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

A Norwegian startup, Vegalabs AS, incurred a $17,600 bill for using Anthropic's Claude AI model on Microsoft Azure. The company assumed its Azure credits would cover the cost, but found out that Microsoft's sponsorship rules exclude Anthropic models. Vegalabs deployed Claude in August, expecting its analysis workloads to use the $25,060 in Azure credits it received through Microsoft for Startups.

However, Microsoft charged the company $16,500 for the Claude deployment, with the total amount eventually reaching $17,600 before tax. The company discovered the charges after monitoring the sponsorship portal, which continued to show available credits while separate Marketplace charges accumulated. Microsoft deleted the deployment within an hour of realizing the charges, but the company's card issuer declined the payment due to suspected fraud.

The unused $21,168 in sponsorship credits expired on September 8. Vegalabs contends that the deployment interface did not make the separate billing clear, and it disputes neither the usage nor the documented rules. The company has requested a waiver but has not received a response. Anthropic support informed Vegalabs that Microsoft did not require its authorization to process a refund, directing the company to Microsoft.

Microsoft acknowledged the situation and requested information from Anthropic, but the latter has not responded. Microsoft's rules distinguish between credit-covered services and separately billed models offered through the same platform, highlighting the need for clearer distinctions to avoid such confusion among customers.