This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(281.6, 47%, 37%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ETV%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Hi there,
We have a customer who has deployed the below VM in pay-as-you-go pricing model in Azure
Operating system (OS): Windows Server 2019 Datacenter
VM Size: Standard D16s V4 (16 vCPU, 64 GB RAM)
The customer is getting charged for Windows license as pay-as-you-go pricing. To save on the Windows license cost the customer has asked us to activate the CSP Windows license.
We have two Windows available with us:
I want to know will any of the above licenses work with the customer's VM? How does the CSP license work with Azure VM? What is a CSP Windows core-based license?
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(60.8, 4%, 15%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EKM%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Hello, @Toran Vaishnav !
If an answer has been helpful, please consider accepting the answer to help increase visibility of this question for other members of the Microsoft Q&A community. If not, please let us know what is still needed in the comments so the question can be answered. Thank you for helping to improve Microsoft Q&A!
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(243.2, 24%, 33%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EMT%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Hi Toran,
To use an existing license with Azure VMs you need to enable the hybrid benefit on that VM. You can read more about it here:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/hybrid-use-benefit-licensing
Hi Martin, The customer does not have an existing Windows license. They are using PAYG Windows license model. We proposed the CSP Windows license to save on the PAYG license cost but we have only below licenses available:
Are you sure the CSP is actually cheeper than using the Azure license? I am not a license expert, but I am pretty sure that your CSP license would still fall under the Hybrid Benefit option on the Azure VM. You can use the Azure pricing calculator to check the VM price with and without hybrid benefit.
Yes Martin, The CSP license is cheaper than the Azure license. Once this CSP license is activated on the Azure subscription then we can change the configuration on the Azure VM to get the Hybrid Benefit. However, my question is "Will any of the below licenses work with the Azure VM Windows server 2019 datacenter?"
Hello, @Toran Vaishnav ! Those licenses won't work for your customer. I'll go into more detail below.
What Windows Server licenses will work on an Azure VM?
I reached out to the virtual machine team regarding this issue. If they want to save on licensing costs on the VM, they would need to utilize Azure Hybrid Benefit. To qualify for Azure Hybrid Benefit, you must meet the following licensing prerequisites:
In addition, you need a minimum of 8 core licenses per VM (even if you run a 2 or 4 core instance, more than 8 cores would require a more than 8 core license):
So in the case of your customer, those licenses would not work for a 16 vCPU VM as you would need 16 core licenses.
You need a minimum of 8 core licenses (Datacenter or Standard edition) per VM. For example, 8 core licenses are still required if you run a 4-core instance. You may also run instances larger than 8 cores by allocating licenses equal to the core size of the instance. For example, 12 core licenses are required for a 12-core instance. For customers with processor licenses, each 2-core processor license is equivalent to 16 core licenses.
The Windows Server Datacenter license works as long as it has active Software Assurance. If you don't have Software Assurance, please work with your Microsoft account team or a Cloud Service Provider partner.
Additional Resources:
I hope this has been helpful! Your feedback is important so please take a moment to accept answers.
If you still have questions, please let us know what is needed in the comments so the question can be answered. Thank you for helping to improve Microsoft Q&A!