Set Up Your Azure Free Account Safely

You create the account, lock the sign-in, read what Microsoft gave you, and set up a budget. Steps 1 to 3 are in the browser. Steps 4 to 6 use Cloud Shell, a command line that runs inside the Azure portal, so you don’t need to install anything yet.

1Create the Azure free account

1. Go to azure.microsoft.com/free and start the sign-up for the Azure free account.
2. Sign in with a Microsoft account, or create one. Use a personal email that you will keep for years. Don’t use your work email: your company may already have its own Azure tenant, and you’d end up in the wrong place.
3. Verify your phone number, then add a debit or credit card. Microsoft uses the card only to check your identity; the free account can’t charge it because the spending limit is on.
4. Accept the agreement and wait for the portal to open at portal.azure.com.

2Turn on MFA for your sign-in

Azure will ask for MFA anyway, but set it up properly now, with an app rather than SMS.

• Personal Microsoft account (outlook.com, hotmail, or another email you registered with Microsoft): open account.microsoft.com/security, turn on two-step verification, and add the Microsoft Authenticator app.
• Work or school style account (it ends in .onmicrosoft.com): open mysignins.microsoft.com/security-info and add Microsoft Authenticator.

Then save the recovery code Microsoft gives you somewhere safe, offline. If you lose your phone, that code is how you get back in.

✅ Checkpoint: Sign out and sign back in to the portal. You are asked for a number match or code in Microsoft Authenticator.

3Create a budget that emails you early

1. In the portal search bar, type Budgets and open it. Check that the scope at the top is your subscription (for example “Azure subscription 1”).
2. Choose Add. Name: budget-lab-monthly. Reset period: Monthly. Start date: the first day of this month. Amount: 5 (USD).
3. On the alerts page, add two conditions: Actual, 80 % and Forecasted, 100 %.
4. Under Alert recipients (email), type your email address. Check the spelling twice; you’ll see why in “Break It”.
5. Create the budget.

Why only 5 dollars when you have 200? Cost Management shows your usage before credits are taken off. A 5 dollar budget means you hear about it the moment labs start costing more than a few cents, while the credit still protects you.

4Open Cloud Shell in PowerShell mode

Select the Cloud Shell icon (a small >_ in the top bar). Choose PowerShell. When it asks about storage, choose No storage account required and pick your subscription.

You’ll set up the full toolkit in Lesson 3.

Run this:

az account show --query "{name:name, state:state, tenant:tenantDisplayName, user:user.name}" -o table

You should see something like this:

Name                  State    Tenant             User
--------------------  -------  -----------------  ---------------------------
Azure subscription 1  Enabled  Default Directory  live.com#priya.k@outlook.com

Enabled means the subscription is active. The live.com# part means you signed in with a personal Microsoft account.

5Read your offer and spending limit

Run this:

$sub = az account show --query id -o tsv
az rest --method get --url "https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/$($sub)?api-version=2022-12-01" --query subscriptionPolicies

You should see something like this:

{
  "locationPlacementId": "Public_2014-09-01",
  "quotaId": "FreeTrial_2014-09-01",
  "spendingLimit": "On"
}

az rest sends a raw request to Azure Resource Manager, the same front door you met in Lesson 1. FreeTrial_2014-09-01 is the free account offer, and spendingLimit On confirms your card can’t be charged. After an upgrade to pay-as-you-go you’d see a different quota ID and the spending limit Off.

6Check the budget from the command line

Run this:

az consumption budget show --budget-name budget-lab-monthly --query "{amount:amount, period:timeGrain, emails:notifications.*.contactEmails}"

You should see something like this:

{
  "amount": "5.0",
  "emails": [
    [
      "priya.k@outlook.com"
    ],
    [
      "priya.k@outlook.com"
    ]
  ],
  "period": "Monthly"
}

Two alert conditions, each with your email. Last, type Free services in the portal search bar and open that page. It lists every 12-month free service with how much you’ve used.

Look at it once a week while you study.

✅ Checkpoint: MFA works at sign-in, spendingLimit shows On, and budget-lab-monthly has your correct email on both alert conditions.