Yes, Microsoft 365 Developer Program has a permanent free tier alongside its paid plans.
About
Microsoft 365 Developer Program is a membership program that provides qualified developers with access to a free Microsoft 365 E5 developer subscription for building and testing Microsoft 365 solutions. The subscription is pre-provisioned with Microsoft 365 apps and sample data, and it is intended for development and testing rather than production use.
Qualified members can receive one developer subscription associated with their program account. The subscription includes 25 user licenses, renews while the account shows active development activity, and may require tenant recreation every 90 days. Microsoft also notes storage expectations of 300 GB pooled tenant storage for developer-only tenants, 0 GB SharePoint storage contribution in mixed-license tenants, and 10 GB OneDrive storage per developer SKU user.
- Free Microsoft 365 E5 developer subscription
- 25 user licenses including admin
- Renewable while actively developing
- Pre-provisioned Microsoft 365 apps
- Sample data for sandbox setup
- 300 GB pooled tenant storage cap
- 10 GB OneDrive per user limit
- 90-day tenant recreation window
Free Tier Value
This free tier is effectively the full Microsoft 365 E5 developer subscription, so its practical value is close to the commercial E5 price. Using the common Microsoft 365 E5 list price of about $57/month, the main limits are that it is for development only, renews in short 60 - 90 day cycles, and excludes a few production-oriented capabilities like Azure purchases and Exchange inbound connectors.
What's included in the free tier
Verified
- Microsoft 365 E5 developer subscription with 25 user licenses, including the administrator, for development purposes only.
- Subscription access for up to 90 days, renewable based on qualified developer activity.
- 30 days after expiration to migrate data, then admin-only access for the next 30 days before deletion.
- Tenant storage cap of 300 GB pooled storage for developer-only tenants.
- 10 GB OneDrive storage per user for Developer SKU users.
- One Microsoft 365 developer subscription per Developer Program account.
- One Developer Program account associated with a phone number.
- Power Automate: create and run automated, scheduled, and button flows.
- Power Automate: access to standard connectors.
- Power Automate: 2,000 Power Platform requests per day, or 10,000 during the transition period.
- Power BI Pro license included; Power BI Premium not included.
- Exchange Online inbound connectors for mailflow are not supported.
- No Azure subscription included.
- No additional paid services can be purchased through the tenant admin account.
- Government cloud environments are not supported.
- English-only availability for the Microsoft 365 developer subscription.
See Microsoft 365 Developer Program pricing for current limits.
Paid plans
Microsoft 365 E5
- user_licenses
- 25
- subscription_duration
- up to 90 days
- tenant_storage
- 300 GB pooled
- oneDrive_storage_per_user
- 10 GB
- power_platform_requests_per_day
- 2,000
- 25 user licenses including the administrator
- Microsoft 365 E5 developer subscription
- Power Automate standard connectors and flows
- Power BI Pro included
- Microsoft Entra ID P1/P2, Exchange Online Plan 2, Teams, SharePoint, Intune
Pricing extracted from Microsoft 365 Developer Program's pricing page. Always verify current pricing before committing.
Common questions
Is Microsoft 365 Developer Program free forever?
Yes. Microsoft 365 Developer Program has a permanent free tier alongside its paid plans, though the allowance typically resets each month.
Does Microsoft 365 Developer Program require a credit card?
No. You can start on Microsoft 365 Developer Program's free tier without entering card details.
What happens when you exceed Microsoft 365 Developer Program's free tier?
You move to a paid plan. Microsoft 365 Developer Program's cheapest paid plan is Microsoft 365 E5 at $57 / month.
What is Microsoft 365 Developer Program's free tier worth?
Microsoft 365 Developer Program's free tier is worth about $57 per month. That maps to an FTV score of 72/100. The FTV score is explained at freetier.co/ftv.