An Azure subscription is a way to access and manage resources in the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. It acts as a container for your cloud services, allowing you to create, manage, and monitor resources like virtual machines, databases, and applications. Each subscription has its own billing and usage limits, making it easier to track costs and resource consumption. Users can have multiple Azure subscriptions to separate different projects or environments, such as development and production. Subscriptions can be linked to an Azure Active Directory tenant for identity management, enabling secure access and collaboration among team members.