Billing: Subscription Selection for Azure Credits - Clarification Needed

Under the modernized redemption process, partner Azure credits are not attached to a subscription. They're deposited on the MCA Billing Profile you choose at redemption in Partner Center, and every subscription under that billing profile consumes them. So the question to answer is which billing profile got the credits, and whether your VM's subscription sits under it.

1. Find where the renewed credits went

Partner Center → Benefits → Azure credits. The redeemed benefit shows its status, deposit date and the Billing Profile it was deposited on. The Credits consumed link opens the Azure portal on that profile.

If you still see the old flow there (user assignment / activation link), your region hadn't moved to the modernized process yet, and the credits went to a new sponsorship subscription instead.

2. Check which billing profile each subscription belongs to

Azure portal → Cost Management + Billing → Subscriptions. Open each subscription and check its billing account / billing profile / invoice section.

• Sponsored Azure access (legacy): This is the legacy sponsorship offer. It only holds credits redeemed through the old process. Credits from a modernized renewal are not added to it.
• MCPP subscription: If it sits under the billing profile from step 1, it uses the renewed credits automatically. Nothing else is needed.

Quick check from Cloud Shell, run once per subscription:

az rest --method get \
  --url "https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/<subscription-id>/providers/Microsoft.Billing/billingProperty/default?api-version=2020-05-01" \
  --query "properties.{account:billingAccountDisplayName, profile:billingProfileDisplayName, offer:productName}"

Example of what you'd typically see:

You can also check the balance on the billing profile itself: Cost Management + Billing → Billing scopes → your MCA billing account → Billing profiles → the profile → Azure credits. Credits can take a while to appear after redemption.

3. Moving the VM

If the renewed credits are on the MCPP subscription's billing profile, moving the VM there makes it consume them. Moving a resource doesn't change its region, so it stays in Poland Central. Points to check before you move:

• Both subscriptions must be in the same Entra tenant.
• Move the VM together with its OS/data disks, NIC, public IP and NSG (all in the same move). Run Validate in the move wizard first.
• Resource IDs change, so update any scripts, alerts or IaC that reference them.
• If the VM is protected by Azure Backup, stop protection and delete the restore point collection first, or the move is blocked.
• Some legacy-offer constraints and Marketplace images with a purchase plan can block cross-subscription moves. The validation step will tell you.

Example with Azure CLI, assuming the VM and its dependent resources are alone in resource group rg-linux-vm:

SRC=<sponsored-subscription-id>
DST=<mcpp-subscription-id>

# Target resource group in the MCPP subscription (same region)
az group create -n rg-linux-vm -l polandcentral --subscription $DST

# Collect the VM, disks, NIC, public IP, NSG and move them together
ids=$(az resource list -g rg-linux-vm --subscription $SRC --query "[].id" -o tsv)
az resource move --destination-subscription-id $DST --destination-group rg-linux-vm --ids $ids

If the resource group also holds unrelated resources, list only the VM-related IDs instead of everything in the group.

If you'd rather avoid the move, redeploy the VM in the MCPP subscription from a snapshot/image of the disks.

4. Legacy credits

Any remaining legacy credits on the Sponsored subscription stay there until they expire, and they only apply to resources in that subscription. Once you've moved the VM, check that nothing billable is left behind on it.

References

• Use your Azure credits (Partner Center)
• Move guidance for virtual machines
• Move resources to a new resource group or subscription