Microsoft targets university students with new Azure for Students plan

Microsoft is looking to bring more users into the Azure fold by targeting university students with a new plan.

Last week, Microsoft introduced a new Azure for Students offering. This complements the existing Azure for Students Starter plan -- the rebranded Imagine subscription for Azure. (This Imagine subscription was formerly part of DreamSpark, which was discontinued/rebranded to Imagine in 2016.)

The Azure for Students plan gives those with a verifiable school address full access to more than 25 Azure services -- including some AI ones -- for free, plus $100 in credit.

Here is what's included in both of these student plans:

Azure for Students (for University students, 18+ years old)

• $100 in credit to be used within the first 12 months
• Access to over 25 free products plus select free services (full list in FAQ). Including but not limited to: 10 web, mobile, or API apps with Azure App Service with 1 GB storage; 30,000 transactions per month processing at 20 transactions per minute with Face API; 750 hours of Azure B1S General Purpose Virtual Machines for Linux; Free 2 million characters included for Translator Text API; Machine Learning with 100 modules and 1 hour per experiment with 10 GB included storage
• No Credit Card required
• FAQ

Azure for Students Starter (for high school or secondary students in addition to university students)

• Limited to web and mobile app development scenarios
• Limited collection of free products including Azure App Services, Visual Studio Team Services, and Notification Hubs
• No Credit Card required
• FAQ