Microsoft FY27 Marketplace incentives: the complete guide for software companies
Updated 6 Nov 2026 · FY27 (1 October 2026 to 30 June 2027) · Reviewed by an ex-Microsoft team member
The short answer. In FY27 Microsoft pays software companies through one program, Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace, and membership is free. It holds six incentives: Azure sponsorship (credit, from $2,000 up to $400,000 or more), AI Build & Publish for Marketplace (up to $80,000 cash), AI Build & Publish for the Agent Store (up to $100,000 cash), Customer Assessment & POV ($12,000 or $20,000 cash), Customer Migrate & Modernize (up to $200,000 cash per customer) and co-sell (Microsoft's own sellers introduce you to big customers). Together they are typically worth $75,000 to $200,000 a year in cash and Azure credit, and more for every customer you move onto Azure.
In plain words. Big companies have already promised to spend money with Microsoft. Buying your software through Microsoft Marketplace can come out of that budget. So Microsoft pays software companies to join, and its own salespeople are rewarded when your software sells. This guide sorts every payment into one of three kinds, tells you which ones you can claim today and in what order.
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Does this apply to you?
Probably yes, if you sell business-to-business software, customers pay you by subscription or usage, and you are willing to make one offer transactable. A transactable offer is a listing where Microsoft bills your customer, collects the money and pays you. It is the only real gate, and the setup takes days, not a rebuild.
You do not need a certification, a minimum revenue or to move your product to Azure to start. Your product stays hosted where it is today.
Probably not yet, if you sell only to small customers who do not use Microsoft. The case is weaker there. Check it against your own numbers.
The three kinds of value
The most common mistake is treating every number as revenue. Only one of these three arrives as money you can spend on anything.
- Cash. You deliver a defined project, submit proof and invoice Microsoft. It lands as real income.
- Azure credit. It cuts a cloud bill, yours or a customer's. It never counts as revenue, and it expires if unused.
- Co-sell. No money moves directly. It shows up as pipeline and enterprise deals.
The program: Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace
One program now holds every incentive, running from 1 October 2026 to 30 June 2027. The no-cost membership opens all of them. Premium costs $1,500 a year and adds technical consultations, a named Microsoft engagement manager, and up to $30,000 of Azure credit for development and testing.
The journey has three stages. Build & Publish starts when you enrol. Grow starts with your first Marketplace sale and leads to co-sell. Differentiate is where you earn a certified software designation, a Microsoft credential that unlocks the customer incentives.
Enrolment is required for every incentive, and you enrol with your company's global admin account.
The six FY27 incentives
1. Azure sponsorship (Azure credit)
As your Marketplace sales grow, Microsoft gives you Azure credit to use in your deals and in free trials. Your allowance depends on your billed sales over the last 12 months: $2,000 from $500 of sales, $35,000 at $100,000, $100,000 at $500,000, $150,000 at $1 million and $400,000 at $4 million. The top tiers also need a certified software designation. Credit never counts toward the customer's Azure commitment. Read the full guide to Azure sponsorship.
2. AI Build & Publish for Marketplace (cash)
Pays $4,000 to $80,000 for putting AI into your solution and publishing it on Marketplace. Your offer must run mainly on Azure and use at least one AI service plus one app or data service. You qualify with $100,000 of billed sales or a $1 million Azure commitment. The amount depends on the Marketplace sales you plan for year one. Read how AI Build & Publish for Marketplace works.
3. AI Build & Publish for the Agent Store (cash)
Pays $5,000 to $100,000 for publishing an AI agent in the Copilot Agent Store, sized by monthly active users, from 500 to 30,000 or more. It is the most selective incentive, it is new in FY27, and the agent must work with Agent 365. There is no sales route in. Read the Agent Store guide.
4. Customer Assessment & POV (cash)
Pays $12,000 or $20,000 for planning a customer's move to your solution on Azure, before the migration. You need a certified software designation, and at least half of your claims must be migrations. Read the Customer Assessment & POV guide.
5. Customer Migrate & Modernize (cash)
The biggest payment in the program: $4,000 to $200,000 for moving a customer to your solution on Azure, sized by the customer's planned Azure use in year one. You need a certified software designation. Paired with an assessment, one customer can be worth up to $220,000, within your company's cap. Read the Migrate & Modernize guide.
6. Co-sell (introductions)
Once you reach $100,000 of billed sales, $100,000 of Azure use from your solution, or a $1 million Azure commitment, and have a transactable offer, Microsoft's sellers have a reason to introduce you: a Marketplace deal with an eligible partner counts toward their own sales target. You still choose the accounts and register each deal. Microsoft still calls these criteria a pilot in FY27. Read the co-sell guide.
Where should you start?
- Nothing on Marketplace yet. Join Frontier Accelerate (free) and publish a transactable offer, not "Contact me". Aim for one invoiced sale this quarter.
- Listed, but not transactable. Make your offer transactable. It is the gate to credit, co-sell and every cash incentive.
- Transactable, under $100,000. Use your credit allowance in deals and route renewals you already invoice through Marketplace to pass $100,000.
- Over $100,000. Claim AI Build & Publish, start co-selling, and plan a certified software designation for the customer incentives.
Steps one to three need no certification and no minimum revenue. Most companies can do them in two quarters with deals they have already sold.
What does a first year look like?
The Microsoft FY27 guide uses a made-up company, Contoso: forty people, about $900,000 of recurring revenue, new to Marketplace. It publishes one transactable offer, makes a first $18,000 sale in March, and routes two existing renewals through Marketplace. Its billed sales reach $138,000 by December. That crosses $100,000, so its credit allowance steps up to $35,000, it becomes eligible for co-sell, and it claims $24,000 in cash from AI Build & Publish. Two enterprise deals worth $180,000 a year close through Marketplace. The Microsoft fees on $318,000 of billed sales are $9,540, which is 3%. Contoso is not a real company.
How do you claim a cash incentive?
Every cash incentive follows the same four steps in Partner Center.
- Nominate. For Build & Publish, you nominate yourself. For customer incentives, you nominate when the customer confirms.
- Consent. The customer agrees in Partner Center within 30 days, or the claim expires.
- Deliver and prove. Do the work, then submit the claim with proof. Projects last 120 to 300 days.
- Get paid. Microsoft checks the proof for up to 30 days, then pays within 45.
Set up your tax, payment and incentives profiles and your user roles first. A missing one stops everything without an error.
What does it cost you?
- The store service fee: 3% of each sale. There is no listing fee and nothing to pay to publish.
- A cash-flow lag: payouts are monthly, about 30 days after the customer is invoiced, or 60 days on card payments.
- Your own Azure bill, if your product runs in your Azure subscription.
- Commitments, not grants: funded projects come with a target you commit to hit. Ask what happens if you miss it.
- Credit is not revenue.
What changed from FY26 to FY27: four programs became one
Last year, software companies dealt with four separate Microsoft programs: ISV Success, Marketplace Rewards, Azure IP co-sell and certified software. (ISV was Microsoft's old word for software companies. Microsoft now says software development company, SDC.)
From 1 October 2026 they are one: Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace. If you read last year's guide, most of it has changed.
What used to be true, and what is true now
- Programs. Four separate programs became one, Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace.
- Cost. The first program gave a free first year and then a paid renewal. Now membership is free, and Premium costs $1,500 a year.
- Azure credit. Marketplace Rewards gave you Azure credit. Now it is Azure sponsorship: credit to use in your Marketplace deals and free trials.
- AI funding. The funded AI build needed certification last year. In FY27 it needs sales instead: $100,000 of billed sales or a $1 million Azure commitment.
- Agents. They had no funding. Now they do, up to $100,000.
- Co-sell. It now runs through Marketplace and counts billed sales, so get transactable first.
If you are already in a Microsoft program
- In the free-first-year program: you move to Premium automatically. Your current benefits stay until your next enrolment date, and the $30,000 of development credit arrives when you renew.
- In Marketplace Rewards, in Azure IP co-sell, or holding a certified software designation: you join the no-cost offer and get several benefits straight away. Your co-sell status and incentive rates do not change. Full access comes at renewal.
- Your anniversary date stays the same. If you do not renew Premium, you go back to no-cost.
Six mistakes that lose money
- Counting orders, not invoices. Tiers count invoices, which go out the month after the order.
- Requesting credit too late. Ask within 60 days of closing the deal.
- Skipping the pre-nomination for partner-led projects and high value migrations.
- Forgetting customer consent within 30 days.
- Claiming only assessments.
- Collecting proof months after the project ends.
Frequently asked questions
What is Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace?
Microsoft's FY27 program for software companies. It replaced four separate programs and holds every incentive. Membership is free.
How much are the FY27 incentives worth?
Typically $75,000 to $200,000 a year in cash and Azure credit, and more for every customer you move onto Azure. Credit is not cash.
Do I need a certification?
Not to start. Joining, publishing, Azure sponsorship, AI Build & Publish and co-sell do not need one. Customer Assessment & POV and Migrate & Modernize do.
Do I have to move my product to Azure?
No. Your product stays hosted wherever it lives today.
What is a transactable offer?
A listing with a price, where Microsoft bills your customer, collects the money and pays you, minus 3%.
Can I stack the incentives?
Yes. Microsoft's FY27 material says they stack. Customer incentives have a cap on your company's total earnings, $250,000 for most software companies, so check yours.
Source: Microsoft's FY27 Partner Investments material and the Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace pages on Microsoft Learn, as summarised in the WeTransact FY27 guide, version of 20 October 2026. Amounts are for Microsoft's Market A countries, in USD. Market B countries are paid 80% on most cash incentives.
Want the full picture?
Everything here is also in our complete guide to Microsoft FY27 Marketplace incentives, with plain-words notes for newcomers. Get the complete FY27 guide
Not sure which incentive fits your company?
Ask for your free Microsoft Incentives Assessment: a personalized report of every incentive your company can claim, what each is worth, and the order to claim them. Free, no obligation. No Partner Center login needed to start. Ask for your free Assessment
The other FY27 incentives
- Azure sponsorship
- AI Build & Publish for Marketplace
- AI Build & Publish for the Agent Store
- Customer Assessment & POV
- Customer Migrate & Modernize
- Co-sell in FY27
Based on Microsoft's FY27 Partner Investments material and the Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace pages on Microsoft Learn. Microsoft may change its programs at any time, and every payout needs Microsoft's approval. Amounts are in USD.
