Azure Free Trial 2026 — $200 Credit for 30 Days, But the B1s CPU Credits Drain Faster Than You Think

Free Trial Details — Two Separate Layers

Azure’s free offering has two layers, and confusing them is how people end up with surprise bills. The $200 credit and the 12-month free tier are entirely separate programs with different rules. Know which is which before you deploy anything.

Layer 1: $200 for 30 days. This credit covers anything on Azure — VMs, databases, AI services, storage. It burns through in exactly 30 days regardless of how much you spend. At $6.67/day of spending capacity, you can comfortably run a B2s (2 vCPU / 4GB RAM, ~$35/mo) for the entire trial. But 30 days is the shortest trial window among major cloud providers. Google Cloud gives you 90 days. DigitalOcean gives you 60. With Azure, you need to walk in with a testing plan.

Layer 2: 12 months of free tier services. After your $200 expires, specific services remain free at specific limits. The B1s VM, Azure SQL Basic, Blob Storage (5GB), and others. These do not use your $200 credit — they are separately tracked. Exceeding the limits on any free-tier service triggers charges on your credit card without asking permission.

The B1s CPU Credit Problem — What Microsoft Does Not Emphasize

Every Azure marketing page says “B1s VM free for 12 months.” Almost none of them explain what the B in B-series stands for: burstable. And burstable means your CPU performance is not guaranteed.

Here is how it works mechanically. The B1s has a 10% CPU baseline. When your VM uses less than 10%, it banks credits. When it needs more, it spends credits. The B1s earns 6 credits per hour, and the maximum bank holds 144 credits. Each credit equals 1 minute of 100% CPU on one core.

The math tells the story:

I deployed a WordPress site on B1s with WP Super Cache enabled. For the first 5 hours, page loads averaged 400ms. By hour 6, the credit bank hit zero and response times jumped to 3.8 seconds. They stayed there for the rest of the day until overnight idle hours rebuilt the bank. The next morning was fast again — until traffic returned. This daily cycle of “fast in the morning, throttled by afternoon” is the lived experience of running anything non-trivial on B1s.

How to monitor: Azure Portal → your VM → Metrics → select “CPU Credits Remaining.” If this graph trends downward through the day, your workload exceeds the baseline. Your options: accept the throttling, upgrade to a larger B-series (not free), or switch to a D-series with dedicated CPU (definitely not free, starting at ~$96/mo for D2s_v5).

Compare this to Vultr’s $5/mo plan: 1GB RAM with consistent CPU allocation, no credit system. Or Hetzner at $4.59/mo: 2GB RAM, 20GB NVMe, dedicated shared vCPU without burst throttling. The B1s is free, but “free and throttled” is not always better than “cheap and consistent.”

How to Claim Your $200 Credit

Signup takes 5–10 minutes. That is about 3x longer than Vultr or DigitalOcean. Enterprise-grade onboarding for an enterprise-grade platform.

1. Go to azure.microsoft.com/free and click “Start free.” You need a Microsoft account — create one if you do not have one. A personal Outlook.com address works.
2. Complete identity verification. Azure sends an SMS code and/or requires credit card verification. This is stricter than most VPS providers.
3. Add payment method. Credit card required. Azure places a $1 authorization hold, released within 3–5 business days.
4. Enable Spending Limit IMMEDIATELY. Go to Subscriptions → your subscription → Spending limit → Turn on. This is the single most important step. Without it, Azure charges your credit card the moment your $200 runs out. No warning. No grace period. Just a charge.
5. Create Cost Alerts. Cost Management + Billing → Budgets → Add. Set alerts at $10, $50, and $150. You receive email when approaching these thresholds.
6. Deploy your first VM. Virtual Machines → Create → Azure Virtual Machine. For the 12-month free tier, select B1s size. Cheapest US regions: East US (Virginia) or West US 2 (Washington).

Critical detail most guides skip: when creating the VM, Azure auto-selects a Premium SSD managed disk. The free tier only covers a 64GB P6 Premium SSD for 12 months. If you select a larger disk or a different tier, you pay for it immediately. Check the disk configuration before clicking “Create” — this is where hidden charges start.

12-Month Free Services — The Limits That Matter

After your $200 credit expires, these services stay free for a full year. Every single one has limits. Exceeding those limits triggers charges automatically. Know the boundaries.

What is NOT free: Windows license fees on any VM, premium storage beyond 64GB, outbound network beyond 15GB/month, Azure AD Premium, load balancers ($18/mo), any VM larger than B1s, and any usage exceeding free-tier limits. Azure’s pricing calculator exists for a reason. Use it before committing to anything post-trial.

VM Plans With $200 Credit Applied

The $200 credit covers a surprising amount of compute during the 30-day trial. The question is not the trial — it is what happens after. Look at the monthly prices and ask yourself if Azure makes sense at those rates when Hetzner exists.

The B2s is the pragmatic trial choice: 4GB RAM runs a real application, 40% CPU baseline is high enough to avoid constant throttling, and at $35/mo your $200 credit covers the full 30-day trial. Use the trial to evaluate Azure-specific services: Azure AD integration, Functions, Service Bus, managed SQL. If you are just spinning up a Linux box to host a website, you are paying 3–5x what you would on Vultr or Hetzner for equivalent specs.

Billing Traps & How to Avoid Every One of Them

Azure billing is designed for enterprise finance teams with dedicated cost analysts. Individual users navigating the Cost Management portal for the first time are at a disadvantage. Here are the traps I have seen catch people:

• No Spending Limit = automatic credit card charges. This is the big one. If you did not enable the Spending Limit during signup, Azure treats your credit card as a fallback payment method. Credit runs out on day 30, charges start on day 31. Enable it now: Subscriptions → Spending limit → Turn on.
• Disk storage persists after VM deletion. Deleting a VM does not delete its managed disk or the associated OS disk by default. You must manually delete disks. A 64GB Premium SSD costs ~$10/mo. I have seen orphaned disks accumulate $30–50 in charges over months.
• Public IP address charges. As of 2024, Azure charges $0.005/hr ($3.60/mo) for all public IPv4 addresses, even those attached to running VMs. The B1s free tier covers one public IP, but creating additional IPs or keeping IPs on deleted VMs triggers charges.
• Network egress beyond 15GB. The first 15GB of outbound data transfer per month is free. Beyond that: $0.087/GB for the first 10TB. A misconfigured backup job or a download-heavy application will trigger charges fast.
• The “Upgrade” button trap. Azure frequently prompts you to “Upgrade to Pay-As-You-Go” to access more services. Doing so removes the Spending Limit permanently. Once upgraded, there is no way to re-enable the spending cap. You are fully exposed to usage-based charges from that point forward.
• Marketplace images with hidden costs. Some VM images in the Azure Marketplace include software license fees (Windows Server, SQL Server, RHEL) on top of the VM cost. A “free tier” B1s with a Windows Server license is not free — the OS license is billed separately.

My protection stack: Spending Limit enabled, three budget alerts ($10, $50, $150), weekly calendar reminder to check Cost Management dashboard, and a hard rule: never click “Upgrade to Pay-As-You-Go” unless I have consciously decided to start paying for Azure. That combination has kept my trial accounts at $0 charges consistently.

Alternative VPS Deals

I want to be candid about who Azure is for. If your company is evaluating Microsoft cloud services, this trial is exactly right. If you are an individual looking for a VPS, these alternatives deliver more for less.

The comparison that matters: DigitalOcean gives you $200 for 60 days with an interface that takes 2 minutes to learn. Azure gives you $200 for 30 days with an interface that takes 2 weeks to learn. Same credit, half the time, ten times the complexity. If you need Azure AD, compliance certifications (Azure has 100+), or your organization runs on the Microsoft stack, Azure is the obvious choice. For everything else, DigitalOcean delivers more usable value from the same $200.

Who Actually Benefits From This Trial

Frequently Asked Questions

How fast do Azure B1s CPU credits actually run out?

A B1s earns 6 credits per hour with a 144-credit maximum bank. At sustained 100% CPU, the bank empties in 2.4 hours. At 30% sustained (a moderately trafficked WordPress site), credits deplete in roughly 8 hours. Once empty, your VM is throttled to 10% of one core — approximately 200MHz of usable CPU. Page loads jump from 300ms to 3+ seconds.

How do I avoid unexpected Azure charges after the free trial?

Three steps: 1) Enable Spending Limit in Subscriptions → Spending limit → Turn on. 2) Create Budget Alerts in Cost Management + Billing → Budgets at $10 threshold. 3) Set calendar reminders for day 25 and day 29. Without these safeguards, Azure charges your credit card the instant your $200 expires.

What does “burstable” mean for Azure B-series VMs?

B-series VMs use a CPU credit system. Below baseline usage, credits accumulate. Above baseline, credits are spent. B1s baseline is 10% of one vCPU. Sustained workloads above 10% drain the bank and throttle your VM. For consistent CPU needs (databases, builds, encoding), use D-series or F-series — but those are not included in the free tier.

Is the Azure free B1s good enough for WordPress?

Barely. 1GB RAM handles a minimal WordPress install, but burstable CPU means inconsistent page loads: fast when credits are available, slow when depleted. A site with 50+ visits/hour will drain credits within hours. For reliable WordPress: Hostinger at $6.49/mo gives you 4GB RAM and NVMe — better specs at lower cost than Azure’s $8/mo B1s post-trial.

Azure vs DigitalOcean — which free trial is better for beginners?

DigitalOcean. Same $200 credit, 60 days instead of 30, and an interface that takes 2 minutes to learn. Azure requires navigating Resource Groups, VNets, NSGs, and storage accounts just to launch a single VM. Azure is built for enterprise teams. DigitalOcean is built for developers.

Can I use Azure free credits for services other than VMs?

Yes. The $200 credit applies to any Azure service: SQL Database, Functions, Blob Storage, Container Instances, Cognitive Services, and more. This is where Azure’s trial genuinely shines — evaluating the full Microsoft ecosystem, not just raw VMs. The 12-month free tier adds Azure SQL, App Service, and DevOps as separate free-tier services.

What happens to my data when the free trial expires?

With Spending Limit enabled: your subscription is disabled, VMs stop, but disks and data are preserved for 90 days. Reactivate by converting to pay-as-you-go. Without Spending Limit: Azure charges your card and resources keep running. After 90 days of disabled subscription, all resources are permanently deleted. Back up before day 30.

How does Azure’s $200 trial compare to Google Cloud’s $300?

Google Cloud offers $100 more ($300 vs $200) with triple the time (90 vs 30 days) and an always-free e2-micro VM. Azure counters with a 12-month free B1s and deeper Microsoft ecosystem integration (Azure AD, Office 365). For evaluation time and credit: Google Cloud wins. For Microsoft-stack organizations: Azure is the better fit.