$17,493 in Undisclosed Marketplace Charges with No Cost Visibility, No Recourse, No Accountability
I'm a co-founder of a 13-person startup in the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub program. I'm posting here because after two months of support tickets, calls, and emails across both Microsoft and Anthropic, I have been unable to get anyone with decision-making authority to address this issue. I'm hoping this reaches someone at Microsoft who can help, and that other affected founders in the program will share their experiences. What happened: In February 2026, we deployed Claude Opus 4.6 and Sonnet 4.6 through Azure AI Foundry as part of a migration of our AI infrastructure. We are active users of our Azure sponsorship credits and assumed, as anyone would, that these models were covered the same way Azure OpenAI models are. There was no indication otherwise during deployment. In early March, we received our first invoice: $1,078.07 (invoice G144899694, billing period 02/01–02/28). We were shocked, but we paid it immediately and removed all Anthropic model deployments from our account to prevent further charges. It didn't matter. On April 9, we received a second invoice: $16,414.94 (invoice G151890529, billing period 03/01–03/31). Despite removing the deployments in mid-March, charges had already accumulated for the first half of the month. We are unable to pay this invoice. Our total exposure across both invoices is $17,493.01. Why we had no way to prevent this: No billing distinction at deployment. Azure AI Foundry presents all models (Microsoft-native and third-party) in the same unified interface. There is no warning, label, or confirmation step indicating that certain models are excluded from sponsorship credits. No cost visibility whatsoever. The Azure AI Foundry monitoring dashboard has an "Estimated Cost" section that is completely blank for these models, with a disclaimer: "Cost monitoring is available for Foundry Models sold directly by Azure only." We could see token counts but had zero visibility into what we were being charged. Token counts that don't explain the charges. The dashboards show our Claude Opus 4.6 deployment used 63.4M tokens and our Sonnet 4.6 deployments used roughly 170M tokens combined. At published rates, that should be in the low thousands, not $17,500. My analysis shows the dashboard hides billions of cached tokens (prompt caching reads and writes) that are invisible in the monitoring UI but account for the vast majority of the bill. There is no view in Azure that provides a breakdown of these charges by token type. No alerts or notifications. There were no cost alerts, no threshold warnings, and no notifications at any point. No indication in any Azure portal that charges were hitting our credit card. There was no line item, no pending charge, no Marketplace spend summary - nothing anywhere in the Azure ecosystem that showed dollars accumulating against our payment method for these deployments. What happened when we asked for help: Azure Support (TrackingID#2603090040002936): After a month-long wait, a support engineer told us Microsoft cannot issue credits for Marketplace charges and directed us to Anthropic. The first version of the response email referenced "Azure DDoS Protection Standard" instead of our actual issue, suggesting the volume of similar cases in the queue. Anthropic: Their AI support bot responded within one minute with a blanket statement and closed the ticket four hours later. I escalated, but have still not received a response over a month later. Microsoft for Startups Team (TrackingID#2604070040009778): Told us they cannot apply Marketplace charges against sponsorship credits and referred us to a Marketplace billing contact. Azure Marketplace billing contact: Pending response. The pattern is clear: Microsoft directs us to Anthropic. Anthropic directs us to Microsoft. The Microsoft for Startups team directs us to Azure Marketplace billing. No one takes responsibility. What I'm asking for: A full refund of $17,493.01 across invoices G144899694 and G151890529 That Microsoft implement clear billing warnings in Azure AI Foundry before deploying models that are excluded from sponsorship credits. That Microsoft provide actual cost visibility in the monitoring dashboard for all models deployed through AI Foundry, not just first-party models. To other founders in the program: If you have experienced this same issue, please reply to this thread. I know I'm not alone because this has been covered by The Register, InfoWorld, and Computerworld, and at least 20 founders have signed a Change.org petition about it. The more founders who come forward with specific amounts and case numbers, the harder this is to ignore. We joined Microsoft for Startups because the program was supposed to help early-stage companies manage infrastructure costs during the most financially vulnerable period of our growth. Instead, the program's own platform generated charges within 2 weeks that exceed the total sponsorship credits we've consumed over the past year, with no visibility, no warning, and no path to resolution. With Further Inc. | Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub Azure Support TrackingID #2603090040002936 Startup Support TrackingID #2604070040009778
No Decision After 7 Working Days + Portal Loop Issue – Rain Stella Technology
Hi Microsoft for Startups Community & Team, I am following up on my Microsoft for Startups application submitted on behalf of Rain Stella Technology, and would also like to flag a portal issue I experienced after the application was submitted. --- Application Status --- I received a confirmation email acknowledging receipt of my application, however it has now been 7 working days with no further communication — no approval, no decline, and no request for additional information. According to Microsoft's own guidelines, applications are typically reviewed within 3 business days. We are now more than double that timeframe with no update. Application Details: • Applicant Name: Khalid Adine • Startup Name: Rain Stella Technology • Status: Receipt confirmation received, no decision communicated since • Days Elapsed: 7 working days --- Portal Issue --- During and after submitting my application, I encountered a frustrating portal bug where, instead of displaying a confirmation screen or application status, the portal kept redirecting me back to the "Apply Now" screen — as if my submission had not been recorded. I received the receipt confirmation email, which confirmed the application went through, but the portal still does not reflect any application status. This caused significant confusion, and I wanted to flag it in case it is a widely known issue affecting other applicants. I also attempted to contact support via email (email address removed for privacy reasons), but the address returned a bounce error, leaving the forum and contact form as my only available channels. --- My Requests --- 1. Can someone from the team confirm the current status of our application? 2. Is any additional information or documentation required from our side? 3. Can the portal loop bug be investigated and fixed for other applicants facing the same issue? 4. What is the correct and currently working support email or channel for urgent queries? We are actively building our product and are eager to move forward with the program. Any update would be sincerely appreciated. Thank you for your time and support. Khalid Adine Founder, Rain Stella Technology
Unable to see Azure credits for verified startup business
TL;DR: Business verification only completed a few weeks ago (Feb 2026), can't see Azure for Startup credits anywhere on my account, would like to activate my $5000 credits and put them to use building my application which will leverage Azure in a number of ways. Help needed! Details: I have an early stage startup, pre-money, pre-product. Building a native Microsoft/Windows 11 application for AI data analysis with cloud hosted private LLMs. I signed up for a business M365 account back in September 2025 which was fine for my M365 Office Suite access (OneDrive, OneNote, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint), however my business verification ran into mysterious obstacles (it is a Delaware C Corp, incorporated in 2025), so I couldn't setup my corporate developer accounts. Fast forward to February 2026, and I finally push through the business verification steps, and am now working full time on my business (as of late January 2026). I am "in" the Azure for Startups program, but I can't access this "Founders Hub" area that I'm reading about, and I can't see in my Azure Billing/Invoicing area anything other than my corporate credit card for payments -- no evidence of $1000 or $5000 startup credits for Azure. What am I missing? What did I do wrong? Is there any way I can activate these now that I'm actually in a position where I need them, now that I have my business verified with Microsoft? Thank you in advance for any assistance anyone can provide on this point!
Founders Hub billing issue - stuck between Microsoft and ISV with no resolution path
Hi everyone, I'm reaching out to the community because I've hit a wall with standard support channels and hoping someone from the Founders Hub team or other founders who've faced similar issues can help. QUICK SUMMARY I'm a Founders Hub participant who got charged ~€1,000 for using Claude (Anthropic) models through Azure AI Foundry. I assumed these were covered by my $25k Sponsorship credits since: • I used ai.azure.com (not a separate marketplace) • There was no clear warning about separate billing • There's no way to monitor Marketplace spending in Founders Hub THE PROBLEM: I'm stuck in a loop: • Microsoft says "contact the ISV for refund approval" • Anthropic says "billing is handled by Microsoft, not us" • The "Support" link Microsoft points to redirects back to Microsoft Support I've sent detailed emails explaining this circular situation. Support keeps responding with the same copy-paste policy text, ignoring my request for escalation. MY ASK 1. Is there a dedicated support channel for Founders Hub billing issues? 2. Has anyone from the Founders Hub team dealt with similar Marketplace confusion before? 3. Any founders here who successfully resolved unexpected Marketplace charges? I'm not trying to get something for free - I already paid the first invoice (€460). I just want help with the second invoice that surprised me a month later. The Founders Hub program has been great otherwise, but this experience has been really frustrating. Any pointers would be hugely appreciated. Thanks! Bartek
Founders Hub Application Blocked - LinkedIn Linked to Previous Startup Account
Hello Microsoft Community, I'm hoping someone here might be able to offer some guidance or point me in the right direction regarding an issue I'm facing with a Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub application. I recently applied for the Founders Hub program for my new startup using my LinkedIn profile as required. My application was rejected with the reason given: "your startup has already been accepted into Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub." I believe this happened because my LinkedIn profile is still associated with a previous startup I founded and exited several years ago. That previous membership was tied to an old email address that I no longer have access to. It seems this persistent link between my LinkedIn profile and my old startup is preventing my application my new startup from being processed based on its own merits. I'm unable to submit a support request through the official Founders Hub channel as I'm consistently redirected to funding application page. Does anyone in the community have experience with this specific type of identity conflict? Is there a particular team or escalation path within Microsoft for Startups that handles these kinds of legacy account association issues for the Founders Hub, especially when standard support channels might be slow or difficult for unique cases like this? Any advice or pointers on how best to get this resolved would be greatly appreciated, as I'm currently blocked from proceeding with the Founders Hub for my new venture. Thank you for your time and help!Fast Practices for Founders - A New Video Series for Startups
“Fast Practices for Founders” is a series of concise videos designed to answer your Azure AI-related questions in under 2 minutes. These videos provide quick solutions to help you and your startups overcome challenges efficiently, allowing you to focus on innovation and growth.
London Reactor Founders Breakfast Club - April 2024
Hey Everyone! Thanks for joining our first Founders Breakfast Club, dedicated to Microsoft for Startup members! We hope you enjoyed the event and found it useful networking amongst like minded individuals. This is a new event we are running and we want YOUR help to shape it! Let us know what you think using this form - https://forms.office.com/r/Psp8776u8t Below you can find the resources shared throughout the event and the contact information of the speakers. Up Next: Microsoft Build 2024 Resources: Want to attend events? Visit our Reactor Website: https://aka.ms/ReactorWeb Join our community Meetup group: https://aka.ms/ReactorLDNmeetup Watch all of our Live and On-Demand content on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MicrosoftReactor Speaker contacts: Microsoft for Startups Anne-Claire Lo Bianco Microsoft Reactor Rav Khokhar - Program Manager HSBC Innovation Banking Kofi Siaw Expert Network Liam Hampton - Senior Cloud Advocate & Software Engineer Chris Noring - Senior Cloud Advocate & Software EngineerMicrosoft for Startups and Reactor: Oxbridge AI Founders Matchmaking Event
Hey Everyone, Thanks for joining us this evening. We hope you had great fun and found it useful. Please find the resources and speaker contact details from the event below: Resources: Founders Hub Breakfast Club Reactor Events Speakers Contact: Liam Hampton X (Twitter) LinkedIn Xisen Wang LinkedIn Anne-Claire Lo Bianco LinkedIn Dr Ian McDonald LinkedIn Ibra Diouf LinkedIn Vikas Arora LinkedIn Chris Noring LinkedIn Maria Oliver LinkedIn Juliette Souliman LinkedIn
