Get Started with Azure Free Account: A Comprehensive Guide

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Azure offers a free account that allows you to use its services for 12 months, with no credit card required.

To get started, you'll need to sign up for an Azure free account on the Azure website.

The free account includes access to popular services like Azure Storage, Azure Databricks, and Azure Kubernetes Service.

You can also use the Azure free account to build and deploy web applications using Azure App Service.

Related reading: Azure Free Services

Getting Started

You can get started with Azure in various ways, including pay-as-you-go pricing, which allows you to only pay for what you use beyond monthly free amounts of services.

There's no up-front commitment, and you can cancel anytime.

To get started with Azure, you can also get access to free developer tools and a $100 credit, all you need is an academic email address.

You can use the free credit to try out Azure services without spending a dime.

Here are the details of the free products you can take advantage of:

  • 750 hours each of B1s, B2pts v2 (Arm-based), and B2ats v2 (AMD-based) burstable VMs
  • 100,000 vCore seconds of SQL database serverless usage per month with 32 GB of storage
  • 10 web, mobile, or API apps with 1 GB storage 1 hour per day

You can also register for an Azure Free Trial Account, which comes with USD200 credits.

Credit: youtube.com, Getting started in the Azure Portal

To register, click on the "Start Free" button, sign in using an email address or create a new one, and then click on "Sign up".

Note that you can only create one free trial account using a single credit card, but if you're a student, you can register using your college valid email id.

Azure Services

With an Azure free account, you get access to a wide range of services that are free to use.

You can use App Service, Azure Functions, Service Fabric, and many more services without paying a single penny. These services include Azure DevOps, Security Center, Event Grid, and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).

Here's a list of some of the free services you can use with Azure:

  • App Service
  • Azure Functions
  • Service Fabric
  • Azure DevOps
  • Security Center
  • Event Grid
  • Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
  • DevTest Labs
  • Active Directory B2C
  • Advisor
  • Data Catalog
  • Virtual Network
  • Inter-VNET data transfer
  • Bandwidth
  • Load Balancer
  • Data Factory
  • Cognitive Search
  • Notification Hubs
  • Batch
  • Automation

Additionally, you get 10 web, mobile, or API apps with Azure App Service, each with 1 GB storage.

List of Services

Azure offers a wide range of services, some of which are free to use, even without a paid account.

Credit: youtube.com, Azure Services - Most popular services offered by Microsoft Azure | Learn with Whizlabs

App Service, Azure Functions, Service Fabric, and Azure DevOps are just a few examples of services that can be used for free.

Azure offers a list of Always Free Services, which includes App Service, Azure Functions, Service Fabric, and Azure DevOps, among others.

Here are some of the Always Free Services available in Azure:

  • App Service (10 web, mobile, or API apps with 1 GB storage)
  • Azure Functions (1 million requests and 400,000 GBs of resource consumption)
  • Service Fabric (free to build microservice apps)
  • Azure DevOps (first five users free)

Additionally, some Azure services offer free credits or discounts, such as Azure Maps S0 account tiers, which offer 250,000 monthly map tile loads and 25,000 monthly service calls.

If you need more information on the free services available in Azure, you can check out the Azure portal's Free services page.

Here's a summary of some of the free services available in Azure:

Iot

Azure IoT Hub offers a free edition with a generous limit of 8,000 messages per day, assuming a message size of 0.5 KB.

If you're new to Azure IoT Central, you can take advantage of a 7-day free trial for first-time subscribers.

Azure IoT Central also provides 2 free monthly connected devices for users to experiment with.

The free editions of Azure IoT Hub and Azure IoT Central are great ways to get started with IoT development without breaking the bank.

Usage and Limits

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With an Azure Free Account, you'll have a certain amount of free service usage, which can be monitored through a simple table. This table displays your usage status, including the meter, usage/limit, and status of each service.

The table shows the meter, which identifies the unit of measure for the service being consumed, and the usage/limit, which displays the limit for the meter and the current month's usage. You can also find the status of the service, which can be one of several possible statues.

Here's a quick rundown of the key information you'll find in the table:

  • Meter: Identifies the unit of measure for the service being consumed.
  • Usage/Limit: Displays the limit for the meter and the current month's usage.
  • Status: Displays the usage status of the service.

You should also be aware that any unused credits cannot be carried over to subsequent months and cannot be transferred to other Azure subscriptions.

Limited Time

If you're new to Azure, you can take advantage of a limited time free account. You can get $200 in Azure credits for the first 30 days, which is a generous offer.

Credit: youtube.com, How to Trigger a Notification when Usage Limits are Reached

To be eligible for this free account, you must be a new customer who has not paid for or used Azure before. You can create services in any region that supports the service, and you can create multiple instances as long as the total is within the permitted limits.

To create a free trial account, you'll need a credit card, a phone number, and an email address. If you're a student, you can use a valid college student email ID to register.

A unique perspective: Create Windows Azure Account

Security

With Azure, you get a range of security features to keep your data safe.

You can get a free policy assessment and recommendations with Azure Security Center. This helps you identify potential security risks and improve your overall security posture.

Azure offers a generous amount of free processing for its Face API, allowing you to handle 30,000 transactions per month at a rate of 20 transactions per minute.

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Azure Cognitive Search provides 50 MB of storage for 10,000 hosted documents, including 3 indexes per service.

Machine Learning with Azure is also included, with 100 modules and 1 hour of experiment time, plus 10 GB of included storage.

Here's a quick summary of the free security features and limits:

Logging

Logging is a crucial aspect of monitoring and analyzing your usage. You get 5 GB of free analysis per month with a 31-day retention period using Log Analytics.

This means you can store and analyze data from the past month without incurring any additional costs.

Monitoring/Automation

Monitoring your Azure usage is crucial to avoid unexpected costs. You can monitor the free service usage by scrolling down to a table showing the meter, usage/limit, and status.

The table displays the meter, which identifies the unit of measure for the service being consumed, and the usage/limit, which shows the limit for the meter and the current month's usage. The status column displays the usage status of the service.

See what others are reading: Azure Service Accounts

Credit: youtube.com, Power Automate flows: Licensing, Ownership, and API Limits

With Azure Automation, you get free 500 minutes of job run time. This is a great feature for automating tasks without incurring additional costs.

Here are some key features of Azure's monitoring and automation services:

  • Free 500 minutes of job run time with Azure Automation
  • Unlimited Azure Batch usage for job scheduling and cluster management
  • Free namespace and 1 million push notifications with Azure Notification Hubs
  • Unlimited recommendations and best practices with Azure Advisor
  • Unlimited nodes (server or platform-as-a-service instance) with Application Insights and 1 GB of telemetry data included per month
  • 100,000 operations for event publishing and delivery with Event Grid

Monitoring Usage Tier

Monitoring your Azure Free Usage Tier is a breeze. You can easily track your usage by scrolling down to the table showing free service usage.

This table has three columns: Meter, Usage/Limit, and Status. The Meter column identifies the unit of measure for the service being consumed, showing how many units of measure you've used out of a particular service.

The Usage/Limit column displays the limit for the meter and the current month's usage. You'll also see the usage status of the service in the Status column, which can be one of several possible statuses.

To give you a better idea, here's a breakdown of the possible statuses you might see:

  • Meter: Identifies the unit of measure for the service being consumed.
  • Usage/Limit: Displays the limit for the meter and the current month’s usage.
  • Status: Displays the usage status of the service.

This information will help you keep an eye on your usage and make adjustments as needed.

Upgrades and Spending Limits

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If you're using the Azure free account, you'll receive a one-time credit of $200 to use within the first 30 days on most Azure services.

This credit is a great way to get started with Azure, but it's essential to understand the spending limits and what happens when you go over them.

Within the first 30 days, you have a $200 credit limit to either additional purchase services or apply to an overage you incur when using products, such as using more than 750 hours of Linux VMs.

Unused credits cannot be rolled over at the end of the 30 days or transferred to another subscription.

If you exhaust your credits within the first 30 days, or if your account is 30 days old, you'll need to upgrade to a pay-as-you-go account.

Here are some products that cannot be purchased with the free credits:

  • Azure support plans
  • Azure DevOps
  • Visual Studio subscriptions
  • Visual Studio App Center services
  • Express Route
  • Third-party branded products
  • Azure Marketplace Products
  • Separately licensed products from Azure such as Microsoft Azure Active Directory Premium

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Azure free for 750 hours?

Azure's Free Tier offers 750 hours of free VM usage per month, but charges apply if you exceed this limit. Learn more about Azure's pricing and free tier benefits.

What are the 25 free services in Azure?

Azure offers a wide range of free services, including Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Virtual Desktop, Azure SQL, and more, with a total of 25 services available at no cost. Explore our comprehensive list to discover the full scope of free services and get started with Azure today.

Is Azure free after 30 days?

Azure free account continues beyond 30 days, but you must upgrade to a pay-as-you-go subscription to remove the spending limit. This allows continued use of select free services.

Is Windows VM free on Azure?

Yes, Windows VM is included in Azure's free account, with up to 750 free hours per month. This offer provides a great opportunity to try Azure's Windows Virtual Machine at no cost.

How to enable free trial in Azure?

To enable a free trial in Azure, sign up for a Microsoft account on the Azure Home Page and follow the prompts to create a free account. This will give you access to a free trial of Azure services.

Francis McKenzie

Writer

Francis McKenzie is a skilled writer with a passion for crafting informative and engaging content. With a focus on technology and software development, Francis has established herself as a knowledgeable and authoritative voice in the field of Next.js development.

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