License-based billing in Partner Center
Appropriate roles: Global admin | User management admin | Billing admin | Admin agent
When you buy products or online services in Partner Center that require licenses, you're billed for each license that you buy. You're not billed by usage for these licenses. (For information on usage-based billing and other billing types, see Types of billing in Partner Center.)
License billing frequency
Legacy
You can choose to be billed for licenses once a month (monthly billing) or once a year (annual billing).
New Commerce
For New Commerce products, you can choose to be billed upfront, monthly or annually.
Billing date for licenses
Legacy
License-based subscriptions are billed in advance on the subscription's anniversary date. The anniversary date is the day of the month that you purchased the subscription.
For example:
- If you purchased a monthly subscription on January 15, the anniversary date will be the 15th of each month.
- If you purchased an annual subscription on January 15, the anniversary date will be January 15 of each year.
New Commerce
For New Commerce products, billing dates are based on the calendar start date instead of the partner's CSP anniversary date.
License term
Legacy
All license-based subscriptions have a 12-month paid term, which begins on the purchase date.
New Commerce
For New Commerce products, license-based subscription can have 1-month, 12-month or 36-month paid terms, which begin on the purchase date.
License cancellation
Legacy
You can cancel a license at any point during the license term. However, the month in which you cancel impacts how much credit you'll receive for the canceled license.
If you suspend a subscription in month 1, you'll be credited 100%.
If you suspend a subscription in months 2-12, you'll be credited on a prorated basis.
New Commerce
For new commerce offers, partners can cancel their subscription with a prorated refund within the first 7 days for any term (proration calculated daily).
After 7 days, cancellation is no longer available. The partner is billed for the full term even if the customer stops paying for or using the subscription (applicable to any billing plan).
Learn more about the New Commerce cancellation policy.
License renewal
Legacy
All license-based subscriptions auto-renew 12-months after the paid term begins.
New Commerce
All license-based subscriptions auto-renew either 1-month, 12-months or 36-months after the paid term begins.
Un-billed transactions
New Commerce
We don’t have a specific SLA for un-billed transactions, but they should be available within 24 hours of purchase. You may occasionally experience a delay as a result of latency in processing the transaction in our system. However, if you haven’t received your purchases within 7 days, open a support ticket.