Microsoft and Anthropic play invoice tennis with startup's $17,600 Claude bill

A Norwegian startup says it ran up a $17,600 bill using Claude in Microsoft Foundry after assuming its Azure credits would cover the cost.

We reported a similar case in March, involving third-party model charges that weren't covered by Azure sponsorship credits.

This time, the customer says Microsoft and Anthropic each directed it to the other to resolve the charges.

Vegalabs AS says it received $25,060 in Azure credits through Microsoft for Startups and deployed Claude in August, expecting its analysis workloads to use that balance.

However, Microsoft's sponsorship rules exclude Anthropic models purchased through Azure Marketplace.

Vegalabs says Microsoft attempted to collect $16,500 from its card, with the invoiced total subsequently reaching $17,600 before tax.

Vegalabs says it monitored the sponsorship portal, which continued to show available credits while separate Marketplace charges accumulated.

Microsoft's Claude deployment guide says credit-only sponsored subscriptions aren't supported, but accounts with a card on file will have that card charged instead.

The company says it deleted the deployment within an hour of discovering the charges.

Its card issuer declined the attempted payment over suspected fraud, and $21,168 in unused sponsorship credits expired on September 8.

Vegalabs acknowledges it did not read the credit exclusions or configure a budget alert.

It disputes neither the usage nor the documented rule, but says the deployment interface failed to make the separate billing clear.

Its request for a waiver then bounced between Microsoft and Anthropic support.

The Register has seen communications from Microsoft directing the user to Anthropic.