Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace: Migration Guide

Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace is a Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program offering that consolidates ISV Success, Marketplace Rewards, Azure IP co-sell and certified software designations into one journey for software companies selling through Microsoft Marketplace, with a no-cost experience and a paid Premium one. This guide reflects Microsoft’s published rules as of September 28, 2026.

Updated September 29, 2026: Microsoft announced on September 28 that Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace is “now available to eligible partners.” Its Learn FAQ, dated September 16, still gives general availability in the future tense, so the availability lines below now quote the announcement as well.

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In July, Microsoft told partners that Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace was “coming in September 2026” and that existing members would “transition automatically at renewal; details specific to your circumstances are forthcoming.” Microsoft Learn now carries those details, in pages dated September 16, 2026: where each existing partner lands, what renewal requires, what Premium adds, and a rule that makes enrollment a prerequisite for any co-sell listing.

The Premium price is still unsettled on Microsoft’s own pages: it appears as two different figures. And while Microsoft announced the offering as “now available to eligible partners” on September 28, 2026, its Learn FAQ still gives general availability in the future tense. Where Microsoft disagrees with itself, this guide quotes both sides and doesn’t pick one. For the wider shift the program sits inside, from partner-reported consumption to Marketplace Billed Sales, start with Microsoft’s FY27 Azure Marketplace changes for ISVs.

What is Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace?

Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace is Microsoft’s single offering for software development companies that build, publish and sell through Microsoft Marketplace, consolidating ISV Success, Marketplace Rewards, Azure IP co-sell and Solutions Partner with certified software designations. Its benefits unlock as you reach Marketplace milestones, across three stages:

• Build and Publish. Publishing a Marketplace-ready, transactable offer completes this stage.
• Grow. The published offer’s first Marketplace transaction, counted as Marketplace Billed Sales (MBS), moves you here. Your Grow tier follows your trailing 12-month MBS and is recalculated monthly.
• Differentiate. You enter once at least one offer is enrolled for a certified software designation.

Benefits are cumulative, and you can sit in more than one stage at once, building one solution while growing another. The term runs 12 months from your enrollment date, and unused benefits don’t carry over into the next term.

To enroll, you need an active Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program membership, completed verification, and a solution that is B2B, built as IP for repeatable sales rather than custom work, built on a Microsoft Cloud platform, and intended for publication and go-to-market through Microsoft Marketplace.

Where do existing partners land?

ISV Success members land in Premium. Partners who use Marketplace Rewards, hold a certified software designation or participate in Azure IP co-sell land in the no-cost offer. Either way, Microsoft enrolls you without any action now; the work comes at your anniversary date.

If today you…	You land in	What to do now	At your anniversary date
Are enrolled in ISV Success	Premium, automatically	Nothing	Renew once and choose an experience. Premium renews each year; the no-cost path takes a one-time $0 renewal
Use Marketplace Rewards but aren’t in ISV Success	The no-cost offer	Nothing	Complete the one-time $0 renewal
Hold a certified software designation	The no-cost offer	Nothing	Complete the one-time $0 renewal
Participate in Azure IP co-sell	The no-cost offer, with your co-sell status unchanged	Nothing	Complete the one-time $0 renewal
Are in none of these	Not enrolled	Enroll in Partner Center (steps below)	Complete the $0 renewal at your first anniversary, or renew Premium each year

If you fit two rows, say an ISV Success member that also co-sells, Microsoft’s pages don’t say which applies. Premium includes everything in the no-cost offer, so expect the ISV Success row, and confirm it on your Partner Center dashboard.

Microsoft says migrating partners keep their existing anniversary date, and names the ISV Success and Marketplace Rewards dates. If you came in through a designation or Azure IP co-sell alone, its pages don’t say which date that is, so confirm yours in Partner Center well before it arrives.

The renewal matters because enrollment now gates benefits that used to come without it. Microsoft’s page for migrated partners says Marketplace Rewards go-to-market benefits now require an active enrollment, and so do co-sell eligibility and certified software designations “for new offers.”

What happens at your anniversary date?

On the no-cost path, one renewal decides whether you stay in. Every partner on it, “including partners migrated from a previous offering,” must complete one $0 renewal on their first anniversary date. It goes through the standard Partner Center checkout and turns on auto-renewal, and after that Microsoft doesn’t prompt you again. Miss that window, and “you drop out of the offering and must re-enroll, which resets your anniversary date.”

Premium runs on a yearly cycle instead. You renew each year to keep Premium benefits, the renewal window opens 30 days before your anniversary date, and if you don’t renew, the enrollment “automatically lapses to the no-cost path” rather than ending. The same enrollment page says Premium partners who choose to continue at no cost must complete the $0 renewal, so if you’re stepping down from Premium, complete it rather than relying on the lapse.

Three more rules to plan around:

• $0 still means checkout. Choosing the no-cost offer at enrollment means completing a no-cost purchase, with a billing profile and a valid payment instrument on file. The instrument isn’t charged.
• Upgrades aren’t prorated. You can move from no-cost to Premium at any point in a term, at the full annual price, and your anniversary date doesn’t move. An upgrade late in a term buys only what’s left of it.
• Grow tiers reset at renewal. Your tier doesn’t drop mid-term if sales slow, but at renewal it’s re-evaluated on your Marketplace performance at that time.

Do you have to enroll to keep co-selling with Microsoft?

Not to keep a co-sell status you already hold, because Microsoft enrolls existing Azure IP co-sell partners automatically, but you do for anything new. Microsoft’s Frontier Accelerate pages say “Active Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace enrollment is a prerequisite for any co-sell listing and for pursuing a certified software designation — publishing or performance alone isn’t sufficient.”

That sentence and Microsoft’s promise to existing co-sell partners are two different commitments, and they are easy to blur:

	What Microsoft says	What it means for you
A co-sell status you hold today	”Nothing changes to your co-sell status. You maintain seller prioritization, and your customers’ spend continues to count toward their Azure cloud consumption commitment.”	Existing Azure IP co-sell partners are enrolled automatically and keep their status
Co-sell eligibility for a new offer	IP co-sell eligibility used to be reachable “without any offer enrollment”; now “partners achieving co-sell eligibility for new offers must be enrolled”	A new offer needs an active enrollment behind it before it can become co-sell eligible
A certified software designation for a new offer	The same rule: designations for new offers require enrollment	Enroll before you pursue a designation for a new offer
Partner incentives	Enrollment is “a baseline eligibility criterion for partner incentives”	Enrollment is necessary for incentives, though not sufficient on its own

Microsoft’s pages don’t say what happens to a co-sell status you already hold if your enrollment lapses. Because they make enrollment a prerequisite for any co-sell listing, treat the $0 renewal as part of keeping co-sell running.

What are the new co-sell criteria?

Microsoft’s Frontier Accelerate FAQ lists “emerging” co-sell criteria and flags them as pilot-stage: they “are emerging from a pilot and might change.” Its standing co-sell requirements page doesn’t mention Frontier Accelerate and still describes the older bar. Until Microsoft reconciles the two, plan against the standing requirements and watch the pilot criteria.

	Co-sell requirements page	Frontier Accelerate FAQ
Revenue	At least USD 100,000 of Azure Consumed Revenue or Marketplace Billed Sales over the trailing 12 months, at the organization level	$100K Marketplace Billed Sales, or $100K attributable Azure consumption, over the trailing 12 months
Commitment	Not listed	A Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC) of $1M or more
Other requirements	Co-sell-ready status, then technical validation, a reference architecture diagram for some offer types, and a transactable offer	Not described
Frontier Accelerate enrollment	Not mentioned	A prerequisite for any co-sell listing
Status	Standing requirements	Pilot-stage: “emerging from a pilot and might change”

What does Premium add, and when does it fit?

Premium adds hands-on help and build resources; it doesn’t unlock co-sell. Microsoft’s benefit table puts co-sell participation, co-sell prioritization, Azure sponsorship, certified software designation badging and access to partner incentives in both experiences.

What Premium is worth to you depends on two things this guide can’t settle: the price you’re actually charged, which Microsoft’s pages state two ways, and which of its benefits you would use this term. So treat it as a checklist. If no row describes you, the no-cost offer already gives you the enrollment co-sell requires.

Premium adds	Stage	It fits if you…
Technical consultations with Microsoft’s Technical Presales and Deployment (TP&D) team	Build and Publish	Are still building the solution and want Microsoft’s technical guidance during upfront development
Development sandboxes and tools: Azure dev/test credits (up to $30,000 for new Premium partners), Dynamics 365 sandboxes, a Microsoft 365 E5 Dev subscription, GitHub Enterprise Cloud and Copilot, Visual Studio Enterprise and Microsoft Foundry	Build and Publish	Would otherwise pay for development and test environments on Microsoft’s stack
A named Engagement Manager	Across stages	Want one Microsoft contact coordinating milestones and benefit activation
High-level guidance on co-sell requirements and readiness	Grow	Aren’t co-sell eligible yet and want Microsoft’s view of what’s missing
Personalized customer awareness and demand-generation channels, plus Partner Marketing Center Pro	Grow	Have a transactable offer and a team ready to run campaigns with Microsoft
One enhanced marketing package per solution: a joint messaging framework, sales enablement or demand generation	Differentiate	Hold a certified software designation, or expect to this term

Two timing facts shape the decision. Migrating ISV Success members already have Premium until their anniversary date, so that renewal is the natural point to decide. And because an upgrade costs the full annual price with no proration, upgrading early in a term buys more months of Premium than upgrading late.

Where do Microsoft’s own pages disagree?

On four points: the Premium price, the general availability date, whether you must join the Microsoft Marketplace Program first, and who gets the $30,000 in Azure credits. We quote both sides rather than pick one.

Question	One Microsoft page says	Another says	What to do
What does Premium cost?	FAQ: “a list price of $1,500 USD per year,” with “the exact amount, applicable taxes, and local currency” shown at checkout in Partner Center	Overview: “$1,549.80 USD/year plus applicable taxes”	Treat the Partner Center checkout as the price. We haven’t verified what it shows
Is it generally available?	Partner Center announcement, September 28, 2026: “Now available to eligible partners”	FAQ, dated September 16: “planned for general availability on September 4, 2026,” and new partners “can enroll at general availability (September , 2026)“	Check what Partner Center offers you when you enroll
Do you need the Microsoft Marketplace Program first?	partner.microsoft.com lists “Enroll in Microsoft Marketplace” among the prerequisites	Learn: recommended, “but it’s not required to enroll”	Join it before you publish either way; you need it to publish offers and transact
Who gets the $30,000 in Azure credits?	partner.microsoft.com: Premium includes “$30,000 of Azure credits to build and test solutions”	Learn: up to $30,000 “for new Premium partners”	If you’re migrating from ISV Success, confirm before counting on them

There’s also a gap. Microsoft lists Grow tier thresholds only for the top three tiers, 7 to 9 (8M, 20M and 40M in trailing 12-month Marketplace Billed Sales, each also requiring an active certified software designation offer in Azure or Industry AI). An example on the same page mentions a $25K and a $100K tier without numbering them, and the FAQ refers every other threshold to a “Tiers & Benefits Matrix” that isn’t published on Learn.

How do you enroll if you’re new?

Through a single flow in Partner Center, run by someone with your company’s global admin credentials. Microsoft’s pages describe the steps below, and its September 28, 2026 announcement says the offering is “now available to eligible partners.”

1. Start from Microsoft’s offer page on partner.microsoft.com, which routes you into the enrollment experience.
2. Sign in to Partner Center as a global admin. Personal Microsoft accounts aren’t supported.
3. Join the partner program if you haven’t. The flow can enroll you in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program alone, or in it and the Microsoft Marketplace Program together. Microsoft recommends the second, because publishing offers and transacting require the Marketplace Program.
4. Complete the eligibility form with company, contact and solution details.
5. Complete verification. If your company hasn’t been verified before, the enrollment waits in a “vetting in progress” state until it is.
6. Choose no-cost or Premium, and check out. Then confirm the enrollment on the Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace page in Partner Center’s Membership workspace.

How Suger fits

Suger doesn’t enroll you in Frontier Accelerate or manage its benefits; your global admin does that in Partner Center. What Suger runs is the Marketplace work the program measures.

Microsoft measures progress through the program in Marketplace milestones. A transactable offer completes Build and Publish, the first Marketplace Billed Sales move you into Grow, MBS sets your Grow tier, and MBS is one of the emerging co-sell criteria. Suger lists your offers on Microsoft Marketplace, creates and manages the private offers that transact through it, and connects your CRM to Microsoft co-sell, whether that is Salesforce, HubSpot or Dynamics 365, so reps share opportunities and accept the referrals Microsoft sends back without re-keying them.

Frequently asked questions

What is Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace?

Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace is a Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program offering that consolidates ISV Success, Marketplace Rewards, Azure IP co-sell and certified software designations. It runs in three stages, Build and Publish, Grow and Differentiate, with a no-cost experience and a paid Premium experience.

Do you have to enroll in Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace to keep co-selling with Microsoft?

Not to keep a status you already hold. Microsoft’s answer to Azure IP co-sell partners is “Nothing changes to your co-sell status.” But active enrollment is a prerequisite for any co-sell listing and for co-sell eligibility on new offers, so don’t let it lapse.

What happens to ISV Success members?

They’re enrolled in Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace Premium automatically, with no action needed. They keep their ISV Success anniversary date, renew once on it, and choose an experience at that renewal. If a Premium partner doesn’t renew, Microsoft says the enrollment lapses to the no-cost offer.

How much does Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace Premium cost?

Microsoft’s pages give two figures: a list price of $1,500 USD per year in its FAQ, and $1,549.80 USD per year plus applicable taxes in its overview. The FAQ says the exact amount, taxes and currency appear at checkout in Partner Center. We haven’t verified the checkout price.

What happens if you miss the $0 renewal?

Microsoft says you “drop out of the offering and must re-enroll, which resets your anniversary date.” The one-time $0 renewal applies to every partner on the no-cost path, including migrated partners, on their first anniversary date, and turns on auto-renewal.

Is Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace generally available?

Microsoft announced on September 28, 2026 that Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace is “now available to eligible partners.” It didn’t call that general availability, and its September 16 FAQ still says general availability is planned for September 4, 2026. Check what Partner Center offers you when you enroll.

Takeaways

• Microsoft announced Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace as “now available to eligible partners” on September 28, 2026. Its Learn pages are dated September 16, 2026, and this guide quotes both sides where they disagree.
• ISV Success members land in Premium; Marketplace Rewards, certified software designation and Azure IP co-sell partners land in the no-cost offer. No one has to act now.
• The date that matters is your anniversary: on the no-cost path, complete the one-time $0 renewal or drop out and re-enroll with a new anniversary date.
• An existing co-sell status is preserved, but active enrollment is a prerequisite for any co-sell listing, for co-sell eligibility on new offers and for partner incentives. The $100K and $1M co-sell criteria are pilot-stage.
• Premium adds build help, a named Engagement Manager and marketing channels, not co-sell access. Weigh it by the benefits you’d use, at the price Partner Center’s checkout shows you.

Frontier Accelerate counts Marketplace milestones, and Suger runs the Marketplace side of them: Microsoft Marketplace listings, private offers and Partner Center co-sell connected to your CRM. See how on the Microsoft Marketplace solution page.