
No. Microsoft states no credit card is required for Azure for Students or Azure for Students Starter.
›What happens when my $100 Azure student credit runs out?
Azure emails you to choose whether to move to pay-as-you-go. If you don't upgrade, your subscription is disabled and the products you deployed can no longer be accessed. Microsoft's FAQ says you have 90 days from the end of the free subscription to upgrade.
›Can I use Azure student credit for Azure OpenAI or Marketplace?
The credit does not apply to Azure Marketplace offers, support plans, Azure DevOps or Visual Studio subscriptions. Microsoft's student page highlights access to Azure OpenAI, but model availability and quota depend on region and subscription, so check in the portal before you plan around a specific model.
›Can I renew Azure for Students?
Yes. After 12 months you can renew by signing up for the offer again while you are still a student. Microsoft sends reminder emails just before your anniversary.
›Is Azure for Students available outside the US?
Yes. The offer is available in the more than 140 countries where Azure is commercially available. It isn't available in the US Government sovereign cloud or Azure Germany regions.
›I'm under 18. Can I get Azure for Students?
Not the $100 offer, which requires you to be 18 or older. Azure for Students Starter is open to verified students aged 13+ in the US and 16+ elsewhere, with free tiers of a few services and no credit.
›Why did I get an invoice from Microsoft?
Microsoft may send a monthly invoice showing your Azure for Students usage. You don't have to pay it, because the usage is covered by your credit.
›How do I check how much credit is left?
Microsoft's FAQ points to the Azure Sponsorships portal (microsoftazuresponsorships.com), which shows your remaining balance.
›Can I run Windows 10 or Windows 11 virtual machines?
Yes. Microsoft's FAQ says Azure for Students lets you use Windows 10 and 11 VMs without needing a separate Windows Enterprise license. The VM compute still counts against your free hours or credit.
›Can I use Azure for Students for my startup?
No. It is for education, teaching, non-commercial research and building software for those purposes. Startups should look at Microsoft for Startups instead.
Sources
Checked against these pages on Oct 17, 2026. Providers change offers often: always confirm on the official page before you rely on it.
- Official: Azure for Students(azure.microsoft.com)
- Official: Azure for Students offer terms (MS-AZR-0170P)(azure.microsoft.com)
- Official: Azure for Students Starter offer terms (MS-AZR-0144P)(azure.microsoft.com)
- Official: GitHub Student Developer Pack (Azure listing)(education.github.com)
- Official: Microsoft Learn - Azure Education Hub FAQ(learn.microsoft.com)
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