Many Microsoft Entra services require you to license each of your users or groups (and associated members) for that service. Only users with active licenses will be able to access and use the licensed Microsoft Entra services for which that's true. Licenses are applied per tenant and don't transfer to other tenants.
Assign or remove licenses
Prerequisites
None
Available license plans
There are several Microsoft Entra ID license plans:
- Microsoft Entra ID Free
- Microsoft Entra ID P1
- Microsoft Entra ID P2
For specific information about each license plan and the associated licensing details, see What license do I need?. To sign up for Microsoft Entra ID P1 or P2 license plans see here.
Not all Microsoft services are available in all locations. Before a license can be assigned to a group, you must specify the Usage location for all members. You can set this value in Microsoft Entra by going to Identity > Users > All users > select a user > Properties.
When assigning licenses to a group or bulk updates, such as disabling the synchronization status for the organization, any user whose usage location isn't specified inherits the location of the tenant.
View license plans and plan details
You can view your available service plans, including the individual licenses, check pending expiration dates, and view the number of available assignments.
To find your service plan and plan details
Tip
Steps in this article might vary slightly based on the portal you start from.
Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Directory Reader.
Browse to Identity > Billing > Licenses.
Select All products to view the All Products page and to see the Total, Assigned, Available, and Expiring soon numbers for your license plans.
Note
The numbers are defined as:
- Total: Total number of licenses purchased
- Assigned: Number of licenses assigned to users
- Available: Number of licenses available for assignment including expiring soon
- Expiring soon: Number of licenses expiring soon
Select a plan name to see its licensed users and groups.
Assign licenses to users or groups
Anyone who has a business need to use a licensed Microsoft Entra service must have the required licenses. You can add licensing rights to users or to an entire group.
To assign a license to a user
Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a License Administrator.
Browse to Identity > Billing > Licenses.
Select the name of the license plan you want to assign to the user.
After you select the license plan, select Assign.
- On the Assign page, select Users and groups, and then search for and select the user you're assigning the license.
- Select Assignment options, make sure you have the appropriate license options turned on, and then select OK.
The Assign license page updates to show that a user is selected and that the assignments are configured.
Note
Not all Microsoft services are available in all locations. Before a license can be assigned to a user, you must specify the Usage location. You can set this value in Identity > Users > All users > select a user > Properties. When assigning licenses to a group or bulk updates such as disabling the synchronization status for the organization, any user whose usage location isn't specified inherits the location of the tenant.
- Select Assign.
The user is added to the list of licensed users and has access to the included Microsoft Entra services.
Note
Licenses can also be assigned directly to a user from the user's Licenses page. If a user has a license assigned through a group membership and you want to assign the same license to the user directly, it can be done only from the Products page mentioned in step 1 only.
To assign a license to a group
Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a License Administrator.
Browse to Identity > Billing > Licenses.
Select the name of the license plan you want to assign to the group.
On the Product page, select Assign.
On the Assign page, select Users and groups, and then search for and select the group you're assigning the license.
Select Assignment options, make sure you have the appropriate license options turned on, and then select OK.
The Assign license page updates to show that a user is selected and that the assignments are configured.
Select Assign.
The group is added to the list of licensed groups and all of the members have access to the included Microsoft Entra services.
Remove a license
You can remove a license from a user's Microsoft Entra user page, from the group overview page for a group assignment, or starting from the Microsoft Entra ID Licenses page to see the users and groups for a license.
To remove a license from a user
On the Licensed users page for the service plan, select the user that should no longer have the license. For example, Alain Charon.
Select Remove license.
Important
Licenses that a user inherits from a group can't be removed directly. Instead, you have to remove the user from the group from which they're inheriting the license.
To remove a license from a group
On the Licensed groups page for the license plan, select the group that should no longer have the license.
Select Remove license.
Note
When an on-premises user account synced to Microsoft Entra falls out of scope for the sync or when the sync is removed, the user is soft-deleted in Microsoft Entra ID. When this occurs, licenses assigned to the user directly or via group-based licensing will be marked as suspended rather than deleted.
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