How to Enable Billing on an Azure Subscription

Enabling billing on an Azure subscription is essential for accessing Azure services beyond free tier limits and for production workloads. This guide walks you through activating billing, understanding subscription types, and configuring payment methods.

Overview

Azure subscriptions must have billing enabled to use paid services and exceed free tier quotas. Depending on your subscription type (Free Trial, Pay-As-You-Go, Enterprise Agreement, Microsoft Customer Agreement), the process for enabling or managing billing varies. This guide covers the most common scenarios for activating billing and upgrading subscription types.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

• Azure account with an active subscription
• Account Administrator or Owner role on the subscription
• Valid payment method (credit card, invoice billing arrangement, or enterprise agreement)
• Azure Portal access
• Understanding of your organization's billing structure

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Check Current Subscription Type

First, determine your current subscription type and billing status:

Via Azure Portal:

1. Sign in to the Azure Portal
2. Navigate to Subscriptions
3. Select your subscription
4. Review subscription details:
   • Offer: Free Trial, Pay-As-You-Go, Enterprise, etc.
   • Status: Active, Disabled, Expired, etc.
   • Billing: Shows current payment method or "No billing enabled"

Via Azure CLI:

# List all subscriptions with details
az account list --output table

# Get specific subscription details
SUBSCRIPTION_ID="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"
az account show --subscription $SUBSCRIPTION_ID

# Check subscription offer type
az account list --query "[?id=='$SUBSCRIPTION_ID'].{Name:name, State:state, Offer:offerType}" --output table

Via PowerShell:

# Get all subscriptions
Get-AzSubscription

# Get specific subscription details
$SubscriptionId = "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"
Get-AzSubscription -SubscriptionId $SubscriptionId | Format-List

# Check subscription state
$Subscription = Get-AzSubscription -SubscriptionId $SubscriptionId
Write-Host "Name: $($Subscription.Name)"
Write-Host "State: $($Subscription.State)"
Write-Host "Offer: $($Subscription.SubscriptionPolicies.QuotaId)"

Step 2: Upgrade Free Trial to Pay-As-You-Go

If you have a Free Trial subscription, upgrade it to enable full billing:

Via Azure Portal:

1. Navigate to Subscriptions
2. Select your Free Trial subscription
3. Look for Upgrade banner at the top or in the Overview section
4. Click Upgrade to Pay-As-You-Go or Upgrade
5. Review the upgrade details:
   • Remaining credit (if any) will be preserved
   • Free services remain free within limits
   • Charges apply only for usage beyond free tiers
6. Click Upgrade to confirm
7. Add or confirm payment method:
   • Click Add payment method
   • Enter credit card details
   • Complete verification
8. Wait 1-2 minutes for upgrade to complete

Important Notes:

• Free credits remain available until expiration
• You won't be charged until credits are exhausted or expired
• Free services (like limited compute, storage) remain free
• Upgrade doesn't automatically incur charges

Step 3: Add Payment Method

Add a payment method to enable billing on Pay-As-You-Go subscriptions:

Via Azure Portal:

1. Navigate to Cost Management + Billing
2. Select Billing profiles (for Microsoft Customer Agreement) or Payment methods (for other types)
3. Click + Add payment method
4. Choose payment method type:
   • Credit or debit card (most common)
   • Bank account (ACH for US, SEPA for Europe)
   • Wire transfer (for Enterprise)
5. Enter payment details:
   • Card number, expiration, CVV
   • Billing address
   • Contact information
6. Click Save
7. Set as default payment method if you have multiple methods
8. Verify with small authorization charge (immediately refunded)

Via Azure CLI:

# Payment methods must be added via Azure Portal or REST API
# Azure CLI doesn't support direct payment method management

# However, you can check if billing is enabled
az account list --query "[].{Name:name, State:state}" --output table

Via PowerShell:

# Payment methods must be added via Azure Portal
# PowerShell doesn't support direct payment method management

# Check subscription billing status
Get-AzSubscription | Select-Object Name, State, Id

Step 4: Enable Billing on Visual Studio Subscription

Visual Studio subscriptions include monthly Azure credits but need billing enabled for overages:

Via Azure Portal:

1. Navigate to Subscriptions
2. Select your Visual Studio subscription (e.g., "Visual Studio Professional Subscription")
3. Review monthly credit amount (e.g., $50-$150/month)
4. To enable overage billing:
   • Click Remove spending limit in the notification banner
   • Option 1: Remove spending limit indefinitely
   • Option 2: Remove spending limit for current billing period only
5. Add payment method if not already configured
6. Confirm removal of spending limit
7. Charges will apply if you exceed monthly credits

Important:

• Removing spending limit allows charges beyond credits
• Without removing the limit, services stop when credits exhaust
• Credits reset monthly and don't roll over

Step 5: Enable Billing on Enterprise Agreement (EA) Subscription

Enterprise Agreement subscriptions are pre-paid and managed by your organization:

Via Azure Portal:

1. Navigate to Cost Management + Billing
2. Select Billing scopes
3. Choose your Enrollment (EA number)
4. View available prepayment (formerly called "monetary commitment")
5. Subscriptions automatically use EA prepayment
6. Contact your EA administrator if billing isn't working

For EA Administrators:

1. Access EA Portal
2. Navigate to Manage > Enrollment
3. Review enrollment details and prepayment balance
4. Create or enable subscriptions under the enrollment
5. Assign subscription owners
6. Set spending limits per department or account (optional)

Note: EA subscriptions don't require individual payment methods - they use organizational prepayment.

Step 6: Configure Spending Limits (Optional)

Set spending limits to prevent unexpected charges:

For Pay-As-You-Go with Credit:

• Azure automatically sets spending limits on credit-based subscriptions
• Remove spending limit to enable overage charges (see Step 4)

For All Subscription Types:

1. Navigate to Cost Management + Billing
2. Select Budgets under Cost Management
3. Click + Add to create a budget
4. Configure budget:
   • Name: "Monthly Spending Limit"
   • Reset period: Monthly
   • Amount: $500 (example)
   • Alert conditions: 80%, 90%, 100%
5. Add action groups for email alerts
6. Click Create

Note: Budgets don't prevent charges - they only trigger alerts. True spending limits (that stop services) only exist on credit-based subscriptions.

Step 7: Verify Billing is Enabled

Confirm billing is active and configured correctly:

Via Azure Portal:

1. Navigate to Subscriptions
2. Check subscription status is Active
3. Navigate to Cost Management + Billing > Payment methods
4. Verify valid payment method is listed
5. Create a small test resource (e.g., storage account)
6. Delete test resource immediately to avoid charges
7. Check Cost Management > Cost analysis after 24 hours to see if usage is tracked

Via Azure CLI:

# Check subscription is active
az account show --query "{Name:name, State:state}" --output table

# List payment methods (requires billing scope)
# Note: Limited support in CLI, use Portal for verification

# Check if usage is being tracked
az consumption usage list --start-date $(date -d '7 days ago' +%Y-%m-%d) --output table

Via PowerShell:

# Verify subscription state
$Subscription = Get-AzSubscription -SubscriptionId $SubscriptionId
if ($Subscription.State -eq "Enabled") {
    Write-Host "Billing is enabled" -ForegroundColor Green
} else {
    Write-Host "Subscription state: $($Subscription.State)" -ForegroundColor Yellow
}

# Check recent usage (verifies billing tracking)
Get-AzConsumptionUsageDetail -StartDate (Get-Date).AddDays(-7) -EndDate (Get-Date) | Select-Object -First 5

Step 8: Set Up Billing Alerts

Configure alerts to monitor spending:

Via Azure Portal:

1. Navigate to Cost Management + Billing > Cost alerts
2. Review existing alerts
3. Click + Add to create new alert
4. Choose alert type:
   • Budget alert: Triggers at percentage of budget
   • Credit alert: For Azure credits (EA, Visual Studio)
   • Department spending quota (EA only)
5. Configure alert:
   • Name: "Monthly Budget Alert"
   • Threshold: 80% of monthly budget
   • Action group: Email to finance team
6. Click Create

Via Azure CLI:

# Create action group for alerts
az monitor action-group create \
  --name "BillingAlerts" \
  --resource-group "rg-billing" \
  --short-name "BillingAlert" \
  --email-receiver "Finance" "[email protected]"

# Note: Budget alerts must be created via Portal or REST API

Best Practices

Payment Methods

• Use corporate credit cards for business subscriptions
• Set up backup payment methods to avoid service interruption
• Use invoice billing for large organizations (requires approval from Microsoft)
• Update payment methods before expiration to prevent service disruption

Spending Controls

• Create budgets for all subscriptions with email alerts
• Use resource tags for cost tracking by project or department
• Review spending weekly in Cost Management
• Set up spending limits on non-production subscriptions if available

Organizational Best Practices

• Separate subscriptions for different environments (dev, test, prod)
• Use management groups to organize subscriptions hierarchically
• Apply Azure Policy to enforce resource governance
• Enable Azure Advisor for cost optimization recommendations

Security

• Restrict billing roles to finance and admin team only
• Use Azure AD groups for billing role assignments
• Enable MFA for all users with billing access
• Audit billing changes via Activity Log

Troubleshooting

Cannot Upgrade Free Trial

Problem: "Upgrade" button is grayed out or missing

Solution:

• Ensure Free Trial hasn't expired (check expiration date)
• Verify you're the Account Administrator
• Try using different browser or incognito mode
• Contact Azure Support if issue persists

Payment Method Declined

Problem: Credit card is declined when adding payment method

Solution:

• Verify card details (number, expiration, CVV)
• Check card has sufficient available credit
• Contact bank to authorize international transactions (Microsoft Ireland or US)
• Try different payment method
• Check if card supports online/international purchases

Subscription Shows as "Disabled"

Problem: Subscription status is "Disabled" and services are stopped

Solution:

• Check if payment method has expired
• Verify payment was processed successfully
• Look for overdue invoices in Billing section
• Update payment method and wait 1-2 hours for reactivation
• Contact Azure Support if billing issue isn't resolved within 24 hours

Charges Appearing Before Enabling Billing

Problem: Seeing charges when billing shouldn't be enabled

Solution:

• Some services charge immediately even on free trials (Marketplace, support plans)
• Check if Free Trial credits were exhausted
• Review if spending limit was removed
• Check Cost Analysis for specific charges
• Free tier limits may have been exceeded

Cannot Remove Spending Limit

Problem: Error when trying to remove spending limit

Solution:

• Ensure you're the Account Administrator
• Check if payment method is valid
• Try removing limit via Account Center (account.azure.com)
• Verify subscription type supports removing spending limit
• Contact Azure Support for assistance

Next Steps

After enabling billing:

1. Set up cost exports: Automate billing data exports for analysis

   • See: "How to Enable Cost Management Export to Azure Storage"

2. Create budgets and alerts: Monitor spending proactively

   • See: "How to Set Up Cost Alerts and Budgets in Azure"

3. Optimize costs: Identify savings opportunities

   • Use Azure Advisor recommendations
   • Review idle and underutilized resources
   • Consider Reserved Instances for predictable workloads

4. Implement governance: Apply policies for cost control

   • Set up resource tags for cost allocation
   • Use Azure Policy to restrict expensive SKUs in non-prod
   • Implement approval workflows for high-cost resources

5. Monitor usage: Regularly review spending trends

   • See: "How to View Azure Billing Data in Azure Synapse or Power BI"

Related Resources

• Azure subscription states (Microsoft Learn)
• Upgrade Azure Free Trial (Microsoft Learn)
• Azure payment methods (Microsoft Learn)
• Azure spending limits (Microsoft Learn)