Microsoft
- Free allowance
- Up to USD 200 in Startup credits immediately to start building on Azure.
- Verdict
- caveatusable, with a named limit or an unprobed read path
- Cost
- free tier
- Identity
- emailno card, no phone
- Binding limit
- write-gatedUSD 200 is the whole reachable slice; the next milestone is gated on business verification and everything above it on Azure spend a user does not have.
- Evidence
- documented9 sources; a first-party page was read and the sentence quoted
- Freshness
- stale on 2026-12-05checked 2026-11-04 (live); stale on 2026-12-05
| Free tier | Up to USD 200 in Startup credits immediately to start building on Azure. Milestone 1 requires: sign up for Azure and verify your identity using a personal LinkedIn account, with no business accounts allowed at this step. unit none; metered on wall-clock; one-shot-credit |
|---|---|
| Price | none stated |
| Limits |
|
| Identity | email A personal LinkedIn account plus an Azure signup. |
| Egress | The first 100 GB per month of internet egress is free; beyond it egress is priced per GB in tiers (USD 0.087 per GB for the next 10 TB from North America or Europe, Premium Global Network). free allowance: 100 GB per month of internet egress free, in all Azure regions price per tb: USD 87 per TB (USD 0.087 per GB, next 10 TB per month, from North America or Europe via the Premium Global Network; other regions and tiers differ) |
| Interface | rest, cli REST API and CLI, per the Azure Resource Manager overview: "the Azure CLI, REST APIs, and client SDKs" |
| Tooling | the provider documents PowerShell, the Azure CLI and client SDKs, per the Azure Resource Manager overview |
| Composes with | USD 200 of Azure buys a few days of a small VM or a modest amount of Azure OpenAI usage. It composes as a way to test an Azure-only service before paying, and with the Azure free account allowance, but it is too small to train anything. |
| Reliability | no reliability event recorded |
| Notes | The program page itself, microsoft.com/en-us/startups, returns 200 but prints only marketing prose and no eligibility list; the Learn page carries the ladder. Treat USD 200 as the only part reachable without a legal entity. The one recorded is the better-evidenced. |
| Parsed numbers |
|
Evidence 9
| date | source | what it proved |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-22 | learn.microsoft.com/en-us/startups/microsoft-for-startups/ge | Milestone 1 is USD 200 and requires signing up for Azure and verifying identity with a personal LinkedIn account, quoted: 'Verify your identity (use a personal LinkedIn account, no business accounts allowed at this step)' |
| 2026-10-22 | learn.microsoft.com/en-us/startups/microsoft-for-startups/ge | Milestone 2 is USD 5,000 and requires completing business verification, defined on the same page as 'Confirm your startup is a registered legal entity' |
| 2026-10-22 | learn.microsoft.com/en-us/startups/microsoft-for-startups/ge | the full milestone ladder USD 200, USD 5,000, USD 25,000, USD 50,000, USD 150,000 with its workload and spend conditions, quoted |
| 2026-10-22 | learn.microsoft.com/en-us/startups/microsoft-for-startups/ge | each 60-day clock starts once the workload count is met and every workload must stay above USD 1 of spend for all 60 days, quoted |
| 2026-11-04 | azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/bandwidth/ | the first 100 GB per month of internet egress is free in every region |
| 2026-11-04 | azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/bandwidth/ | internet egress from North America or Europe after the first 100 GB is USD 0.087 per GB for the next 10 TB, premium network |
| 2026-11-04 | learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/manag | Azure resources are reachable through PowerShell, the Azure CLI, REST APIs and client SDKs |
| 2026-11-04 | learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/manag | Azure resources are reachable through the Azure CLI and REST APIs |
| 2026-11-04 | learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/manag | PowerShell, the Azure CLI and client SDKs are named |
More fields 1
| facets | {"class": "startup-credit","free_tier_kind": "one-shot-credit","shape": null} |
|---|
Unknown values 3
- per object cap stated: the field does not apply to this kind of offer
- reliability note: nothing of this kind was observed
- retention stated: the field does not apply to this kind of offer