I have a query on Azure Virtual Desktop Pricing. There is a fixed price for AVD Virtual Machine based on the configuration we select. Now, while launching a VM, there is a checkbox that says "I confirm I have an eligible Windows 10/11 license with multi-tenant hosting rights." and on the right hand side we see the approximate pricing including Windows BYOL. I want to understand that if I have Microsoft 365 Business Premium license which includes license of Windows 10 as part of subscription and I want to use/leverage Azure Virtual Desktop. I have following questions in that scenario: How will my VM pricing change? Or there is some another way to access AVD which is included with Business Premium license? How will I get the discount on licensing of OS on Azure VM/AVD Hosts? Discount will only be applied if the user who has Microsoft 365 Business Premium License assigned uses the VM or logs into VM using his/her Entra ID credentials? Does that mean license verification happens when the VM is able to connect to internet? If VM doesn't have internet connectivity, do I pay full price of VM + OS License? If I select VM with Microsoft 365 Apps pre-installed and user logs in with Business Premium license, will he/she be able to use all Office Apps?

Query on Azure Virtual Desktop Pricing

Arman Koradia 40

I have a query on Azure Virtual Desktop Pricing. There is a fixed price for AVD Virtual Machine based on the configuration we select. Now, while launching a VM, there is a checkbox that says "I confirm I have an eligible Windows 10/11 license with multi-tenant hosting rights." and on the right hand side we see the approximate pricing including Windows BYOL.

I want to understand that if I have Microsoft 365 Business Premium license which includes license of Windows 10 as part of subscription and I want to use/leverage Azure Virtual Desktop. I have following questions in that scenario:

How will my VM pricing change? Or there is some another way to access AVD which is included with Business Premium license?
How will I get the discount on licensing of OS on Azure VM/AVD Hosts?
Discount will only be applied if the user who has Microsoft 365 Business Premium License assigned uses the VM or logs into VM using his/her Entra ID credentials?
Does that mean license verification happens when the VM is able to connect to internet? If VM doesn't have internet connectivity, do I pay full price of VM + OS License?
If I select VM with Microsoft 365 Apps pre-installed and user logs in with Business Premium license, will he/she be able to use all Office Apps?

Nikhil Duserla 3,065 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-11-19T21:09:35.4+00:00

Hi @Arman Koradia,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A Platform! Thank you for asking your question here.

By using a Microsoft 365 Business Premium license, you can apply Windows 10/11 licenses with multi-tenant hosting rights. Choosing the "Bring Your Own License" (BYOL) option for your VM reduces costs by eliminating the Windows OS license fee, though the base compute cost remains.

The discount is applied automatically when you click on the BYOL checkbox and confirm that you have an eligible Windows license.

The discount applies only if the user with the Microsoft 365 Business Premium license logs into the VM using their Microsoft Entra ID credentials.

It is not possible to verify without internet connectivity, and you will be charged the full price for both the VM and the OS license.

Users can access Microsoft 365 Apps on the VM if they have the appropriate license- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/compare-all-microsoft-365-business-products#footnote3

Also, I would recommend you refer the link for more information-https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/windows-desktop-multitenant-hosting-deployment#operating-systems-and-licenses

If you have any further queries, do let us know.
Arman Koradia 40 Reputation points

2024-11-20T15:48:32.01+00:00

Thanks for the response. I have the follow-up question on this.
I assume this discount applies in AVD Personal VMs. So how does the discount apply in case we use Pooled VM?
Nikhil Duserla 3,065 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-11-20T18:23:12.2466667+00:00

Hi @Arman Koradia,

Thank you for reaching out to us again.

Users with a Microsoft 365 Business Premium license can access pooled VMs and receive the BYOL discount, provided they log in with their Microsoft Entra ID credentials to verify their license- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/virtual-desktop/

If you have any further queries, do let us know.
Arman Koradia 40 Reputation points

2024-11-22T06:09:44.5066667+00:00

Let's say if I create a custom image using "Windows 11 Enterprise + Microsoft 365 Apps" as base image and I launch VMs in Azure Virtual Desktop, will those VMs created using custom image in AVD eligible for BYOL discounts?

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