Founders Hub Milestone 3: workload counting, $1-threshold mechanics, and clock completion after credit expiration — several clarifying questions

We're working toward Milestone 3 ($25,000 credits) under Founders Hub. We initially tracked only "5+ distinct Azure workloads with sustained usage" and missed that each workload must also independently maintain at least $1 in spend. We found this note elsewhere on the getting-started page, separate from the main Milestone 3 section:

Note

• The 60-day clock starts once you have the required number of workloads, each with at least $1 in spend.

• Every workload must stay above $1 in spend for all 60 days. If any workload drops below the threshold, you fall under the required number. The count only completes after 60 continuous days at or above the target.

(Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/startups/microsoft-for-startups/getting-started-mfs#credit-milestones-and-requirements)

Having corrected our understanding, we have several remaining questions before we finalize our workload configuration:

1. Does deliberately provisioning a fixed-cost SKU purely to clear the $1 threshold count as valid usage?

The same page also says the milestone looks for "sustained usage patterns, not one-time spikes." For workloads with near-zero organic spend, we're considering provisioning a fixed-cost SKU (e.g., a Key Vault Premium HSM-protected key with no application traffic, or reserved Blob capacity) specifically to keep spend above $1/day. Does that satisfy the requirement, or does the automatic evaluation also require organic application usage beyond the raw spend figure — i.e., could non-functional spend be excluded or flagged?

2. If a workload drops below $1 for a single day, does the whole 60-day count reset to zero, or just pause?

If one of our 5 workloads dips below $1 for one day and then recovers, does the 60-day clock restart from zero, or does it simply not count that one day and resume once all workloads are above $1 again?

3. Do Azure AI Foundry's hosted compute and model deployments count as one workload or two?

We use both Azure AI Foundry's hosted agent/tool runtime (billed as "Azure Container Apps," though no Container Apps resource exists in our subscription — this appears to be Foundry's own backing compute) and its model deployments (billed as "Azure OpenAI"/Foundry Models). Are these counted as one workload ("Azure AI Foundry") or two separate workloads toward the 5+ requirement?

4. Does Azure billing for GitHub Actions count as an Azure workload?

We have Azure-billed GitHub Actions usage in our Cost Analysis. Since this is a GitHub product paid for through an Azure subscription rather than a native Azure service (e.g., VM, database, AI model), we suspect it does not count toward the 5+ workload requirement — can you confirm?

5. Is there a way to see current progress toward the 60 days?

Is there a dashboard, API, or billing report that shows how many consecutive days we've currently satisfied the "5+ workloads each ≥ $1" condition, so we don't have to reconstruct it ourselves from Cost Management data?

6. Does credit expiration block milestone achievement?

Our current $5,000 credit grant expires on 2026-10-20, and our 60-day clock may not complete before then. If we keep paying out of pocket (self-billed) to keep all workloads above $1 through day 60, can Milestone 3 still be achieved even though the initial credit had already expired by the time the 60 days complete?

Any clarification on these points would help us plan our workload configuration correctly. Thank you.