Partner benefits topics

MAPICPP (CSP) community engagement

jonwbstr24 — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 13:57:47 GMT

Hello all,

What's up with the CSP Technical Training and Microsoft Partner Community Q&A Call's? Both calls have been cancelled since January. I believe that I read something about Microsoft restructuring the community engagements but I can't find where I read it, or any updates on what is happening.

Are the calls coming back?
Are they being replaced by another type of community call?

Thanks!

-jon

New updates to developer benefits! February 2026

JillArmourMicrosoft — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 23:19:44 GMT

As part of the February 13 expansion to Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program benefits offerings—including partner benefits packages, ISV Success packages, Solutions Partner designations, and specializations—Microsoft has updated developer benefits included in the partner program, along with how these benefits are accessed. The Visual Studio license included in all benefits offerings is now exclusively Visual Studio Enterprise IDE. This updated license includes many existing benefits such as Dometrain, Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program Concierge chat, and more, but some key changes have been made to deliver a more secure, compliant, and higher value experience for partners.

The per-user monthly Azure credits have been replaced with Azure bulk credits at the organization level, accessible through the Partner Center benefits dashboard; this pooled model gives partners great flexibility with credit allocation while better aligning with Microsoft Azure development needs and reducing unused credits. Additionally, access to some legacy on-premises software downloads and transferrable product keys will no longer be included in partner program developer benefits to support clearer entitlement boundaries; these entitlements remain available through appropriate licensing channels. It’s important to note that these changes apply only to partner program benefits accessed through the Visual Studio subscription portal and do not affect paid Visual Studio subscriptions or SKUs.

These changes were enacted to ensure that partners can better utilize Azure credits across teams, promote compliant use of partner program benefits, and simplify benefits management while preserving access to core developer tools. It may require a change management plan, so we encourage you to develop one.

Microsoft remains deeply committed to our partners and to continuing to invest in your success and growth by regularly reviewing and updating benefits to support customer impact and innovation. Please review the Microsoft Learn page for full details on this update and download the benefits guide for a full list of updated benefits.

Dynamics 365 Sales, Customer Services and Field service for IUR instead Sandbox

Hrvoje Kusulja — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 18:35:21 GMT

Hello,

we are Microsoft partners for about 20 years.

All the time, we have been paying for the Gold, or now the highest tier of Microsoft Partner benefit package.

There was a recent change in benefits, that it removed old Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Customer Engagement (Sales, Customer Service, Field Service) + Marketing..., to equivalent, BUT only Partner sandbox.

Meaning, the product is not any more Internal Use rights, and is forbidden to run production, instead only test, demo, development partner sandbox license exists.

Please, understand this is huge impact on benefit package, and you cannot tell me - this is an improvement.

Asking the Microsoft Partner program, and Dynamics 365 Sales, Customer Service, and Field service, product groups to review the decision and bring back the internal use rights (IUR) production license grade back for Microsoft Partners...

Partner Success Core Benefits updates..?

Jouni Turunen — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 10:54:44 GMT

We bought our Partner Success Core Benefits package in January. Could you give a detailed list what new benefits will be available in this February upgrade? I could not find a clear list from that Benefits Guide which is dated 20251811...

Azure sponsorship and cost management challenge

Hrvoje Kusulja — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 05:26:11 GMT

I am listening for years that Azure Sponsorship type of Azure subscriptions will get Azure Cost Management. This includes the view of prices inside portal.azure.com, managing budgets, checking each individual resources etc.

Current / old portal - https://www.microsoftazuresponsorships.com/Usage , does not show costs per each resource (name), instead only per resources type. Not possible to set budgets, alerts, limits, and other things.

So, again, when does Microsoft plans to upgrade Azure sponsorships to use Cost Management?

Any reference (roadmap) link on this please?

New FY26 benefits release date

TobiA — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 21:09:32 GMT

As mentioned here https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/benefits/benefits-faq-new the new benefits for FY26 should get available in February 2026. As we already have February 2026, is there an exact date when this will happen? Or will the new benefits only get available upon the annual renewal of the Partner Program as last time?

Visual Studio Lite benefits - without Azure Credits and Keys

Hrvoje Kusulja — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 08:42:47 GMT

As communicated earlier, the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program benefit offerings—including partner benefits packages, Solutions Partner designations, and specializations—will be updated later this month to support how you build, differentiate, and grow your business.

The per-user monthly Azure credits associated with this benefit will no longer be available. You can still access organization-level Azure bulk credits that come with your benefits offering. This may require an Azure subscription migration for users to continue accessing credits, and we strongly recommend a change management plan for this transition. In addition, product keys will no longer be accessible within Visual Studio. Keys will instead be available as part of the benefits package(s) your organization holds and can be securely assigned to users directly from Partner Center.

Please note that these changes will not be retroactively applied. They will go into effect when your organization renews its affected benefits offering(s) or if you activate a new offering on or after the February update.

We have been partners for 20 years and using Partner benefits.

Again, Microsoft tries to lower benefits, and in parallel benefit package price will increase (due to different reasons).

This discussion and community of partners, should unit and tell to Microsoft Partner Benefits program that:

Partners have employees/users, that use current Visual Studio benefit, that is (like MSDN), having the user access to keys and Azure credits, for specific user / employee need of test, dev, demo etc.
Azure Bulk credit was never the same and cannot be used as a same
Azure Bulk credit / Azure sponsorship, does not have cost control, Azure budgets and other methods. (This is in plan to change for several years, no progress) on Azure technical side.
Will Microsoft increase Azure Bulk credits to compensate te amount of included benefit usage?

Dear, Microsoft, please leave current Partner Benefits, with full Visual Studio, including Azure credits, and Keys for assigned users, without moving to lower benefit - Visual Studio Lite.

Thank you for understanding, and hope this will not be active in production after partner renewals.

Do benefits of different partner programs add up?

JP_Solvepack — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 13:39:08 GMT

Situation

I hope my question is located correctly in this community. If not: Please inform me so!

We are a small SMB company developing cloud-based software.
We bought the Partner Success Core Benefits which grants us 2.400 $ worth of Azure bulk credits and 15 Microsoft 365 Business Premium licenses per year.

Goal

Our company is working on the qualification for the Solutions Partner "Data & AI" (SMB) status.
We plan to buy the respective Solutions Partner designation which will buy us 6.000 $ worth of Azure bulk credits and 100 Microsoft 365 E3 licenses per year.

Question

Will the benefits of the Partner Success Core Benefits and the Solutions Partner "Data & AI" add up?

Example:

Partner program Azure bulk credits Microsoft 365 licenses
Partner Success Core Benefits 2.400 $ Azure bulk credits 15 (Business Premium)
Solutions Partner "Data & AI" 6.000 $ Azure bulk credits 100 (E3)
Total (?) 8.400 $ Azure bulk credits? 115 Microsoft 365 licenses?

When we qualify for the Solutions Partner "Data & AI" designation, we probably will still be eligible for the Partner Success Core Benefits. There will at least be an overlapping time period where the Partner Success Core Benefits has not yet ended but the Solutions partner designation already has started.

In this overlapping period:

Do those benefits then add up?
- Can we use up ALL Azure credits?
Or will the benefits be restricted to the higher benefits?
- Will we then get a refund for the Partner Success Core Benefits

Could please someone enlighten us on this issue (and perhaps provide us with a link)?

Best regards

End of "Legacy Gold" and the easiest way to change?

Pat2025 — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 09:10:25 GMT

The point is that our benefits associated with purchasing the "Legacy Gold" product expire next month, and we're currently offered the following offers in the Partner Center. Is it possible to purchase both packages "Partner Success Expanded Benefits" and "Partner Success Core Benefits" at the same time, thus obtaining a combined total of 50 Microsoft 365 Business Premium licenses? To maintain business continuity, we need approximately 60 Microsoft 365 licenses. We currently have E3, but we're forced to downgrade to Business Premium. This would be a significant one-time cost if we had to purchase these licenses separately, so we'd like to take advantage of the two bundles of offers prepared for us. Is it possible?

This will reduce cost demand by x2... I really hope this is possible.

If not - what's other options? We need at lease 55 licences for Microsoft 365 but Expanded Package give only 35.

Deployments calculation for Modern Work

Esben315 — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 14:10:39 GMT

Deployments score is calculated by dividing the Active usage values by the Qualified usage values and multiplying by 100 - this result must be greater than or equal to 40 percent, in order for achieving points required for membership qualification,

If the results are less than 40 percent, then the customer in question will not meet the basic requirements, and no points are given.

As of now, the Active usage value is the number of licenses available on a tenant, and not the actual amount of active users with a valid license assigned.

Customers often have licenses with yearly commitment and also have an overage of MS 365 licenses, due to employee hirings and layoffs. This means that the calculated usage percentage if mostly lower than the real life percentages and can never reach 100%.

If a customer has a negative development in employee count during the year, it can result in a declining usage score, negatively affecting the points required for the Partners membership eligibility. This even if the actual usage percentage in the customer's end is increasing.

We think that the calculation for Deployment score should be changed to reflect the number of acutal active and licensed users (like the Active usage value) , and not be based on the number of licenses available on the tenant.

Azure MCPP Subscription

Banieczek — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 12:16:42 GMT

Hello

When renewing partner benefits, an Azure subscription called MCPP Subscription appeared.

We're currently receiving information that this subscription has expired and will be deleted soon.

Should we worry about this? What's this subscription for, and should we do something about it?

FY26 CSP Incentives - Ann/Mon & Mon/Mon Subscriptions

nick_Anag — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 15:09:59 GMT

Dear community,

We are a Distributor (ex. Ind. Provider) in CSP and we would like you to help us on understanding the changes in our Incentives in FY26.

As announced already, starting October 1, 2025, the FY26 levers and rates will be in place. We would like your assistance to determine the two following use case:

a) one of our Indirect Resellers has a M365 subscription with monthly commitment and monthly payment. Within September 2025, this specific subscription will give us incentives under the FY25 levers and rates (will be recalculated in February 2026 under the FY26 levers and rates). So, based on the announcement, on October 2025, this subscription will start generating incentives under the FY26 levers and rates. Could you please confirm my understanding or reshape accordingly?

b) one of our Indirect Resellers has a M365 subscription with annual commitment and monthly payment, with the renewal of the subscription to be on 15 March 2026. Based on our understanding, until the renewal, this subscription will be generating incentives based on the FY25 levers and rates due to the price protection of the subscription for the whole year, and will switch on generating incentives based on the FY26 levers and rates on the renewal date (i.e., 15 March 2026). Could you please confirm my understanding or reshape accordingly?

Really much appreciated in advance for your significant help on this critical topic for our target setting and business decisions.

Warm regards,
Nick

suggestions for logo/letterbuilder

MartijnBreet — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 12:02:36 GMT

Dear Microsoft, fellow partners,

Partnercenter (benefits section / logo builder at https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/dashboard/mpn/membership/benefits/logobuilder) offers various documents partners can use to prove their status within the MCAIPP (formerly MPN). These ‘letters’ are similar in setup, but not quite and differ in important aspects which requires these letters to be generated more often that really needed…

Legacy letter

The legacy competency letter has no enddate (hurray!)

MAF letter

Valid for 3 months (90 days)
Must add 1 sku (?)
Requires customer details
Requires tender reference
Only for non-CSP authorizations/VL ? (MPSA, Enterprise Direct Advisor, EES etc)

SPD letter

Asks customer details (not required like with MAF)
Includes ALL or None of business locations (as opposed to selection in the MAF letter)
Only valid for a month (30 days)

If we have requests for these letters spread evenly over the year we are required to keep generating a new letter every Q or M depending on what is asked for; while details remain unchanged (except for the date)

The Microsoft partnership is renewed once a year, and valid for a year. Any SPD’s attained are also held until next renewal, so there is no apparent need to limit the validity of either proof to a period which isn’t even related to the membership year. Despite that, current properties of the letters ignore these facts leading to unnecessary burden for partners.

We have the following suggestions:

MAF

Remove 90 day period in MAF letter / coterm with membership year*
Remove need to add a sku
Remove need for adding customer details
Remove need for tender reference
Optionally also add the CSP authorization based on signed MPA in the MAF as this will be the motion going forward (or would Microsoft prefer to create a separate letter for that…?)

SPD:

Remove 1 month validity / coterm with membership year*
Remove need for customer details
Make ‘None’, ‘All’ or selected locations visible on letter

*Alternative: list the membership year for the partner, so customers know that between moment of payment for new program year / next years renewal we hold certain authorizations and/or status. (month x until month y next year)

With regards to renewal process: could Microsoft please revert to the OLD system, where a partner renews before membership expires? Currently as soon as a partner initiates renewal; the attained SPD’s drop off (also visible in the business profile listing) only to reappear after payment has been received.

With regards to the payment process: when do you expect your system to be able to identify the unique combination of Partner ID + Order ID when sending a payment for membership fee; by reading the payment description field? (that would save every partner & their Finance department creating ‘proof of payment’ which is to be uploaded to complete the renewal….)

General remarks:

Why is it Dan Rippey handing out the solutions partner certified letter, but when we request the Solutions partner congratulatory letter its signed by Nicole Dezen?

Kind regards,

Martijn

GitHub Team or Enterprise licenses

NivesBP — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 16:08:35 GMT

Are there any indications that there will be GitHub licenses included in FY26 Partner benefits?

Partner experience using Microsoft ECIF Funding for Federal sector?

JeffShomper — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 21:18:09 GMT

Looking for some general feedback from ISV, SI, MSP community...

We're a mid-sized ISV with some enterprise services capability focused on deployments, cloud migration of both our own and some Microsoft security workloads. We've never used ECIF, but have a few targets where it would be valuable. I'm getting great support from Microsoft program team to onboard to the program and expect to have us activated shortly. Scope-wise, we have a handful of targets and would probably be pleased to execute with them in upcoming year.

Question - what are your experiences with ECIF for Fed? What's the "operational lift" to manage a program and capture this benefit? Has this worked well for you? Has it been cumbersome? Any particular areas we should especially focus attention to ensure smooth execution? Any general guidance appreciated.

Microsoft 365 EDU A5 in Partner Benefits

Banieczek — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 09:55:14 GMT

What are the terms and conditions for using Microsoft 365 EDU A5 in Partner Benefits?

What purposes can we use these licenses for?

For what purposes is this license provided to partners?

We want to launch a tenant (non-production) in which our employees will be able to test available services within the O365 platform.

Azure Consumption / Microsoft CSP Maximum Earning

Charlie101 — Wed, 21 May 2025 04:55:03 GMT

Hi Everyone,

We're working through our Microsoft focused sales plan, and I have a couple of questions around the Maximum earning potential for each of these incentive programmes.

CSP NCE

Maximum incentive earning opportunity = $93,750.

Maximum earning opportunity
per customer tenant ID, per product group, per lever, per partner

Does this mean that per any given customer transacting with us as an indirect reseller, can earn upto $93,750 or is this a per partner limit where our entire business can only earn upto $93,750?

Azure Consumption

Maximum incentive earning opportunity = $80k USD

Maximum Earning Opportunities at per engagement term, per partner, per subscription level

Same question as above, is this a limit for our entire company or per any given subscription for any given customer?

Thanks for your help!

Partner Success Core Benefits - Entra ID P2 -user licenses

Sikkesoft — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 13:57:52 GMT

Hi All,

The Partner Success Core Benefits includes Entra ID P2 -user licenses

Is it permitted to assign these to regular users, or can these licenses be assigned to only test-accounts.

Andre

Commit Units are included in the Azure reservation and Savings plan Lever of Azure CSP motion?

emvar — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 09:37:50 GMT

When we sell MDC or Sentinel in PAYG we can have these incentives:

up to 80k usd
- 4% on ACR for CSP motion
up to 25k usd
- 3% of ACR for MDC and Sentinel for workload accelerator

When we sell Pre Purchased Plans/Commit Units, are they falling in the Azure reservation and saving plans lever with 10% rebate?

The guide says "(Includes PTUs4 , ACR from Reserved Instance, and Azure Savings Plan consumption)" only.

Thank you

Partner Center Documentation site

JillArmourMicrosoft — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 23:05:37 GMT

Partner Center makes it easier for Microsoft partners to manage their relationship with Microsoft and their customers.

Check it out!

Partner Center documentation - Partner Center | Microsoft Learn