Private Plans: a complete guide

12 min

a private plan is a hidden pricing plan inside a microsoft marketplace offer that only the customers you nominate can see you target those customers by their microsoft entra tenant id, and they discover and buy the plan through the marketplace exactly like any other purchase — but at the price and configuration you set for them use it when you want to give one specific customer special pricing without changing your public listing note a private plan is not the same as a private offer a private plan lives inside your offer and is targeted by tenant id a private offer is a separate, negotiated deal targeted by billing account id, with far more deal making capability see private plan vs private offer below 🟣 when to use a private plan choose a private plan when a named customer has negotiated pricing that shouldn't be public one customer needs a different configuration (term length, quantity tiers, metered dimensions) you're running a paid pilot or poc at a reduced rate the customer wants the purchase to draw down their macc (microsoft azure consumption commitment) the deal is direct — no reseller or channel partner in the middle choose a private offer instead when the deal needs custom contract terms, multiple plans bundled together, a reseller, or a scheduled price change 🟣 key characteristics \aspect\ \ detail \ targeting microsoft entra tenant id for saas offers azure subscription id for azure application and managed service offers tenant id, subscription id, or both for virtual machine offers audience size add up to 10 ids manually, or import a csv for more plans per offer up to 45 private plans per offer discovery the customer finds the plan in the azure portal or microsoft marketplace, under private plans (lock icon / "you have private products available" banner) pricing custom pricing and custom plan configuration macc eligible, provided the offer is azure benefit–eligible and the purchase is completed through the azure portal during an active macc term time to appear up to 48 hours after you publish roles needed to buy subscription owner or contributor billing account roles are not required not supported csp subscriptions, multiparty / channel selling, custom pdf contract terms 🟣 how it works you collect the customer's tenant id they find it in microsoft marketplace under their profile icon → view tenant , or in the azure portal under microsoft entra id you create the plan inside your existing offer and set its pricing and configuration you set the plan's availability to private and add the customer's tenant id to the audience you publish the offer the plan goes through microsoft's review and publishing flow the plan becomes visible to that customer — allow up to 48 hours the customer signs in and purchases from the private plans area, using a subscription they own or contribute to billing and payout follow the normal marketplace flow — microsoft invoices the customer, and the sale appears in your payout report like any other transaction 🟣 how to publish a private plan before you start the offer must already exist and be live (or in draft and ready to publish) you need the customer's tenant id — confirm it in writing; a wrong id is the most common cause of "the customer can't see the plan" confirm the customer is not on a csp managed subscription (see limitations) 🟣 steps open the offer in the wetransact portal and go to product listing go to plan & pricing section and select add pricing— or clone an existing plan if the new one is a variation of your public pricing give the plan an internal friendly name (for example, contoso — enterprise annual) the customer sees this name, so keep it professional add the customer's tenant id to the private audienc add your tenant id as well for the best practice to see the private plan if its live set pricing and billing terms price, billing cadence, per user limits and any metered dimensions save, then publish the offer once live, tell the customer it can take up to 48 hours to appear, and send them the how to purchase steps below tip name and document every private plan against the deal it belongs to with up to 45 private plans allowed per offer, an unlabelled list becomes unmanageable quickly 🟣 updating the audience later you can add or remove customers from an existing private plan using sync private audiences — this takes effect without re certifying or fully republishing the offer pricing changes, by contrast, require a normal republish 🟣 how your customer purchases share these steps with your customer \ in microsoft marketplace \ sign in, select the profile icon (upper right) → view tenant to confirm the tenant id matches the one given to the publisher select the private plans (lock) icon in the upper right toolbar open the offer and go to plans + pricing — the private plan carries a blue private badge purchase using a subscription they own or contribute to \ in the azure portal \ search for "marketplace" select view private plans from the " you have private products available " banner, or go to private products select the plan and complete the purchase note if the customer has several subscriptions, their default one may not be the eligible one they must select the correct subscription during checkout 🟣 limitations and things to watch csp is not supported customers on subscriptions established through a csp reseller cannot buy a private plan workarounds send a csp private offer with a reseller margin, have the csp grant the customer rights to buy the public plan, or have the customer set up a separate mca billing account (the only option of the three that preserves macc decrement) no multiparty or channel selling private plans are direct to customer only limited deal making no custom pdf contract terms, no bundling multiple plans into one deal, no scheduled future price changes — those are private offer capabilities not available for virtual machine software reservations (vmsr), professional services, consulting services, "contact me" listings, or free services an offer that contains only private plans is not visible in microsoft marketplace — it can only be reached by its targeted audience vm offers private plan names, ids and urns stay publicly visible via azure cli (for example az vm image list) only deployment is restricted, so avoid putting the customer's name in the plan name for vm offers plan visibility is not freely reversible plan an offer's public/private structure up front rather than flipping an existing plan's visibility \[to confirm — check current partner center behaviour before publishing] 🟣 private plan vs private offer \ private plan \ \ private offer (direct) \ targeted by microsoft entra tenant id billing account id where it lives inside your existing offer a separate private offer time until purchasable up to 48 hours 15 minutes customer steps purchase directly accept, then purchase (two separate steps) roles needed subscription owner / contributor billing account owner / contributor to accept, plus subscription owner / contributor to purchase pricing control any custom plan price and configuration percentage discount, absolute price, or a new plan plans per deal one up to 10 bundled custom pdf contract terms no yes csp / multiparty not supported csp private offers and multiparty private offers available macc yes, if the offer is azure benefit–eligible yes, if the offer is azure benefit–eligible best for simple custom pricing for a known tenant negotiated deals, channel deals, custom terms 🟣 troubleshooting \ symptom \ \ likely cause \ \ fix \ customer can't see the plan after 48 hours wrong or mistyped tenant id ask the customer to re confirm via profile icon → view tenant , then correct the audience with sync private audiences customer sees the plan but can't complete purchase they're using a subscription outside the private audience, or lack owner/contributor rights have them switch subscription at checkout, or get the right role assigned customer on csp can't see or buy anything csp subscriptions can't accept private plans use a csp private offer, or a separate mca billing account purchase didn't draw down macc offer isn't azure benefit–eligible, or the purchase wasn't completed in the azure portal enrol the offer in the azure benefit, then have the customer purchase again through the azure portal plan appeared, but at the wrong price pricing change published without a full republish republish the offer; only audience changes are instant via sync private audiences 🟣 faqs how many private plans can one offer have? up to 45 can i add more customers to a private plan after publishing? yes — use sync private audiences no recertification needed does a private plan purchase count toward the customer's macc? yes, when the offer is azure benefit–eligible, the purchase is made through the azure portal, and the customer's macc term is active 100% of the pretax amount is applied when microsoft invoices can a csp customer buy a private plan? no use a csp private offer, or have the customer purchase through a separate mca billing account if macc drawdown matters what's the marketplace fee on a private plan? the standard marketplace fee applies (3% on most transactable offers) the reduced renewal rate is a private offer mechanism, not a private plan one can i hide the plan from everyone except one customer, but keep my offer public? yes — that's the standard setup public plans stay visible to everyone; the private plan is visible only to the targeted tenants 💬 for more, contact us at \\