Subscription benefits

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How do my end users activate their Visual Studio subscription?

The subscription is active and can be used as soon as it has been assigned from within the Visual Studio Administrator portal. The subscriber can sign into the Visual Studio Subscribers portal or Visual Studio IDE right away. They'll receive a welcome email letting them know the subscription has been assigned.

How do my developers activate software using product keys from their Visual Studio subscription?

Depending on what product your subscriber has downloaded it can either be activated by logging in using the email address tied to the subscription, or subscribers can activate it by claiming a product key from the Visual Studio Subscriber portal.

What benefits and software are available to my subscribers after a Visual Studio subscription has been assigned?

The Visual Studio Subscription benefits page allows you to see and compare the full list of benefits and software downloads included with a Visual Studio Subscription, based on subscription level.

How do my developers get 50% off Azure dev/test workloads?

If your organization has an Enterprise Agreement for Azure, your subscribers can receive discounted Azure dev/test rates for various Azure services, enabling cost-efficient development and testing. For details on how to enable the Dev/Test pricing option for your developers, check out the video Help your subscribers get the most out of Azure.

How do my developers download Visual Studio?

The developers' assigned subscription levels identify which level of the Visual Studio IDE they have access to. For example, a Visual Studio Professional subscription does not have access to Visual Studio Enterprise. Make sure that you have assigned the correct level.

For the latest release

  1. Have your subscribers sign into the subscriptions portal at https://my.visualstudio.com/benefits.
  2. Locate the Visual Studio IDE tile in the Tools section and click on the Download link at the bottom of the benefit tile.
  3. They’ll be redirected to the Download Results page for Visual Studio to download the IDE.
  4. Follow the download and set up instructions.
  5. Using the email their subscription is assigned to, they’ll be able to immediately sign into the IDE after installation; no product key is required. Learn how to claim a product key for use in an offline environment.

Find older versions

Your subscribers can also search and download previous versions from the downloads page in the subscriptions portal at https://my.visualstudio.com.