Important: FY26 PRACR close deadlines
We’re sharing the Partner Reported Azure Consumed Revenue (PRACR) deadlines for the close of fiscal year 2026 (July 2025–June 2026) to help you stay on track. These dates are sequential and critical to an accurate year-end close, ongoing submission eligibility, and a smooth transition to FY27. Category Deadline Requirement Owner Notes PRACR submissions June 10, 2026 (EOD) Final cutoff to submit PRACR reports through Partner Center Partner N/A Deal eligibility June 13, 2026 (EOD) Last day to mark deals as “Won” in MSX Microsoft Seller Required before deal registration Deal registration June 14, 2026 (EOD) Deals must be registered in Partner Center and all revalidation and disputes must be submitted by June 14. Deal registration will resume starting July 15, 2026. Partner Only registered deals can be reviewed for approval Exception handling June 19, 2026 (EOD) Final deadline to submit exception requests with full evidence through the PRACR Ops alias Partner or PDM Last exception forum of fiscal year 2026: June 24 Deal review June 26, 2026 (EOD) If deal is selected for further review, final date to submit required documentation Partner N/A No immediate action is required at this time; however, you as a partner are expected to plan and align internal activities to meet the deadlines outlined above. This communication is intended for awareness and planning purposes and partners are expected to align activities accordingly.Partner Blog | Building AI-ready applications on open, enterprise-grade Azure platforms
Microsoft Build 2026 reinforced a practical reality for organizations moving from AI experimentation to production: AI is only as strong as the foundation it runs on. Customers need modern databases, governed data, secure infrastructure, and developer experiences that can carry performing AI-enabled applications at scale into production with confidence. The public preview announcements of Azure HorizonDB and Azure Linux, along with the general availability of Azure Container Linux, show how Microsoft is investing in open platforms, developer ecosystems, and enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure for AI-ready applications. These announcements also point to a broader shift: open source has become a strategic foundation for enterprise modernization, innovation, and strategic growth. These announcements give partners a straightforward way to connect customer AI goals to the open, secure, enterprise-ready platforms needed for production. They also create timely opportunities to engage customers on data modernization, AI-ready application development, secure infrastructure, and cloud-native operations. What was announced at Build 2026 Azure HorizonDB: A new standard for AI-native, enterprise PostgreSQL Azure HorizonDB enters public preview as a new PostgreSQL cloud database service engineered for performance, scale, and modern AI-powered application needs. For business leaders thinking about data strategy, this is significant. Organizations are under pressure to modernize legacy databases and support intelligent applications without sacrificing resilience, governance, or developer productivity. Azure HorizonDB is designed to address those priorities with a platform that can scale storage automatically for large enterprise workloads, scale compute across primary and replica nodes, and bring AI-native capabilities directly into the database layer. What stands out is that Azure HorizonDB gives enterprises a way to simplify architecture while also accelerating innovation. Features such as advanced filtered vector search, in-database AI model management, Microsoft Entra ID integration, and GitHub Copilot integration through the PostgreSQL extension for Visual Studio Code position it as more than a database modernization story. Developers can use Microsoft 365 Copilot with live database context to generate schema-aware SQL, explore database structures, analyze and rewrite queries, and build against HorizonDB-specific capabilities without leaving Visual Studio Code. It is designed to bring together open-source PostgreSQL, enterprise security, AI readiness, and a more integrated developer experience in a single managed service. For business leaders, that can create a faster path from data estate modernization to measurable business outcomes. In Microsoft internal testing environments, Azure HorizonDB performed three times faster than self-managed PostgreSQL. For partners, the announcement creates an opportunity to engage customers in PostgreSQL modernization, intelligent application architecture, migration planning, performance optimization, and AI-enabled development. Azure Linux: Open-source infrastructure at enterprise scale The Azure Linux public preview announcement is meaningful for leaders focused on cloud efficiency, security, and platform consistency. Linux is already foundational to modern digital infrastructure, and two-thirds of customer cores in Azure run Linux. Now Azure Linux provides a first-party Linux distribution, purpose-built for Azure, and is available for Azure virtual machines (VMs), VM scale sets, and container images. We also announced Azure Container Linux (ACL), a secure, immutable container host designed to help platform teams run Kubernetes workloads at scale on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). By bringing Azure Linux forward as a more visible first-party platform choice, Microsoft is giving organizations a cloud-native operating system designed for modern workloads, including virtual machines (VMs), containers, and AI infrastructure. This matters because infrastructure choices increasingly shape agility, security posture, and operating cost. Azure Linux reflects the Microsoft focus on secure-by-default design, consistent servicing, and tighter alignment between the operating system and the Azure platform. For enterprises, that can translate into simpler operations and a more predictable foundation for cloud-native applications. These announcements reinforce what the Microsoft partner ecosystem and customer usage have shown for years: open-source infrastructure is foundational to Microsoft cloud strategy, as more than 65% of customer cores in Azure run Linux. Continue reading blog hereGitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing
Instead of counting premium requests, every Copilot plan will include a monthly allotment of GitHub AI Credits, with the option for paid plans to purchase additional usage. Usage will be calculated based on token consumption, including input, output, and cached tokens, using the listed API rates for each model. This change aligns Copilot pricing with actual usage and is an important step toward a sustainable, reliable Copilot business and experience for all users. Learn more here and access partner resources here. APAC Office hours link – May 6, 7:00 PM — 8:00 PM PDT EMEA/AMER Office hours link – May 7, 8:00 AM — 9:00 AM PDTDiscover how Microsoft Marketplace can support your FinOps strategy and cost optimization goals
Learn how Microsoft Marketplace can help organizations streamline cloud procurement, optimize spend visibility, and simplify software purchasing through a FinOps-driven approach. This upcoming Microsoft Marketplace customer office hours session explores how partners and customers can leverage Marketplace capabilities to align cloud investments with business outcomes, improve operational efficiency, and maximize the value of Azure consumption commitments. Read the full event details and see why this session is valuable for organizations focused on cloud financial management, procurement modernization, and Marketplace growth strategies. 👉 Register Here: Microsoft Marketplace as a FinOps platform - Microsoft Marketplace customer office hoursAccelerate your AI or agent build to sell on Marketplace with Quick-Start Development Toolkit
Want to skip right to coding in minutes? Start with the interactive wizard in App Advisor Building AI products quickly is becoming table stakes. Building them in a way that supports scalability, repeatability, and a path to commercialization is where software companies create advantage. The challenge now is reducing the time between identifying an opportunity and getting developers working inside a proven structure that supports real deployment outcomes. That’s where the AI, agentic, and Copilot branch of the Quick-Start Development Toolkit helps. Embedded directly within App Advisor, Quick-Start Development Toolkit helps software companies move from concept to implementation faster using guided development patterns, trusted architectures, deployable reference code, and practical resources designed to reduce friction across the development process. Build AI & agentic products faster without starting from scratch Development teams often know the customer scenario they want to solve. What slows momentum is deciding where to begin, selecting architecture patterns, and aligning implementation decisions across teams. The Quick-Start Development Toolkit helps remove that uncertainty. By answering a few focused questions about what you want to build, who it serves, and the products you’re building with, you’re matched with a development pattern designed to accelerate execution. Each development pattern includes: Self-serve, click-to-deploy reference code aligned to your scenario, Sample solution architecture to help visualize products and reduce guesswork, and Practical how-to resources and implementation guidance to overcome friction points, Everything is structured to support faster decision making and help teams move confidently into development. Accelerate development with purpose-built AI accelerators The AI and agent branch of Quick-Start Development Toolkit includes development accelerators designed around high-value scenarios, so your team can spend less time assembling foundations and more time building differentiated experiences. Each of these accelerators is built and fully maintained by Microsoft experts, so you can be confident your code template isn’t stale. Our most popular accelerators include: Multi-Agent Custom Automation Engine Accelerator: Delegate complex, repetitive tasks to AI agents that act on your behalf—executing work efficiently, reducing manual effort, and ensuring results align with your organization's standards. Conversation Knowledge Mining Accelerator: Improve contact center performance with AI-powered conversation intelligence—analyzing audio and text data on a large scale to show insights, improve service, and drive smarter decisions. Accelerate agentic applications for Unified Data Foundations (with Microsoft Fabric): Accelerate decision making at scale with secure, agentic AI built on a unified data foundation with two use cases for sales performance and customer insights. Each pattern includes common use cases, related resources, and pathways to adjacent scenarios so teams can continue progressing without losing momentum. The goal is to help your team move from experimentation to a product that can be packaged, deployed, and prepared for customers. You can see more of our accelerators here Coming this week: The Microsoft IQ solution accelerator leverages a shared intelligence layer to unify data, knowledge, and workflows, enabling AI-powered insights and coordinated actions for measurable business outcomes. Build with Microsoft Marketplace outcomes in mind Development choices shape commercial outcomes. Starting with trusted architecture and structured implementation guidance can help reduce redesign cycles later when preparing to package, publish, and scale. Quick-Start Development Toolkit helps software companies: Shorten time from idea to deployable AI product, Improve alignment across implementation decisions, Reduce development overhead through reusable foundations, and Create repeatable pathways toward publishing and selling. When development starts with clarity, commercialization becomes easier. Keep moving forward with App Advisor Quick-Start Development Toolkit is embedded within App Advisor because building is only one stage of the journey. App Advisor helps connect decisions across design, development, publishing, and growth so teams can continue moving forward with less context switching and more confidence. As your solution evolves, App Advisor provides curated, step-by-step guidance to help you prepare for Marketplace readiness and make the next decision faster. Ready to start? Explore Quick-Start Development Toolkit Start where you need help with App AdvisorAzure Native Integrations: Public Preview of Napster Companion API on Azure
What is Napster Companion API? Napster Companion API is Napster's platform for building Omniagents: persistent, multi-channel AI agents with one identity, one memory, and one set of tools that show up across every channel an end user touches. The same Omniagent meets the customer on the website, in the mobile app, on video, and on the phone line with the same face, the same voice, and the same memory of the last conversation. The Omniagent as a digital worker The clearest way to think about an Omniagent is as a digital worker: It has a role (customer support specialist, sales advisor, internal IT assistant). It carries the memory of past shifts and prior conversations. It has the tools it needs to do the job which include APIs, knowledge bases, ticketing systems, CRMs. It shows up across every surface the end user touches, like a human worker who answers the door, the phone, and the inbox. When something is outside its scope, it hands off to a human colleague with the context already attached and picks the thread back up when the human is done. Use cases for the Companion API Teams are already exploring the Companion API across a wide range of scenarios: Agentic commerce. Agents that guide end users through discovery, recommendations, purchase, and post-sales support all in one continuous conversation across channels. Customer service. Agents that resolve issues end to end, escalate to humans with full context attached, and pick the thread back up across sessions. Internal operations and digital coworkers. Agents that orchestrate workflows, retrieve knowledge, and automate repetitive tasks for the workforce. Capabilities introduced by Napster Companion API The Companion API public preview brings the following capabilities to Azure customers: Persistent multi-channel agents that maintain identity, memory, and context across web, mobile, voice, video, and telephony. Real-time multimodal interactions across voice, video, and text for natural back-and-forth conversation. Tool and API orchestration that lets agents take real actions like opening tickets, updating records, retrieving documents, and triggering workflows. Persona-driven agents with configurable behavior, conversational style, and avatar-based interaction. Knowledge bases and deterministic question-and-answer pairs for grounded, accurate responses on topics where exactness matters. Developer SDKs and a no-code Dashboard for building, testing, deploying, and iterating on agents. Better together: Napster and Microsoft This integration is the result of a long-term Azure-native partnership between Napster and Microsoft. It is not an external service layered onto Azure infrastructure but it is a co-engineered offering designed to help enterprises operationalize persistent AI agents at scale. In practice, the Azure Native integration delivers: Benefit What it means for you Seamless development experience Provision and manage Companion API resources directly from the Azure portal, alongside your other Azure services. Build and operate Omniagents in the Napster Dashboard, reached through single sign-on. Bring your own model or use Napster Hosted Connect your Azure OpenAI realtime deployment on Microsoft Foundry so inference runs in your tenant. Or use the Napster Hosted tier where Napster manages the model for you. Simplified billing Manage Companion API spend through Azure Marketplace, on the same invoice as the rest of your Azure consumption which means no separate procurement, no separate billing relationship. Single sign-on with Microsoft Entra Switch between Azure resources and the Companion API Dashboard without re-entering credentials. Enterprise-ready foundation Built on Azure's compliance, security, and global infrastructure footprint. How it works?    If the player doesn’t load, open the video in a new window: Open video Get started in minutes Provisioning Napster Companion API on Azure takes just a few clicks: Open the Azure portal and search for *Napster Companion API*. Create a new resource and choose your subscription, resource group, region, and pricing tier. Link your Napster organization (or create one as part of resource provisioning). Launch the Companion API Dashboard from the resource overview page using single sign-on, and start building your first Omniagent in the Napster portal. Full step-by-step guidance is available in the Napster Companion API documentation on Microsoft Learn Resources Product documentation: Napster Companion API on Microsoft Learn Quickstart: Create a Napster Companion API resource Azure Marketplace listing: Napster Companion API Napster for partners: napster.com/partners Azure Native Integrations overview: Azure partner solutions What's next This public preview is the first milestone on a broader roadmap. We are eager to hear from early adopters. Try the public preview, build your first Omniagent, and let us know what you think as your feedback will shape what ships next. Get started today by searching for Napster Companion API in the Azure portal.
