Keep your Microsoft business billing account active

If a billing account is unused for a certain amount of time, it's classified as inactive. An inactive billing account can increase potential security risks to that account and the resources it contains. To reduce this risk, Microsoft takes measures to secure, protect, and ultimately delete inactive billing accounts, tenants, and subscriptions within them.

This article applies to the following agreements:

• Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA)
• Microsoft Online Subscription Agreement (MOSA)
• Cloud Solution Provider (CSP)
• Enrollment for Education Solutions (EES)

What is an inactive billing account?

A billing account is considered inactive when the following criteria are met in a minimum of a 12-month period:

• No usage within the billing account, tenant, or subscription
• No sign-in activity within the billing account, tenant, or subscription
• No open or pending support requests

When a billing account meets all these criteria, you receive a notification from Microsoft that says that your inactive billing account will be blocked in 30 days.

How do I keep my billing account active?

If you use your billing account within 30 days of receiving the notification, your account returns to its active state and is no longer subject to getting blocked. The following list includes examples of activities and account usage that keep your billing account active:

• Using a product or a service
• Generating metered usage
• Creating a support ticket

What happens if my billing account is blocked?

When your billing account is blocked, you can no longer perform certain actions, like adding new subscriptions and transferring existing subscriptions. To unblock your billing account and return it to its active state, use the following criteria to contact support for help:

• If you bought your subscription directly from Microsoft, contact Azure support.
• If you're a Partner or Enterprise customer, contact your partner or account manager.

If you have a billing account with a prepaid subscription set to auto-renew: After your billing account is blocked, if no action is taken, you receive a notification of tenant deauthorization. This step can be avoided or reversed within the allowed timeframe specified in the notification. Subscription usage isn't affected until a lifecycle management event occurs, like when a payment method expires. At that time, subscriptions might expire and be deleted, followed by billing account expiration and deletion.

All other customers: After your billing account is blocked, if no action is taken, subscription suspension, tenant deauthorization, and account termination might occur. Before each step is implemented, you receive a notification that contains the details and timeframe for that specific step. Each step can be avoided or reversed within the allowed time by contacting the support channels listed in this section.

Lock, re-enable, or delete your MCA billing account

You can manage the lifecycle of your Azure billing account in the Azure portal. This feature lets you lock the account to stop new purchases, re-enable it if you change your mind, and permanently delete it when you're ready. Locking a billing account is reversible. Deleting a billing account is permanent and can't be undone.

Who can lock or delete a billing account

Billing account owners can lock, re-enable, or delete a billing account.

Lock and delete eligibility

Before you can lock or delete your billing account, it must meet specific eligibility requirements.

Eligibility to lock your billing account

You can lock your billing account if all of the following conditions are true:

• Your account uses a direct purchase context (not a reseller, partner, or indirect relationship).

• Your account is a business account.

• Your account isn't an Enterprise Agreement (EA) enrollment.

• Your account doesn't have active government contracts.

• Your account isn't affiliated with a Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partner.

The following table lists conditions that make a billing account ineligible to lock:

Eligibility to delete your billing account

Your billing account must be in the Locked state before you can delete it. In addition, all of the following conditions must be true for each billing profile associated with the account:

Lock your billing account

When you lock your billing account, you block new purchases and subscription creation. Existing subscriptions stay active and keep accruing charges. You can re-enable the account any time before you request deletion.

Billing account owners receive an email notification when the account is locked.

To lock your billing account:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal.

2. Search for Cost Management + Billing and select it.

3. In the left menu, select Billing scopes.

4. Select the billing account you want to lock.

5. On the billing account properties page, select Lock account.

6. Review the information in the panel, then select Lock account to confirm.

The account status changes to Locked.

Re-enable your billing account

You can re-enable a locked billing account any time before you request deletion. Re-enabling the account restores its active state and allows new purchases.

To re-enable your billing account:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal.

2. Search for Cost Management + Billing and select it.

3. In the left menu, select Billing scopes.

4. Select the locked billing account.

5. On the billing account properties page, select Enable account.

6. In the Re-enable billing account panel, review the account name and confirm the details, then select Re-enable account.

The account status changes to Active. All purchasing capabilities are immediately restored, and your previous cancellation intent is cleared.

Delete your billing account

Deleting a billing account is permanent. Before you proceed, make sure the account is locked and all eligibility requirements are met.

Before you start, we recommend that you download all invoices you want to keep. Invoices aren't accessible after the account is deleted.

To delete your billing account:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal.

2. Search for Cost Management + Billing and select it.

3. In the left menu, select Billing scopes.

4. Select the locked billing account you want to delete.

5. On the billing account properties page, select Delete account.

6. Eligibility check: If the check finds active billing profiles with an attached payment instrument, the experience redirects to the billing profile list to walk through the Detach payment instrument experience. Select the provided link to resolve it, and then return to this page. When all billing profiles are disabled, other checks include:

   1. No reserved instances or active credits

   2. No Microsoft Entra tenant assets

7. Select Next.

8. Review actions: Review a summary of what is removed. If this billing account is the only billing account for your Microsoft Entra tenant, a warning appears indicating that the tenant is also queued for deletion.

9. Select Next.

10. Confirm deletion: Read the confirmation statement, select the checkbox to acknowledge that this action is permanent and can't be reversed, then select Delete account.

Related content

• Understand your Microsoft business billing account

• Manage your Microsoft business billing profiles

• Create an Azure support request