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Azure Virtual Desktop Blog
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Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid is now generally available

Steve_Downs's avatar
Steve_Downs
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Sep 01, 2026

Extend Azure Virtual Desktop to your on-premises environment. Run desktops where you need them. Manage on-premises session hosts from Azure.

Many organizations want to modernize their virtual desktop infrastructure but face practical constraints that make a full cloud migration difficult in the near term. Whether it's moving beyond the technical and operational limitations of their existing environment or bringing a more modern Windows experience to their users, organizations are looking for solutions that give them options without creating disruptions.

Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid addresses this challenge by enabling customers to bring the cloud-managed benefits of Azure Virtual Desktop to their existing on-premises environments while continuing to use current hardware, hypervisors, and operational processes.

Today, we are announcing the general availability of Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid, bringing the power of Azure Virtual Desktop to on-premises and edge environments.

With Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid, organizations can run session hosts in their own datacenter and on their own hypervisor using Azure Arc, while continuing to leverage the centralized control plane of Azure Virtual Desktop. This enables a consistent management and user experience, without requiring a full migration to the cloud.

Architecture overview

Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid uses the following architecture:

  • Session hosts run in your datacenter on your hypervisor of choice.
  • Azure Arc connects those machines to Azure.

The Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid extension configures Azure Arc VMs as Azure Virtual Desktop session hosts.

  • The Azure Virtual Desktop cloud service provides session brokering and user connectivity.
  • Users access desktops and apps through Windows App.

All communication is outbound over HTTPS, reducing network complexity and eliminating the need for inbound connectivity.

Pricing model

Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid is designed with a per-user pricing model that requires OS user entitlement licensing. To learn more about pricing and licensing entitlements for Azure Virtual Desktop, please visit: aka.ms/AVDPricingPage.

Infrastructure costs (compute, storage, and networking) remain within the customer’s on-premises environment.

Feedback from customers and partners

Since preview, Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid has generated interest from organizations modernizing legacy VDI and RDS environments. Customers are adopting Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid to:

  • Extend Azure Virtual Desktop into existing environments using VMware vSphere, Nutanix AHV, and Hyper-V hypervisors
  • Enable phased cloud migration strategies that can occur on an organizations timetable of choice
  • Maintain control over infrastructure while adopting cloud services through the security of on-premises hardware

Partners are playing a key role in enabling these scenarios by:

  • Helping customers confirm application and performance viability on Azure Virtual Desktop session hosts
  • Delivering solutions that provide VM management and provisioning
  • Additional session host management functionality (monitoring, performance optimization, etc.) to their Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid estate

Partner perspectives

Login VSI

"Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid reflects where enterprise end-user computing is heading toward models that respect the infrastructure organizations already depend on while opening the door to cloud innovation. From years of working with VDI teams, we know adoption succeeds when it meets organizations where they are, and together Microsoft and Login VSI give them exactly that, with Hydra providing the same consistent management layer across their cloud and on-premises Azure Virtual Desktop all-in-one. We are glad to support Microsoft and our shared customers as more of them make the move." said John Vigeant, CEO, Login VSI

Nerdio

"Many organizations aren't ready to fully move to the cloud today due to compliance requirements, cost constraints, and existing infrastructure investments. Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid gives companies a more flexible path towards Windows 365, while Nerdio provides the desktop orchestration, automation, visibility, and operational controls IT teams need to modernize efficiently," said Scott Manchester, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Nerdio

Nutanix

"The general availability of Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid marks an important milestone for customers seeking greater flexibility where desktops and data reside. Together, Microsoft and Nutanix enable organizations to combine the Azure modern desktop control plane with the performance, compliance, and operational control of Nutanix AHV. As a launch ecosystem partner, Nutanix is proud to help customers modernize VDI with more choice than ever before." said Tarkan Maner, President and CCO, Nutanix

Deploy Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid from the Azure portal

To get started with Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid:

  1. Create your VM using your preferred methods
  2. Install and configure Azure Arc
  3. Install the Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid extension
  4. Select a host pool for the session host

These steps can be completed directly from the Azure portal and allow you to bring existing infrastructure into Azure Virtual Desktop.

Get started today

"With Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid, customers can modernize how they deliver Windows experiences without needing to transform everything at once. It provides the flexibility organizations need today and provides a path to Windows 365 tomorrow,” said Bhavya Chopra, Partner Director, Product Management Windows Cloud Experiences

Complement Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid with Windows 365 Reserve

For customers using Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid as part of a phased journey to Windows 365, Windows 365 Reserve provides a way to experience Windows 365 while workloads continue to run on existing on- premises session hosts. A temporary, preconfigured Reserve Cloud PC helps employees remain productive when their primary device or on-premises environment is unavailable, including during outages, ransomware incidents, or planned transitions. Learn more about Windows 365 Reserve.

Updated Sep 02, 2026
Version 2.0
updates

17 Comments

  • Theragus's avatar
    Theragus
    Copper Contributor
    Sep 17, 2026

    Unfortunately, I have to agree with most of the points brought forth here.

    The pricing information about this product is very intransparent, and nowhere is there any easily available information regarding this fee, on top of the harsh and weird SA and licensing requirements. 

    It seems Microsoft either never intended to bring this product to the broader audience in the first place — i.e., any customer below the SA threshold — or they simply dont want you to use your own Infrastructure for (in my opinion very reasonable) cost optimization reasons and is trying to force people into an absurd pricing model to maximize profit.

    AVD Hybrid is the solution which uses the least amount of MS Azure Infrastructure resources out of any AVD Edition yet turns out to be almost more expensive than the other ones. It seems MS really wants to use this more as a lever to force people into a cloud deployment than a real alternative to RDS Deployments.

  • MARKH_69's avatar
    MARKH_69
    Copper Contributor
    Sep 17, 2026

    Here is a funny thing as well 

    *Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid supports Windows 11 Enterprise single-session, however Microsoft BP premium is supported from a Microsoft plan perspective...but that plan does not give you Windows 11 enterprise.  Enterprise only comes with E3/E5...

    No one on BP is ever going to be purchasing Enterprise licenses on a BP plan so why would you think having BP licensing is sufficient.  Just make it an E3/E5 minimum and then everything is consistent.

  • FelizardoCoxe's avatar
    FelizardoCoxe
    Copper Contributor
    Sep 12, 2026

    This is great news, as it will significantly contribute to the process of integrating and migrating on-premises environments to more modern, secure, and easier-to-manage environments in the cloud.

  • mchaudoir's avatar
    mchaudoir
    Tin Contributor
    Sep 09, 2026

    Could this be used to broken RDP to physical devices?

    • MARKH_69's avatar
      MARKH_69
      Copper Contributor
      Sep 17, 2026

      yes, it works.  I have set it up and have a VM on vmware, RDS server on vmware and my physical laptop and it works fine to make the connection to my laptop running in the office.

  • AidenWright's avatar
    AidenWright
    Copper Contributor
    Sep 03, 2026

    Do you have to use a "3rd party" tool for AVD Hybrid?

     

    I have developed some autonomous scripts that can run from an Automation account to control Gold Images/Deployment of AVD Hybrid? Would this be licenced without Nerdio/Hydra or something similar?

    Surely using the Microsoft Toolset should be an option?

    What if I only have 30 users and hyper-v configured, isn't there a minimum monthly commit of 100 users for Nerdio?

    • Steve_Downs's avatar
      Steve_Downs
      Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
      Sep 04, 2026

      You can use whatever tools you want to provision and manage session host states - including scripts.

      • AidenWright's avatar
        AidenWright
        Copper Contributor
        Sep 04, 2026

        Is the "Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid Service Fee" included in the E3/5 or similar?

        If not, how do we confirm licencing using the Microsoft toolset?

  • emzett71's avatar
    emzett71
    Copper Contributor
    Sep 02, 2026

    argh, my plan was to replace many outdated rdsh connection brokers with this. but the price makes it very unattractive for a lot of customers. (When we still need on-prem hw and CALs)

  • cblackuk1's avatar
    cblackuk1
    MVP
    Sep 01, 2026

    Thanks for sharing :-) great to see the feature reaching GA for sure :-)

    As others already said, pricing is going to be the key here :-D

     

    Happy Azure Localling 🤣 or in this case, Happy Windows Servering? 😉

  • Prajeet19jan's avatar
    Prajeet19jan
    Copper Contributor
    Sep 01, 2026

    What’s the best way to calculate the difference in price while using AVD Hybrid? 

  • LCKho3693's avatar
    LCKho3693
    MVP
    Sep 01, 2026

    Hi Steve,

    Thank you for the sharing. 

    Beside the point that brought out by Theragus​ , how should customer calculate Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid Service Fee ?

    Does it same as Azure Virtual Desktop Service Fee (Running AVD on Azure Local) ?

  • Theragus's avatar
    Theragus
    Copper Contributor
    Sep 01, 2026

    Hi Steve,

    Thanks for the post, we have been very interested in AVD Hybrid and have been testing it since it was presented on Ignite 2025 and the public preview launched in March 2026.
    In the official documentation it is mentioned that Windows Server is only supported when RDS CALs have Software Assurance (SA).
    Are there any plans to offer this to customers without SA on their RDS CALs?

    This requirement alone kills around 90% of our potential customer deployments since most of our customers have no SA on their RDS CALs or have recently purchased RDS CALs with Windows Server 2025 / 2022 without SA, so a relicensing to RDS User Subscription is not economically feasable.
    There is also a AVD Hybrid User Licence Fee that it required on top of the RDS CALs, could this be integrated into the AVD Hybrid User License so that SA is not required?