Azure provides two ‘free account’ options:

• Azure for students doesn’t require any credit card, but only offers $100 free credit, and is only available to persons with a verified ‘edu’ email account.
• The general Azure free account offers $200 in credits, but appears to require a credit card as part of the verification process (though they claim you don’t get charged for anything until you upgrade the account).

It appears to be acceptable to use both account types by using a different (non-UW) email for the general account. Free credit is often only valid for a limited duration, so you have to ‘use it or lose it.’

Once the account is set up, there are a number of free services that can be set up on the account. Keep in mind that often what makes a service ‘free’ is simply staying within certain configuration/usage limits–so if you need more performance, you can do so, but it will consume some of the free credit.

Example: You can set up a free Linux VM by starting with the ‘free VM’ config as a starting point, and configuring it according to your needs (Quickstart guide).