What happens when your subscription expires

  • Article

Visual Studio subscriptions have specific durations, and unless they're renewed, they'll expire. When a subscription expires, the benefits provided by the subscription are impacted in different ways. This article explains how expiration affects various aspects of a Visual Studio subscription.

If you would like to purchase a new subscription, you can explore purchasing options on our pricing page.

Downloads

The product downloads page, https://my.visualstudio.com/downloads, are still available so you can download software, but you can't claim new product keys. Updates, patches, and other tools may still be available on the Microsoft Download Center. Products you've previously downloaded via your subscription are still valid.

Product keys

The product keys page, https://my.visualstudio.com/productkeys, is no longer available. Any product keys you've previously claimed still function as they normally would. All installation limits remain unaffected.

Important

To ensure that your product keys are available after your subscription expires, you need to export them before the expiration date of your subscription. To export your keys, connect to the Product Keys page and select the blue Export all keys button.

Benefits

Not all benefits are impacted in the same way when a subscription expires. No benefits can be activated after your subscription expires. Benefits you've previously activated may still be available, depending on how they are authenticated. Most third party benefits such as Pluralsight training are still available for the duration of the benefit. Benefits that require validation that a Visual Studio subscription is still current are not available.

Visual Studio IDE

Most subscriptions provide perpetual licenses for the Visual Studio IDE. Download the Visual Studio Licensing White Paper to determine if your subscription is eligible for perpetual use rights. If your subscription is eligible, you'll continue to have access to your current version of the IDE but won't receive updates to future versions. To continue using the IDE after expiration, go to the product key page and download the product key before your subscription expires. After claiming the key, enter it to activate your IDE installation.

Azure DevOps

Azure DevOps acquired through a Visual Studio subscription is unavailable.

Azure credits

Monthly Azure credit allotments continue for a limited time following expiration of your subscription. Unused credits already applied to your Azure subscription in the current month are still available for your use. If you wish to continue using Azure resources from that subscription after your credits are exhausted, you can either transfer those resources to another Azure subscription or convert your existing subscription to pay-as-you-go.

Other benefits

Many of the benefits included in Visual Studio subscriptions have specific durations. Benefits provided by Microsoft's partners such as Pluralsight, DataCamp, or WhiteSource have time limits after they're activated. Benefits you've previously activated are available to you for the remainder of their terms. For example, if you've activated a six-month LinkedIn Learning subscription and it still has four months remaining when your Visual Studio subscription expires, you can access it for those four months.

Resources

For assistance with sales, subscriptions, accounts and billing for Visual Studio Subscriptions, see Visual Studio Subscriptions support.

See also

Next steps

  • To prevent your subscription from expiring, be sure to renew it prior to its expiration date. You can find the expiration date for your subscription(s) at https://my.visualstudio.com/subscriptions.
  • If your subscription is provided to you by your work or school, you may want to contact your subscriptions admin for assistance with your subscription or questions you have about transferring Azure resources to another subscription, etc.
  • If you would like to purchase a new subscription, you can explore purchasing options on our pricing page.