UW has entered into a Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment for Research (Research MACC), a university-wide agreement with Microsoft designed to provide reduced Azure costs for eligible research and teaching activities.
UWIT Research Computing and Infrastructure divisions are working together to provide Azure access and billing through the Research MACC for eligible research and teaching activities. This page will be updated as additional details become available.
UW has committed to $6 million in Microsoft Azure consumption over approximately three to four years. As part of this commitment, Microsoft will provide $2 million in Azure credits over the same period.
UWIT is using this commitment to establish a new Microsoft Azure for Research service offering for eligible research and teaching activities.
The $2 million in credits will be managed at the university level. They will not be distributed as individual allocations to schools, departments, or researchers.
Researchers do not need to apply for or manage an individual share of the credits. Instead, the value of the credits will be reflected in the reduced chargeback rate for subscriptions participating in the Research MACC.
The Research MACC is intended to support Azure use for:
Azure subscriptions used exclusively for administrative purposes are not eligible for the Research MACC.
UWIT is reviewing existing Azure subscriptions to identify those that appear to meet these criteria. Currently, eligibility of current Azure subscriptions is being assessed using information such as the subscription description and the worktag used for monthly usage billing.
If you do not currently have an Azure subscription and would like to use Azure for sponsored research, research activities, or teaching and learning, you can request access through the Azure Subscription intake form.
If you are new to Azure at UW, see the UW Azure Platform knowledge article for information about how the UW Azure platform works and what is provided with a UW Azure subscription.
UWIT identified your subscription as a candidate for the Research MACC based on its use and billing information. During the initial transition, subscription owners were contacted to provide an opportunity to correct the eligibility determination before migration.
If you have an existing Azure subscription that you believe supports sponsored research, research activities, or teaching and learning, but you did not receive a migration ticket, please contact help@uw.edu.
Please include the Azure subscription name and, if available, the subscription ID and a brief description of how the subscription is being used. UWIT will review the subscription and determine whether it should be included in the Research MACC.
The primary change is to the UW billing profile associated with the subscription. The subscription will move from its current UW billing arrangement to the billing profile associated with the Research MACC.
Based on UWIT testing, the billing change should not affect production workloads, applications, users, or other services running within the subscription.
Other aspects of the UWIT Azure service and administration will remain unchanged.
No. The migration is a billing change and should not require changes to your Azure resources, applications, users, or configurations.
UWIT has tested the migration process and does not expect it to affect production services.
If you experience an unexpected issue following migration, please report it to UWIT support (help@uw.edu) so that we can investigate.
Subscriptions migrated to the Research MACC are intended to remain under the Research MACC.
Moving a subscription back to the previous billing arrangement is not part of the standard migration process and would require additional coordination with Microsoft.
For this reason, subscription owners should let UWIT know before migration if they believe their subscription is not eligible or should not be included.
UWIT began migrating eligible Azure subscriptions to the Research MACC on August 31, 2026, with migrations continuing throughout Fall 2026.
If you have an existing Azure subscription that you believe is eligible for the Research MACC but it has not been migrated, please contact help@uw.edu with the subscription name, subscription ID if available, and a brief description of how the subscription is being used.
If you receive a ticket about your Azure subscription, please review the information provided.
Reply to the ticket by EOD Friday, August 28 if:
If none of these apply, no action is required. UWIT will proceed with the migration.
We encourage researchers to start with the resources above, including:
If you have a research computing question that you cannot answer through these resources, or would like to discuss how Azure might support your research, you can submit a Research Computing consultation request. Our team can help you explore computing and cloud options and determine what approach may best fit your needs.
UWIT will continue to update this FAQ as additional information becomes available, including details about H200 availability and other aspects of the Research MACC.
For questions or concerns about a specific Azure subscription, please reply to the ticket you received or start a new ticket by emailing help@uw.edu.