Can't Create Virtual Machine (VM) On Free Account

Question

Can't Create Virtual Machine (VM) On Free Account

Mohammed Siam 10

Can't Create Virtual Machine (VM) On Free Account as Student

Serhii-Roman Kikot 90 Reputation points

2026-02-16T11:12:10.72+00:00

Hi Mohammed Siam,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A!

Could you please let us now what error message do you get when attempting to create VM?

This information will help us provide accurate steps and resolve the issue.

If you have any queries, please do let us know, we will help you.

3 answers

Your answer

Serhii-Roman Kikot 90 Reputation points

2026-02-16T11:12:10.72+00:00

Hi Mohammed Siam,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A!

Could you please let us now what error message do you get when attempting to create VM?

This information will help us provide accurate steps and resolve the issue.

If you have any queries, please do let us know, we will help you.

Answer 1

If you're having trouble creating a Virtual Machine (VM) on your Azure free account as a student, there are a few common issues to consider:

Active Subscription: Ensure that your Azure account has an active subscription. If you see a message indicating that you need to create a free account, it may mean that your current account does not have the necessary permissions or subscriptions to create resources.
Quota Limits: You may be exceeding the quota limits for your free account. Azure free accounts have specific limits on the number of resources you can create. If you've reached these limits, you will need to either reduce the number of VMs or request an increase in your quota.
Service Availability: Check if the Azure region you are trying to use supports the VM service you want to create. Some regions may not support all services.
Permissions: Make sure that the account you are using has the necessary permissions to create VMs. You need at least contributor-level access to create resources.

If you continue to experience issues, consider checking the Azure portal for specific error messages that can guide you in troubleshooting further.

Answer 2

Hello Mohammed,

Thank you for reaching out.

With the Azure for Students subscription under Microsoft Azure, there are specific usage limits and quotas applied by design. These subscriptions are meant for learning and experimentation, so they allow only certain VM sizes, regions, and a limited amount of compute resources.

If you are unable to create a Virtual Machine, it is typically due to one of the following reasons:

The selected VM size is not supported under the Students offer (only a small set of sizes such as B-series are allowed).

The region you selected does not have quota available for the free subscription.

The subscription has reached its spending or core limit, which cannot be increased for Student plans.

A paid resource (for example Premium disks or unsupported images) was chosen during deployment, which is restricted in this offer.

To resolve this, we recommend:

Try deploying a VM using a supported size (for example: Standard B1s).

Use a commonly available region such as East US or West Europe.

Ensure all selected options remain within the “Free/Student eligible” configuration (Standard SSD, no premium features).

Please note that quota increases are not available for Student subscriptions. If you require larger VM sizes or production-level usage, upgrading to a Pay-As-You-Go subscription would be necessary.

Reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/management/azure-subscription-service-limits

If the issue continues, kindly share the exact error message and screenshot of the deployment failure so we can assist you further.

We hope this helps clarify the behavior.

Anonymous

2026-02-17T08:29:34.6366667+00:00

Hello Mohammed,

Just checking if provided information was helpful! Please let me know if you have any queries in comments.
Anonymous

2026-02-24T18:26:05.56+00:00

Hello Mohammed,

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".
Pierre McGrail 0 Reputation points

2026-09-01T15:58:31.29+00:00

Same boat, either no size availables or policy errors. I was able to create a VM on a different continent though, which is unacceptable for my needs. Can't edit list of allowed locations, giving error :
The policy assignment id 'sys.regionrestriction' is invalid. The policy assignment id must not start with 'sys.'.

Answer 3

Santanu Dhibar 0

I am trying to create a free Azure Virtual Machine using the free services option.

However, during the validation process, I am getting the following error:

{

"code": "InvalidTemplate",

"message": "Deployment template validation failed: 'The value for the template parameter 'subnetId' at line '1' and column '1395' is not provided. Please see https://aka.ms/arm-create-parameter-file for usage details.'."

}

It seems that the 'subnetId' parameter is missing or not being passed correctly in the template.

I am not sure where I need to define or provide this subnetId value while creating the VM from the Azure portal.

Could someone please guide me on how to fix this issue?

Anonymous

2026-03-04T10:44:28.4866667+00:00

Hello Santanu Dhibar

I would recommend creating a new thread on the same forum with as many details about your issue as possible.

That would make sure that your issue has better visibility in the community.

Thank you.