Marketplace purchases are third-party software, data and services bought through the AWS, Azure or Google Cloud marketplace and billed through the cloud provider's billing account: the cloud provider or its payment entity issues the invoice, while the third party remains the seller. Depending on provider, agreement type and pricing model, the charges land in the monthly bill, on an invoice of their own at the time of purchase, or on a second document each billing period. Missed, they turn licences into infrastructure in reports and leave off-cycle invoices unaccounted for.
How it works
AWS
Usage-based Marketplace charges, including those under private offers, are billed on the second or third day of the month at 00:00 UTC, in the same run as other AWS charges but on a separate bill from the infrastructure underneath; for software from an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) the charge is the seller's hourly fee times the hours it ran. AMI annual subscriptions and contract purchases are invoiced at purchase, outside the monthly bill: an annual subscription with one invoice for the whole agreement, a flexible payment schedule with one invoice per scheduled payment; usage components of a contract appear in the monthly bill. Accounts in EMEA (excluding Turkey and South Africa) buying from EMEA-eligible sellers are invoiced by Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL; accounts in Australia and Japan by the local AWS entity, accounts in India buying from Indian sellers by Amazon Web Services India Private Limited, all others by Amazon Web Services, Inc. The EMEA Marketplace invoice has its own remittance instructions, because Amazon Payments Europe, S.C.A. processes its payments. Most purchases are priced in USD; private offers in EUR, GBP, AUD or JPY are invoiced in the offer currency at a fixed exchange rate, possibly with a separate invoice per currency.
A private offer is a seller's offer with negotiated pricing and its own licence terms, made to up to 25 named accounts; accepted, it becomes an agreement. Accepted by an organization's management account, it can be shared with member accounts, though those already subscribed to the product must accept it themselves. On the monthly bill it appears like any Marketplace product, one line item per kind of usage. In CUR 2.0, bill_billing_entity shows whether an invoice concerns AWS Marketplace or other AWS services, bill_invoicing_entity names the invoicing entity and line_item_legal_entity the seller of record, which can differ from it for third-party sellers.
Azure
Microsoft calls Marketplace products external services; its private offers documentation now says "Microsoft Marketplace", the external-services page still "Azure Marketplace". The agreement type decides the document. Under a Microsoft Customer Agreement they are billed like Microsoft's own services: usage-based ones with the rest of Azure on the billing profile's invoice, seat-based subscriptions the day after purchase; the invoice lists each publisher's name and address at the bottom. Under a Microsoft Partner Agreement they are billed with the other Azure services. Pay-as-you-go accounts receive two invoices per billing period, one for Azure services and one of type "Azure Marketplace and Reservations". Under an Enterprise Agreement, Azure Prepayment and credit do not cover Marketplace purchases and usage: they are invoiced despite a credit balance and listed after Azure usage, and an enterprise administrator can disable Marketplace purchases.
Private offers come from the vendor directly or, as multiparty private offers, through a channel partner, with negotiated prices for up to five years, and are accepted in the Azure portal under Private Offer Management by a billing account owner or contributor (MCA) or the enterprise administrator (EA). Microsoft lists as a benefit that eligible purchases count toward a Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC); see Enterprise agreements and private pricing. In the cost details, PublisherType marks third-party charges as Marketplace under an MCA (EA and pay-as-you-go show Azure), and PublisherName names the seller. Microsoft keeps a separate rounding adjustment to the invoice for Marketplace records.
Google Cloud
Google Cloud Marketplace charges run through the Cloud Billing account. The vendor chooses subscription fees, usage fees or both, and the Google Cloud resources the product runs on are charged separately. In Cloud Billing reports and the BigQuery export, Marketplace charges appear as separate items, some linked to a project and some only to the billing account; seller_name carries the seller's legal name. Private offers are discounted offers from a vendor that show the price before acceptance. Google's Marketplace billing page does not say whether they get an invoice document of their own.
The equivalents
| Provider | Where the charge appears | Own invoice | Invoice issuer | Seller in the export |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS | usage in the monthly run, contracts at purchase | yes, separate from AWS services; contracts and offers in other currencies additionally | Amazon Web Services, Inc., Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL or another local AWS entity | line_item_legal_entity; bill_billing_entity marks Marketplace |
| Azure MCA, MPA | with the other Azure services | no | Microsoft | PublisherName; under MCA PublisherType = Marketplace |
| Azure pay-as-you-go | second invoice per period | yes | Microsoft | PublisherName |
| Azure EA | EA invoice after Azure usage, not from Prepayment | no, but despite credit | Microsoft | PublisherName |
| Google Cloud | reports and export of the Cloud Billing account | not documented | through the Cloud Billing account | seller_name |
FOCUS keeps the roles apart: for Marketplace purchases InvoiceIssuerName is the cloud provider and ServiceProviderName the seller; that column replaced ProviderName in version 1.3.
What it means for your cost
In a cost report these fields separate software from infrastructure; without them a database appliance shows up as instance cost. One product often produces two line items, the seller's fee and the resource underneath, and only their sum is its price. Contracts shift the timing: an annual contract appears in billed cost as a spike on the day of acceptance; List, billed, effective and amortized cost shows which view spreads it over the term. Documents multiply, as Anatomy of a cloud invoice shows: on AWS one Marketplace invoice per invoicing entity and possibly offer currency, on Azure pay-as-you-go a second document per period.
Who may accept an offer and for which accounts it applies follows from Billing accounts and hierarchies; what an offer in EUR or GBP sets off, from Invoice currency and exchange rates. VAT and reverse charge on cloud invoices covers VAT when the seller sits in another country.
Where it goes wrong
- An annual contract read as an anomaly. Symptom: the daily figure jumps on the day a private offer is accepted. Cause: AWS invoices annual subscriptions and contracts when they are made, Azure, under an MCA, seat-based subscriptions the day after purchase; the amount belongs to the term.
- The second invoice goes missing. Symptom: finance books one invoice a month, and payment reminders arrive anyway. Cause: Azure pay-as-you-go issues two invoices per period, AWS separates Marketplace from AWS services, and the EMEA Marketplace invoice has its own remittance instructions.
- Software booked as compute. Symptom: a team's instance cost is higher than its instance list explains. Cause: the AMI's software fee sits next to the instance hours and, without a filter on
bill_billing_entity, counts as infrastructure. - A private offer that works in one account only. Symptom: member accounts keep paying the public price. Cause: a member account accepted instead of the management account, or already subscribed member accounts did not accept the shared offer themselves.
Sources
Read on 2026-10-16. AWS Paying for products in AWS Marketplace, Private offers in AWS Marketplace, Bill columns, Line item columns; Microsoft Understand your Azure external service charges, Private offers overview, Review your Azure Enterprise Agreement bill, Understand your Microsoft Customer Agreement invoice, Understand usage details fields, Ingest cost details data; Google Cloud Billing for Google Cloud Marketplace products, Structure of Standard data export; FOCUS 1.4 Service Provider Name, Invoice Issuer Name, Examples: Participating Entity Identification.