Virtual Machines
Azure Virtual Machines provides scalable, on-demand compute resources for running applications and workloads in the cloud. · Azure · Compute
Overview
Azure Virtual Machines offers a 12-month free tier for B1s, B2pts v2, and B2ats v2 burstable VMs, ideal for development, testing, and learning cloud computing basics.
Good fit
Use when you need flexible, on-demand compute for development, testing, or learning cloud infrastructure with minimal upfront cost.
- learning
- prototyping
- testing
- small workloads
Not a fit
Avoid if you need always-free compute, require large-scale production workloads, or want to avoid entering payment details.
- always-free required
- large-scale production
- no credit card
Quickstart · 6 steps
- Sign up for an Azure account with the free tier.
- Navigate to the Azure Portal and select 'Create a resource'.
- Choose 'Virtual Machine' and select the B1s, B2pts v2, or B2ats v2 size.
- Configure OS, networking, and storage as needed.
- Review and create the VM.
- Connect to your VM using SSH or RDP.
Other free compute options
Free tierWhat you get freeRiskCard
Cloudflare · Compute
100,000 requests/day · 10ms CPU time/request · Up to 100 Workers per account
Billing risk: None
No card
Vercel · Compute
1,000,000 Edge Requests/month included · 100 GB Fast Data Transfer/month included · 1 team seat on the Hobby plan
Billing risk: None
No card
Vercel · Compute
1,000,000 Function Invocations/month included · 4 hours Fluid Active CPU/month included · 360 GB-hrs Fluid Provisioned Memory/month included
Billing risk: None
No card
Trigger.dev · Compute
$5 compute credits per month · 20 concurrent runs · Unlimited tasks
Billing risk: None
No card