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Two layers with two clocks
Microsoft's account page offers two account types: pay as you go, or "try Azure free for up to 30 days". The free account includes a "$200 credit to use on Azure services within 30 days", "Free monthly amounts of 20+ popular services for 12 months (new Azure customers only)", and "Free monthly amounts of 65+ always-free services". The credit and the free amounts are different things. The credit is money that expires: "You have up to 30 days to use your credit." The free amounts are quantities of specific services that reset monthly for a year, and they keep going after the credit is gone, provided you convert the account (next section). The always-free amounts have no clock at all and apply to pay-as-you-go accounts too.
Signing up
The FAQ on the account page: "All you need is a phone number, a credit card or a debit card (non-prepaid), and a Microsoft account or a GitHub account." The card and number are for "identity verification to validate that account holders are real people and not bots", and "During the signup verification process, there may be a temporary $1 authorization placed on your card, which will be reversed upon verification." On charges: "If you sign up for an Azure free account, you won't be charged anything unless you decide to move to pay-as-you-go pricing", and in the FAQ's words, "We'll never charge you unless you decide to move to pay-as-you-go pricing." The free-services page adds a regional note: the 12-month offer "is not currently available" in some markets, which it lists.
The free VMs and their baselines
| Size (750 hours a month free for 12 months) | vCPU / memory | CPU baseline per vCPU (Microsoft docs) | Pay-as-you-go, East US Linux (Retail Prices API) |
|---|---|---|---|
| B1s | 1 / 1 GiB | 10% | $0.0104 an hour, about $7.59 a month |
| B2ats v2 (AMD) | 2 / 1 GiB | 20% | $0.0094 an hour, about $6.86 a month |
| B2pts v2 (Arm) | 2 / 1 GiB | Bpsv2 family; see Microsoft docs | Not fetched for this page |
750 hours is a full month (a 31-day month has 744), so each of the three sizes can run one instance continuously for the year. All three are burstable: Microsoft's B-family documentation says B-series VMs "are the only VM type that use credits for CPU performance provisioning", accumulating credits below the baseline and being "throttled back to its base CPU performance" once credits are spent. A B1s idling on a small website banks credits and bursts for page loads; a B1s compiling or serving a busy database sits at 10 percent of a core. That is the design, not a trap, and the Azure alternatives page quotes the full credit-model text and the per-size credit rates.
What the allowance does not cover
The 750 hours are VM compute. A running VM also has an OS disk, usually a public IP address, and outbound data transfer, each a separate meter. From the Azure Retail Prices API for East US in September 2026:
| Line | Price | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Standard SSD managed disk E4 (32 GiB) | $2.40 a month | $2.40 |
| Standard HDD managed disk S4 (32 GiB) | $1.54 a month | $1.54 |
| Standard static public IPv4 | $0.006 an hour | about $4.38 |
| Data transfer out, first 100 GB a month | $0 | $0 |
| Data transfer out beyond 100 GB | $0.087 per GB | usage |
Whether the 12-month free amounts also include a disk and IP allowance is on Microsoft's free-services list, which renders as a carousel this page could not read in full; treat the lines above as the worst case. In the first 30 days the $200 credit absorbs them. After that, a free B1s with an E4 disk and a static IP costs about $6.78 a month, which is roughly what the cheapest fixed-price hosts charge for a server with twice the memory and no burst model. The free year is real; it is a free VM, not a free server.
After 30 days, and after 12 months
Microsoft's page: "If you sign up for an Azure free account, you'll need to move to pay-as-you-go pricing within 30 days or after you've used your credit (whichever happens first) to continue to receive free services." Converting does not itself cost anything: "With pay-as-you-go pricing, you'll be charged only for what you use beyond your monthly free amounts of services." If you do not convert, the free account ends and nothing is charged. At 12 months the free monthly amounts for new customers end and the VMs bill at the rates in the table above; the always-free services continue. Set a budget alert in Cost Management when you convert, and a calendar note at month 11.
Against the other free tiers and trials
| Provider | Credit | Clock | Free server without a clock | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Azure | $200 | 30 days; 12 months of free amounts incl. 750 VM hours on three sizes | No | Azure account page |
| AWS | $100, up to $100 more for activities | Free plan ends at six months or when credits are used | No | AWS Billing docs |
| Google Cloud | $300 | 90 days | Yes: one e2-micro in three US regions | Google Cloud Free Tier docs |
| Oracle Cloud | Trial credit on its page | 30 days | Yes: Always Free, Arm capacity equal to 2 OCPUs and 12 GB, idle rule applies | Oracle Always Free docs |
| Kamatera | $100 of service | 30 days, one server, card required | No | Kamatera trial page |
Azure's is the biggest credit you can spend in a month and the only one that pairs a credit with a year of VM hours. Google's is bigger over a quarter and leaves a permanent micro VM behind; Oracle's permanent tier is the largest free server. Which is right depends on what you are testing: the Azure offer suits someone evaluating Azure, not someone looking for a free server to keep.
If you just want a cheap server
If the goal is a small server rather than an Azure evaluation, the free account is the long way round: a card, a conversion, a burstable VM and separate meters. The fixed-price hosts on this site sell 2 GB servers for the price of Azure's disk and IP: InterServer $3 a month (1 core, 2 GB, 40 GB, 2 TB, New York, Dallas or Los Angeles, no contract), BuyVM $7, Vultr $10 hourly with an API, and OVHcloud $5.35 for 4 GB. The 2 GB comparison ranks them.
Affiliate link: BestUSAVPS may earn a commission if you buy from InterServer through it. It is listed here as the lowest 2 GB monthly price on this site; Azure and the other providers on this page are plain links.
What this page could not verify
- Whether the 12-month free amounts include managed disk, public IP or bandwidth allowances: the free-services list renders as a carousel and the VM line was the one this page could read.
- B2pts v2 pricing and baseline: not fetched from the Retail Prices API or the Bpsv2 docs for this page.
- The current list of markets where the 12-month offer is unavailable: on Microsoft's free-services page footnote.
- Oracle's trial credit amount: on its page; only the Always Free tier is quoted here from the Oracle review.