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Azure billing and subscription FAQ | Microsoft Docs |
Provide answers to the common Azure Billing and Subscription questions |
genlin |
mbaldwin |
billing |
614f90ee-b625-46cf-a91e-3bcd83190e62 |
billing |
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article |
12/06/2016 |
genli |
This article answers some of the most common questions about Azure Billing and Subscription.
Note
If you need more help at any point in this article, please contact support to get your issue resolved quickly.
- How do I manage Administrator accounts in the new Azure portal?
- Can notifications be sent to a different email address other than the Account Owner email address associated with my account?
- Why can't I edit or add details to my subscription?
- I am unable to log in to the Azure portal
- How do I get a copy of my invoice?
- I do not see an invoice for the last billing period. Why?
- How do I make a payment?
- Can I try Azure for free without any risk of being charged?
- What is a Free Trial subscription and how long does it last?
- What resources are available when using a Free Trial?
- What happens if I remove the spending limit on my free trial?
- Can I get a quota increase on a free trial subscription?
- Where can I get more details on Free Trial?
- In which countries and regions is Microsoft Azure commercially available and what currencies can be used to purchase Azure?
- Do we restrict resale of Azure based service into countries under embargo?
- Are Azure and SQL Database available through Microsoft Services Provider License Agreement?
- Can I use my existing Windows licenses that I bought outside of Azure?
- Who can purchase Azure services?
- What payment options do I have in purchasing Azure?
- How can I request the invoice method of payment?
- How do I check the status of a payment made by credit card?
- How do I remove a credit card that I no longer use as an Azure payment method?
- How can I update or change my credit card information?
- How can I edit my payment information for my Azure subscriptions?
- Why am I seeing a message that I need to use an international credit card?
- Where can I find the Benefits and Pricing information for Azure Services?
- How do I change my pricing plan?
- How do we know in advance about service downtime for planned maintenance?
- What is the Azure SLA agreement for uptime and connectivity?
- What are the Azure SLA Credits?
- How will Azure Service Level Agreements work with current on-premises Microsoft licensing agreements?
- Can I turn the Spending Limit back on if I turn off it?
- Can I adjust the amount of the Spending Limit?
- How do I purchase Azure Support?
- Does the monthly rate cover a single Azure plan or the entire account?
- How do I upgrade to a higher tier Azure Support plan?
- When will I be billed for Azure Support?
- What happens at the end of the term?
- How do I cancel my Azure Support plan?
- How do I migrate data and services for my Azure subscription to a new subscription?
- How do I transfer ownership of my subscriptions?
You can purchase Azure using a credit or debit card or choose to be invoiced.
Note
- Once you opt for the invoice option, you can't move to the credit card option. To sign up for invoicing, see Azure Invoicing.
- Please note that we do not accept prepaid and virtual credit cards.
- You are solely responsible for any credit card interest or other credit card charges that may result.
Follow the steps in Azure Invoicing to submit a request to pay by invoice. Once your request has been approved, you will be provided instructions on how to set up your subscription for the invoice payment method.
You must submit a support ticket to request assistance. To create a support ticket to check the status of a payment made by credit card see How to Create a Support Ticket for Azure Billing and Subscription Issues.
As the Azure Account Administrator, you can view the current bill at the Azure Account Center and download statements for the previous six billing periods as well. For more detail, see How to download your Azure billing invoice and daily usage data.
You must submit a support ticket to request assistance. To create a support ticket to remove a credit card, see the article How to Create a Support Ticket for Azure Billing and Subscription Issues.
If your credit card gets renewed and the number remains the same, you can simply update the details of the existing credit card, such as expiration date. If your card number changes or you would like to use a different card, you will need to add the new card. You can find instructions to update or add a credit card here: How to change the credit card used to pay for an Azure subscription.
Our Service Level Agreement for availability applies to customer applications which use a minimum of two role instances. There is no SLA for single instances. Please refer to your SLA page for complete details.
For both single- and multi-instance configurations, Azure sends email communications in advance to alert you of upcoming planned maintenance (one week in advance for single-instance and 48 hours in advance for multi-instance). The email will be sent to the Account Administrator, Service Administrator and Co-administrator email accounts provided in the subscription.
Note
For more information specific to Virtual Machines see the article Planned maintenance for Azure virtual machines.
In the event of an unplanned service disruption on the Azure Platform, status updates will be made on our service dashboard and customers will also receive notice in the Azure classic portal.
Azure has separate SLA’s for all services that are generally available and not in preview. The Service Level Agreement (SLA) describes Microsoft’s commitments for uptime and connectivity. Please refer to your SLA page for the latest details.
Azure SLA Credits are calculated on a per subscription basis as a percentage of the bill for that service in the billing month the SLA was missed. The service credits are applied to the subsequent month’s bill. Generally, we provide 10% credit if we fall below the first threshold (99.95% or 99.9%, depending on the service) and 25% if we fall beneath the subsequent threshold (99%). Please refer to your SLA page for complete details.
How will Azure Service Level Agreements work with current on premises Microsoft licensing agreements?
Azure Service Level Agreements are independent of our on-premises Microsoft licensing agreements. Our SLAs for Azure provide you a monthly uptime guarantee for those services you consume in the cloud, with SLA credits against what we have billed you in the event we fail to meet the guarantee.
There could be several reasons for this:
- It is less than 30 days from the day you subscribed to Azure.
- Your subscription type is Free Trial or one of the member offers (monthly credit for Visual Studio subscriber/Open/BizSpark/Imagine) that doesn't have a credit card or other payment instrument associated with it.
- The invoice generation date has not yet arrived.
Please see I am unable to log in to manage my Azure subscription.
Note
Make sure you are logging in as the right administrator: an Account Administrator can only access the Account Center whereas Service Administrators (SA) and Co-Administrators (CA) only have access to the Azure portal or the Azure classic portal.
Azure Support plans may be purchased either online or through an Enterprise Agreement. The Developer, Standard, or Professional Direct Support plans are available online through the Azure Support Plans page. You must be the Microsoft Azure account owner to purchase a support plan.
If you purchase Microsoft Azure through an Enterprise Agreement (EA), you can add either a Standard or Professional Direct support plan to your Enterprise Agreement, by contacting your Large Account Reseller (LAR). Developer Support is not available through an Enterprise Agreement.
The flat monthly cost for Azure Support covers one account, regardless of how many subscriptions or users you have on the account.
All subscriptions under an account will share the same support plan, and all users with admin/owner access to any of the subscriptions under the account with a Support Plan will also be entitled to support for those specific account’s subscriptions they have access to.
A Microsoft Azure account can be accessed from the Azure Account Center. From there you can see the list of subscriptions that belong to the account and will be entitled for support.
You can upgrade to a higher-tier plan by submitting a support request and choosing Subscription Management. Microsoft will waive the remaining payments on your original Azure Support plan and charge you at the higher tier for the remaining months of your initial commitment.
When you purchase an Azure Support plan online, you will be charged immediately for the first month. You will be charged the monthly amount on the first day of each subsequent billing cycle. Enterprise Agreement (EA) purchases will follow the agreement billing cycle.
At the end of your 6-month term, your plans will automatically renew to the same Azure Support plan for another 6 months, using the same payment method. As an account owner, you can elect to turn off the auto-renew functionality through the Azure Account Center.
If you do not wish to auto renew, please log into the Azure Account Center, select the support plan in question, click on the "Change renewal details," and unselect the default option to auto renew.
An account owner can cancel an Azure Support plan by logging into the Azure Account Center, then selecting subscriptions. If you have a subscription, your list of subscriptions will be displayed. Select the subscription you wish to cancel. The details of the subscription will then be displayed with a list of options on the right side of the screen. Select Cancel and proceed. If you do not have a subscription, then the message “You do not have any subscriptions.” will be displayed.
Note
An Azure Support plan has a 6-month term and Microsoft requires continued monetary commitment for the duration of the term. Cancellation before the term expires does not forgive the remaining commitment or provide refunds any pre-paid amount. For details see How to cancel your Azure subscription.
Please contact Azure support for more information. To create a support ticket to migrate data and services for an Azure subscription to a new subscription see the article How to Create a Support Ticket for Azure Billing and Subscription Issues.
Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) enables fine-grained access management for Azure. Using RBAC, you can segregate duties within your DevOps team and grant only the amount of access to users that they need to perform their jobs. For more information, see Azure Role-Based Access Control.
You can now do this easily in the Microsoft Azure Account Center- for Pay-As-You-Go, monthly credit for Visual Studio subscribers, Microsoft Partner Network, or BizSpark subscriptions. We’ve added the ability to transfer your subscription to another user. In other words, you can now change the account admin on any Pay-As-You-Go, monthly credit for Visual Studio subscribers, Microsoft Partner Network, or BizSpark subscription that you own. Note that the recipient’s user account must be in the same country and that you cannot transfer subscriptions that are associated with a marketplace purchase. For details, see the article How to transfer an Azure subscription.
Yes, through license mobility if you have SA you can "bring-your-own-license" for all Virtual Machines supported server products except for Windows Server. For more information see License Mobility through Software Assurance on Azure.
For information on the benefits of Azure services, see Microsoft Azure Offer Details. For pricing information, see the Azure pricing page.
You can switch your Pay-As-You-Go subscription to the 12-Month Prepay Offer. With this offer, you prepay for Azure services for a 12-month term and receive a 5% discount on Azure services. In the Azure Account Center, go to your subscription and click on Switch Offer. This is currently the only offer that can be switched via the Account Center. Alternatively, you can contact Azure support to switch to a different offer.
Can notifications be sent to a different email address other than the Account Owner email address associated with my account?
Yes. If you would like to specify a different email address to receive notifications, please follow these directions:
- Go to the Profile tab in the Azure Accounts Portal.
- Click Edit Details to update your email address to receive notifications.
To view and edit the Azure account information, you must sign in to the Azure Account Center as the account administrator. Below are instructions in managing the payment method for Azure subscription/s.**
-
Go to the Azure Account Center.
-
On the subscriptions page, click the subscription for which you want to update the payment method.
-
On the subscription summary page, click Change payment method. The Change Payment Method tool appears in a separate window.
Note: You can also access the Account Center from the Microsoft Azure classic portal. To do so, click your account name, and then click View my bill.
-
On the Choose payment method page, click the drop-down list, select the payment method you want update, and then click Edit.
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On the details page, verify that you have selected the correct credit card type and card number.
-
Make necessary changes to the card details, and then click Next.
For more information, see the article How to change the credit card used to pay for an Azure subscription.
Note
Currently, the Change Payment Method tool does not allow you to remove an existing credit card as a payment method. For information about how to remove a credit card, see the How do I remove a credit card that I no longer use as an Azure payment method? in this article.
In some cases, although you’re paying for Azure services in your local/preferred currency, you are purchasing services through a non-local Microsoft entity and your credit card is being processed by a non-local bank. In these cases, cards issued by local banks may fail which can negatively impact your Azure services. If you’re unsure whether your credit card is enabled for international transactions, please contact your bank or card issuer to confirm. See supported countries and currencies.
To view and edit the Azure account information, you must sign in to the Azure Account Center as the account administrator. If you are the AA and still cannot edit the subscription, please submit a support ticket to request assistance. To create a support ticket, see the article How to Create a Support Ticket for Azure Billing and Subscription Issues.
Azure is intended for use by businesses to build cloud scale applications and services. However, anyone may purchase Azure services.
Yes. With our Spending Limit feature, customers who sign up for a Free Trial, monthly credit for Visual Studio subscribers, Microsoft Partner Network, or BizSpark offer can utilize Azure without getting charged as long as they keep the Spending Limit feature turned on. All new customers who sign up for these offers will have the Spending Limit turned on with a value of $0.
For those on our member benefit offers (e.g., monthly credit for Visual Studio subscribers), you do have the ability to have the Spending Limit feature re-enabled at the beginning of your next billing cycle. The Spending Limit cannot be re-enabled for the current billing period once turned off. For more information, see Change the Azure Spending Limit.
For the initial release of this feature, the Spending Limit is set at $0 and cannot be adjusted. It is designed to enable customers on our Free Trial, monthly credit for Visual Studio subscribers, Microsoft Partner Network, or BizSpark offers to utilize Azure with complete assurance of not being billed. For more information, see Azure Spending Limit.
In which countries and regions is Microsoft Azure commercially available, and what currencies can be used to purchase Azure?
Azure is available for purchase in more than 140 countries around the world, and we support billing in many currencies. Click here to see a list of countries and currencies.
Yes.
There are currently no plans to offer Azure or SQL Database through SPLA.
An Azure Free Trial subscription is a one-month free trial for any new customer and provide credits of $200 USD of Azure at no charge. To see what services free trial credits cover and do not cover, see the Free Trial offer page.
You receive $200 USD of Azure credits with the Free Trial to use over 30 days. The choice is now yours on how you use your Azure credits. See the Free Trial offer page for more details.
You can sign up for a trial subscription here.
Also see the Free Trial FAQ.
Once you remove the spending limit, you start getting charged for consuming resources beyond the free trial credit. You will not be able to reset the spending limit once it has been removed.
Free Trial subscriptions are not eligible for quota increases. If you have a Free Trial, you can upgrade to a Pay-As-You-Go subscription. For details on how to upgrade see Upgrade Azure Free Trial to Pay-As-You-Go.
Note
Microsoft Imagine subscriptions are also ineligible for quota increases.
Visit the Free Trial offer page and read the Official Free Trial FAQ.
Note
If you still have further questions, please contact support to get your issue resolved quickly.
If you have set up a credit card or a debit card as your payment method, the payment will be made automatically.
If you are set up to use an invoice method of payment, send your payment to the location listed at the bottom of your invoice. For more help, contact support.