Azure Student Servers: Claim $100 and Create a Japan VPS with the Portal or CLI

Claim Azure for Students#

You need to be at least 18, enrolled full-time at an eligible university, and have a Microsoft account and a university email that receives messages

What is free#

Two separate things: the $100 credit lasts 12 months and eligible students can renew yearly; the new-customer 12-month resource allowances do not restart with that renewal

Each eligible VM size has its own 750-hour allowance. That’s enough for one VM of each size to run all month. Two VMs of the same size share that size’s hours, so a B2ats_v2 plus a B2pts_v2 is an option for two machines

One easy detail to miss: the free disks are two P6 Premium SSD LRS disks, 64 GiB each

Look for Linux Virtual Machines, Azure Disk Storage, and the 100 GB outbound allowance. The bandwidth budgets below use that monthly 100 GB tier

Check Subscriptions → Azure for Students → Free services before creating resources. Once usage appears, confirm VM hours and disks are counted against those allowances

I’d choose Japan first#

Start by checking where your subscription can deploy. In the Azure portal, search for Policy, open Assignments, and set the scope to your Azure for Students subscription

Open Allowed resource deployment regions, then Parameters, and read Allowed locations. This usually lists the five regions assigned to your subscription

Mine showed:

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["centralindia","indiasouthcentral","uaenorth","malaysiawest","japaneast"]

The list varies between accounts. Mine includes Japan East, so I chose japaneast

For readers connecting from mainland China, my order is Japan → Singapore → India → Hong Kong. The US isn’t a routine alternative here; work through the regions your policy allows

Hong Kong is currently absent from the official supported-region lists for ChatGPT and Claude. For those services, choose Japan, Singapore, or India from your allowed regions

After checking the allowed list, inspect sizes and quotas. A region appearing in the VM wizard doesn’t mean your student subscription can deploy there

For RequestDisallowedByAzure, read the region policy in the error. For unavailable sizes or exhausted regional capacity, try another allowed region. Changing zones alone won’t bypass a region policy

Portal method: create the VM#

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ssh -i "$HOME\.ssh\azure-student" student@YOUR_PUBLIC_IPV4

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ssh -6 -i "$HOME\.ssh\azure-student" student@YOUR_PUBLIC_IPV6

CLI method: create with commands#

Use PowerShell 7.4 or newer on Windows. Your SSH private key stays on your computer

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winget install --exact --id Microsoft.AzureCLI
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winget install --exact --id Microsoft.PowerShell

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$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'
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$PSNativeCommandUseErrorActionPreference = $true
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az login
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az account list -o table
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az account set --subscription 'YOUR_AZURE_FOR_STUDENTS_SUBSCRIPTION_ID'

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$region = 'japaneast'
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$group = 'rg-student-jp'
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$vm = 'student-jp'
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$size = 'Standard_B2ats_v2'
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$image = 'Canonical:ubuntu-24_04-lts:server:latest'
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$publicIpv4 = $true
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az policy assignment list -o jsonc
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az vm list-usage --location $region -o table
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az vm list-skus --location $region --size $size `
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  --resource-type virtualMachines --all `
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  --query '[].{SKU:name,Restrictions:restrictions,Zones:locationInfo[0].zones}' -o jsonc
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az vm image show --location $region --urn $image -o table

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New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path "$HOME\.ssh" -Force | Out-Null
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ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f "$HOME\.ssh\azure-student" -C azure-student
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az group create --name $group --location $region
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az network vnet create -g $group -n vnet-student -l $region `
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  --address-prefixes 10.20.0.0/16 fd12:3456:789a::/48 `
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  --subnet-name snet-student `
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  --subnet-prefixes 10.20.1.0/24 fd12:3456:789a:1::/64
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az network nsg create -g $group -n nsg-student -l $region
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az network nsg rule create -g $group --nsg-name nsg-student `
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  -n allow-ssh --priority 1000 --direction Inbound --access Allow `
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  --protocol Tcp --source-address-prefixes Internet `
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  --source-port-ranges '*' --destination-address-prefixes '*' `
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  --destination-port-ranges 22
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az network public-ip create -g $group -n "${vm}-ip6" -l $region `
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  --sku Standard --version IPv6 --allocation-method Static
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az network nic create -g $group -n "${vm}-nic" -l $region `
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  --vnet-name vnet-student --subnet snet-student `
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  --network-security-group nsg-student
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az network nic ip-config create -g $group --nic-name "${vm}-nic" `
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  -n ipconfig6 --private-ip-address-version IPv6 `
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  --vnet-name vnet-student --subnet snet-student `
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  --public-ip-address "${vm}-ip6"
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if ($publicIpv4) {
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  az network public-ip create -g $group -n "${vm}-ip4" -l $region `
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    --sku Standard --version IPv4 --allocation-method Static
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  az network nic ip-config update -g $group --nic-name "${vm}-nic" `
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    -n ipconfig1 --public-ip-address "${vm}-ip4"
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}

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az vm create -g $group -n $vm -l $region `
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  --size $size --image $image --security-type Standard `
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  --admin-username student --authentication-type ssh `
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  --ssh-key-values "$HOME\.ssh\azure-student.pub" `
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  --nics "${vm}-nic" --os-disk-name "${vm}-os" `
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  --storage-sku Premium_LRS --os-disk-size-gb 64
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az vm get-instance-view -g $group -n $vm `
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  --query 'instanceView.statuses[].displayStatus' -o tsv
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az disk show -g $group -n "${vm}-os" `
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  --query '{Disk:name,Storage:sku.name,GiB:diskSizeGb,Tier:tier}' -o table
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az network public-ip list -g $group `
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  --query '[].{Name:name,Version:publicIPAddressVersion,Address:ipAddress}' -o table

Let an AI assistant help#

Send this paragraph to an assistant that can use your local terminal. Complete Microsoft sign-in and verification codes yourself

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Use PowerShell 7 to install Azure CLI and sign me into Azure for Students. Check allowed regions, quotas, and free services; try Japan, Singapore, India, then Hong Kong, and show costs for my confirmation. Then create one B2ats_v2 VM with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 Gen2, a 64 GiB P6 Premium_LRS disk, dual-stack networking, public IPv4 and IPv6, SSH key authentication, and TCP 22. Verify SSH and give me the addresses, connection command, and resource list

For IPv6 only, change the public address plan to “Standard public IPv6 with dual-stack private networking.” With a chat-only AI, ask it for PowerShell commands to run yourself

Is public IPv4 worth buying#

Choose IPv4 for convenience; use only public IPv6 to save the address fee if the connectivity trade-off works for you

IPv6 addresses are free, but outbound traffic is metered. Your connecting network needs IPv6 too, and IPv4-only websites or package registries may be unreachable from the server

SSH into Ubuntu first, then run these commands in the server’s Bash shell to inspect IPv6 addresses and routes and try the services you’ll use:

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ip -6 addr show scope global
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ip -6 route
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curl -6 -I https://www.microsoft.com/
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sudo apt update
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curl -I https://github.com/
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curl -I https://registry-1.docker.io/v2/

A Docker Registry 401 Unauthorized usually means the service is reachable and wants authentication. If GitHub or a package source fails, check that service’s IPv6 support before deciding how to provide IPv4 connectivity

How much monthly bandwidth#

Internet inbound traffic is free; the first 100 GB outbound each month is free. These estimates use Microsoft’s default global network routing: $0.12/GB beyond the allowance in Japan, Singapore, India, and Hong Kong

A Standard public IPv4 in these regions costs $0.005/hour. At 730 hours/month that’s about $3.65/month, or $43.80/year. Public IPv6 has no address fee

Spread the $100 across 12 months and you have about $8.33/month. If VM compute and the first two P6 disks fit the free allowances, with no other charges:

The formula is simple:

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Monthly outbound GB
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= 100 + (100 / 12 - monthly IPv4 fee - other monthly costs) / outbound price per GB

This is the combined budget for the setup. Each VM does not get another 100 GB and another $100. Two VMs sharing one purchased IPv4 still total about 139 GB/month in Japan; two IPv4 addresses cost about $7.30/month, leaving much less credit for data

The $100 arrives as a one-year balance, not a fresh $8.33 each month. The free 100 GB resets monthly and doesn’t roll over. Inter-region traffic and other services have separate charges

Cleaning up#

Use Free services to check resource allowances and Cost Management for IPv4 and extra outbound charges. Keep track of the student credit balance and expiry too

Eligible students can renew the $100 yearly. After the first 12 months, add VM and disk charges back into your budget. Unused old credit does not carry over

When finished, save your data and delete the dedicated practice resource group. This removes its VMs, disks, interfaces, and public IPs together:

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az group delete --name rg-student-jp

Stopping the VM alone leaves disks and reserved static IPv4 addresses in place. That’s why I prefer keeping this setup in one resource group: cleanup is much simpler

References#

• Azure for Students: credit, renewal, and free VMs
• Azure for Students eligibility and credit terms
• GitHub Student Developer Pack
• Azure free services
• Microsoft Q&A: find the five allowed deployment regions
• Microsoft community explanation of two free 64 GiB P6 disks
• Public IP pricing
• Official Japan public IP retail pricing API
• Outbound bandwidth pricing
• Azure IPv6: pricing, dual-stack interfaces, and subnet limits
• Default outbound access and new private subnets
• Install Azure CLI on Windows
• Use Azure CLI in PowerShell
• Interactive sign-in and subscription selection

Read next#

Other official offers are in the student benefits hub. Compare the Aliyun student voucher if you’re choosing a server

Once the VM is ready, continue with Docker basics and the small-server service guide. Pick ntfy notifications or a Vaultwarden password vault, then connect a domain and HTTPS using Cloudflare