Steps to open a developer account

There are 2 types of developer accounts available in Partner Center: Individual and Company. Select a developer account below to understand the account creation process:

Who should select an individual account:

  • Independent developers whose distribution of apps through the Store is not in relation to their business, trade, or profession
  • Small scale creators producing content for non-commercial purposes
  • Individuals creating digital content as a hobbyist, amateur, school, or personal project

You can watch the following video to understand how to open individual developer account:


For more details, you can refer to the steps below:

Steps to open individual account

  1. Navigate to the registration page.

  2. Now, sign in with your Microsoft account. If you do not have a Microsoft account, click on Create One. The Microsoft account you use here is what you'll use to sign in to your developer account. If you want to know what is a Microsoft account, click here.

  3. Next step is to join a partner program. Partner Center is home to partner programs for multiple marketplaces including Windows. For submitting apps to Microsoft Store, join the Windows and Xbox program.

  4. Select the country or region where you live or where your business is located. You won't be able to change this later.

  5. Select your developer account type as Individual.

  6. Enter the publisher display name that you want to use (50 characters or fewer). Select this carefully, as customers will see this name when browsing and will come to know your apps by this name.

    Note

    Make sure you have the rights to use the name you enter here. If someone else has trademarked or copyrighted the name you picked, your account could be closed. See App Developer Agreement for more info. If someone else is using a publisher display name for which you hold the trademark or other legal right, contact Microsoft.

  7. Enter the contact info you want to use for your developer account.

    Note

    We'll use this info to contact you about account-related matters. For example, you'll receive an email confirmation after you complete your registration. After that, we'll send messages when we pay you or if you need to fix something with your account. We may also send informational emails as described earlier, unless you opt out of receiving non-transactional emails.

  8. Then, read and accept the terms and conditions of the App Developer Agreement.

  9. Select Accept and Continue to move on to the Payment section.

  10. Enter your payment info for the one-time registration fee. The individual account costs approximately $19 USD. (The fees varies depending on your country or region). If you have a promo code that covers the cost of registration, you can enter that here. Otherwise, provide your credit card info (or PayPal info in supported markets). Note that prepaid credit cards can't be used for this purchase. When you're finished, select Pay and Register to complete the registration.

  11. After payment you will receive an email to confirm your email address. Once confirmed, start your app submission process.

Note

In some cases, the screens and fields you see when you register for a developer account may vary slightly from what's outlined in the above steps. But the basic information and process will match what these steps describe.

Note

There is a known issue where users in some locales might be unable to finish completing their registration. Until we can confirm that it is resolved, we recommend that you manually change your browser's locale tag to en-us once you begin the sign-up process on partner.microsoft.com.