Thinking about trying SAP BTP but not sure what the free trial actually gives you? This post opens up a real trial account and shows you exactly what is inside — no marketing slides, just screenshots.
How the free trial works
The SAP BTP free trial is genuinely free: no credit card, no payment. You sign up with an SAP account at sap.com, pick a region, and SAP creates a trial global account with one subaccount called "trial".
One thing most people do not know: the trial does not hard-expire after 90 days and vanish. As long as you stay active, SAP automatically extends it in 30-day intervals — the cockpit itself tells you so with a banner on the home page.
1. Trial home
This is what you see after signing in at https://account.hanatrial.ondemand.com/trial/#/home/trial. Your subaccount ("trial") is listed under Subaccount Quick Access. Below are your Favorites and links to the Knowledge Base and SAP BTP Help Portal.
2. 77 entitlements — the free service allowance
Open Entitlements in the left menu. A trial subaccount comes with 77 entitlements — these are the services SAP lets you use, each with a free quota. Examples from a real account:
- ABAP environment (plan: shared) — build ABAP Cloud apps
- Alert Notification Service (plan: standard) — 1 shared unit
- API Management, API portal — publish and manage APIs
The "Remaining Quota" column shows what you have not used yet. Everything listed here costs nothing on trial.
3. 46 services in the marketplace
The Service Marketplace is the catalogue you pick from — 46 services grouped by category:
- Application Development and Automation: ABAP environment, SAP Build Process Automation, SAP Business Application Studio, Mobile Services, UI Theme Designer
- Data and Analytics: SAP HANA Cloud, PostgreSQL, Redis, SAP HANA Schemas & HDI Containers
- Integration: Integration Suite, Connectivity Service, Destination Service, Cloud Connector support, Serverless Runtime
- Foundation services: Cloud Foundry Runtime, Kyma Environment, Audit Log, Feature Flags, Job Scheduling, and more
When you want to try something, you open it here and create an instance — that is how a service becomes usable in your account.
4. What is already switched on
The Instances and Subscriptions page shows what is actually running. In a fresh trial, that is typically one subscription: SAP Business Application Studio — SAP's browser-based development environment, where you will write most of your trial code. Service instances start at zero until you create them from the marketplace.
5. Region and technical basics
The subaccount Overview page shows your setup: cloud provider (Microsoft Azure in this example), region (Singapore - Azure here — you choose your own at signup), and the Cloud Foundry environment details (API endpoint, organisation) that developer tools connect to.
(Account IDs and technical identifiers are blurred in these screenshots — yours will show your own values.)
How to get your own trial
- Go to sap.com and create a free SAP account (or sign in).
- Register for the BTP trial and choose your region.
- Open https://account.hanatrial.ondemand.com/trial/#/home/trial — that is your cockpit.
Next in this series: a beginner's tour of the BTP cockpit screen by screen, and how to set up the Cloud Connector to link the trial to your own systems.