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A ProBot resource guide

ProBot is bring-your-own-key: you connect your own model, and you pay your provider directly (often pennies per conversation). But “pennies” still means a card on file - and if you’re a student, you can skip that entirely.

Azure for Students gives you $100 in Azure credit with no credit card required. That’s more than enough to deploy your own small chat model and run a ProBot on it for months. This guide walks you from a fresh student account to a live bot, end to end.

This is the closest thing to a truly $0 hosted bot: Azure covers the model bill from your free credit, and ProBot’s hosted app is free to use. The one honest caveat - student credit lasts 12 months (renewable while you’re enrolled), so it’s “free for now,” not “free forever.” We cover how to make it last at the end.

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Why this works so well

ProBot already speaks Azure OpenAI natively. Once you deploy a model in Azure, you get four values - an endpoint, a deployment name, an API key, and an API version - and ProBot has a field for each. A resume-Q&A bot is light work for a “mini”-class model, so your $100 stretches a long way.

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Before you start

You’ll need:

  • A school email address (or GitHub Student verification).
  • To be 18+ and a full-time student at an accredited institution.
  • About 15 minutes. No credit card.

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Step 1 - Claim your $100 Azure student credit

1

Open the Azure for Students offer

Go to azure.microsoft.com/free/students and click Start free. Sign in with a personal Microsoft account (or create one).
2

Verify you're a student

Enter your details and your school email. Azure verifies your academic status automatically; if it can’t, it’ll ask you to upload a student ID or verify through GitHub Student. No card is requested at any point.
3

Land in the Azure portal

Once approved you’ll have a subscription with $100 of credit valid for 12 months. You can see the remaining balance any time under Subscriptions → your subscription.
The credit doesn’t roll over, but you can renew each year you’re enrolled for a fresh $100. Set a calendar reminder a few weeks before it expires.

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Step 2 - Deploy a model

Azure’s AI tooling now lives in the Microsoft Foundry portal (you may also see it called Azure AI Foundry or Azure OpenAI). The flow is the same: create a resource, then deploy a model into it.

1

Create an Azure OpenAI resource

In the Azure portal, search Azure OpenAI → Create. Pick your student subscription, a resource group (create one if needed), and a region, then create it. Microsoft’s official walkthrough is here.
2

Open the Foundry portal and deploy a model

From the resource, open Microsoft Foundry (or go to ai.azure.com). Go to Models + endpoints → Deploy model, and choose an inexpensive chat model such as gpt-4o-mini. Give the deployment a name you’ll remember - that name is what you’ll use as the model in ProBot.
3

Wait for the deployment to finish

It takes a minute or two. When it’s ready, it shows up in your Models + endpoints list.
Choose a mini / small model. For answering questions about your resume you do not need a flagship model, and the cheaper one makes your $100 last dramatically longer.

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Step 3 - Copy the four values ProBot needs

Open your deployment’s detail page (Models + endpoints → your deployment). From there, collect:

  • Endpoint - the resource URL, e.g. https://your-resource.openai.azure.com (it must start with https://).
  • Deployment name - exactly what you named the deployment in Step 2.
  • API key - copy Key 1 from the resource’s Keys and Endpoint page. Treat it like a password.
  • API version - e.g. 2025-01-01-preview. ProBot prefills a working default, so you can usually leave it.
Your API key is a secret. Don’t paste it into chats, screenshots, or commits. In ProBot it’s kept encrypted, sent only to Azure, and never logged in plaintext.

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Step 4 - Plug it into ProBot

1

Open AI model & key

In ProBot, go to AI model & key (sidebar → Manage model & key, or Settings → AI model & key) - or set it while building the bot in the Bot Factory.
2

Pick Azure and fill the fields

Choose Azure as the provider, then paste your endpoint, deployment name (this is the model), API key, and leave the API version at its default unless you have a reason to change it.
3

Save and test

Save, then open your bot and ask it a question. If it replies, you’re live - running on your own model, paid for by your Azure credit.

For the exact field-by-field reference, see Models & keys → Azure specifics.

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Make your $100 last

A few habits keep the credit going for the long haul:

  • Set a spending alert. In the Azure portal under Cost Management → Budgets, create a budget (say $5/month) so you’re warned long before the credit runs low.
  • Stick to a mini model. It’s the single biggest lever on cost.
  • Lean on ProBot’s guardrails. Per-bot rate limits and input sanitization are on by default, so a curious visitor can’t burn through your credit.
  • Watch the expiry date. Renew your student offer each year, or switch the bot to another provider’s free tier before the credit lapses.

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A note on honesty

This path is genuinely free while your student credit lasts. When it expires, your bot doesn’t have to die - ProBot lets you swap providers any time (including a fully free local model via Ollama if you self-host). Your bot, your model, your call.

Ready to point a model at your bot? Get started free, and see Models & keys for every supported provider.