Microsoft billed a startup $17,600 for Claude. Its $21,168 in credits did not apply.
Norwegian startup Vegalabs had $25,060 in Azure credits from Microsoft for Startups when it deployed Anthropic's Claude in August, The Register reported on 9 October.
Microsoft's sponsorship rules exclude Anthropic models bought through Azure Marketplace, so the usage ran up $17,600 before tax.
Microsoft tried to collect $16,500 from the company's card, and the card issuer declined the payment. On 8 September, $21,168 of unused credits expired.
Vegalabs says it had not read the exclusions or set budget alerts, and it does not dispute the usage or the rules. It argues the deployment screen did not make the separate billing clear.
Microsoft told the startup that Azure Support cannot waive Marketplace charges and that Anthropic can start a refund. Anthropic's support said Microsoft did not need its authorisation to process a refund. Microsoft asked The Register for Anthropic's position and gave no further comment; Anthropic did not respond.
The question that mattered came before deployment: was this model covered by the credits at all?
Who in your company checks what your cloud credits do not cover?
Image: AI-generated.
Sources
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