New updates to developer benefits! February 2026
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.
Azure Consumption / Microsoft CSP Maximum Earning
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!
Commit Units are included in the Azure reservation and Savings plan Lever of Azure CSP motion?
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 youThere are no benefits to being a MS Partner
The absolute absurdity of being a Microsoft Partner is beyond insanity. Some of us have built businesses around the Microsoft Ecosystem (STUPIDLY I MUST ADD). And for what? For Microsoft to block us from our accounts and give zero explanation of the issue? As I am sure others have seen since there are posts everywhere of other people having the same issues, its mind blowing that Microsoft does nothing to assist its partners who are the ones generating them the revenue. Supporting their crappy products over and over and over again being the ones on the front lines getting beat up by their customers because of constant outages, constant issues. Back in September my account was blocked. Not one bit of an explanation. Not one email telling me why. The only thing I got was a notice saying my visual studio enterprise license was removed. Upon checking I couldn't find anything. I open a support ticket. And so far, the only thing I have been told is my account has been blocked. Yet not one person can apparently tell me why? Not one person can tell me what I need to do to fix it? Not one person can even get on the phone to assist on this. Before I lost numerous customers because of this. I was selling 30k a month in licenses. And now because my account was blocked, I have lost access to a crap ton of my development, I have lost access to any and all of the benefits. I have lost access to basically everything even though when you look at my partner center account. Every single thing still shows active / approved. Etc. My suggestion, if you are considering becoming a Microsoft Partner. DONT. SIMPLE AS THAT. The fact they can block you from doing business, block access to products and services you have paid for. And give you zero ability to fix it so you lose numerous customers and don't even tell you what happened or what needs to be done to rectify the issue. Partnering with Microsoft is the single biggest mistake I have made as a business owner. The second biggest would be that I built my development side of the business fully integrated into the MS ecosystem. Which made it so they cost me countless amounts of money and ability to even do business with my customers.
