office 365 business plans service description

• Manage your subscription
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• Turn recurring billing on or off
• When subscription expires
• Cancel Microsoft 365
• Microsoft 365 subscription refunds
• Share Microsoft 365 Family
• Stop sharing Microsoft 365 Family
• You received an invitation to share
• Switch between Microsoft 365 subscriptions
• Switch to a business subscription
• Transfer to a different Microsoft account
• About accounts
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• Get started at Microsoft 365.com
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• Microsoft 365 for home or business
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• Difference between Microsoft 365 and Office 2021
• Difference between home and business plans
• Difference between Microsoft 365 and free web apps
• Can't install or manage Office or Microsoft 365
• Parental permission when signing in to Office or Microsoft 365

What's the difference between Microsoft 365 plans for home or business

Microsoft 365 is a subscription service that makes sure you always have the most up-to-date modern productivity tools. If you're looking to buy Microsoft 365, but not sure which plan is right for you, use the information below to help guide your decision.

Watch: Business plans versus personal and family plans

Business plans versus personal and family plans

Microsoft 365 business subscriptions

Microsoft 365 business subscriptions  can help you grow your business, no matter if you're a team of one or more. 

Microsoft 365 Family and Personal

Personal and family subscriptions are ideal for personal use like home, personal, or family projects and school related activities.

The right plan for you will depend on what your needs are. Let's explore the options.

If you're leaning towards a business plan, deciding which one can depend on your specific business needs. The Microsoft 365 plan chooser is designed to help you with this. The chooser will make recommendations based on your answers to questions such as the size of your business, your field of work, the devices you use, and what kind of features, IT support, and security you're looking for. See Find the right plan for your business .

Looking for more product details and prices? Check out the comparison tables:  Compare Microsoft 365 for business plans

Buy or try Microsoft 365:

For business      For personal and family

Do you need both a business plan and a personal plan?

In some cases, a single Microsoft 365 plan will suit all your needs, but there might be instances when having both plans is the correct decision for you.

For example, you may want to keep your personal files, photos, and other documents separate from your business, having two plans will allow you to do this.

Additionally, if you already have Microsoft 365 Family that you're sharing with friends and family who aren't part of your business, keeping that personal subscription might be the best thing for everyone. This means you don't have to move anyone off that plan, and you don't have to worry about any personal files you already have associated with that subscription and your personal account. 

Switch from a personal Microsoft 365 subscription to Microsoft 365 for business

Have you already been using Microsoft 365 Family or Personal for your business and now you're ready to switch your business to Microsoft 365 for business? It's possible to transfer your business documents and files to your new business plan. Learn more about your options to help you with this process.

Follow the steps in  Switch from Microsoft 365 for home to a business subscription .

Work with a Microsoft 365 business partner in your area: Find the right partner for you .

Our product experts are available to help you with this free of charge:  Contact product experts online. Note: Help from Microsoft business consultants isn't available in all markets.

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Choosing the Right Office 365 Plan

Looking at the core Office 365 subscription options, there’s several that businesses can choose from. Let’s assume for now that your business wants at least Exchange Online, so that you can run your email in the cloud, but you’re interested in using additional services in the near future. You could subscribe to:

• Exchange Online Plan 1
• Exchange Online Plan 2
• Office 365 Business Essentials
• Office 365 Business Premium
• Office 365 Enterprise E1
• Office 365 Enterprise E3
• Office 365 Enterprise E5

That’s a lot of options for a simple requirement. So let’s take it a step further, and say that you also want to include the Office 365 applications (Outlook, Word, Excel, etc) in your subscription. That narrows the options to:

It’s at this stage that some customers make what I would consider to be the wrong choice. If the customer thinks “we’re not an enterprise”, then they’ll steer towards the Office 365 Business Premium. Unfortunately, in doing so they will miss out on features that their business could benefit from. As a simple example, a 30-seat law firm might not consider themselves to be an “enterprise”, but they would benefit from features of the Enterprise E3/E5 plans such as Rights Management, Data Loss Prevention, Litigation Hold, and Advanced Threat Protection.

That one example serves to highlight the main point here – choose your Office 365 plan based on features .

Now, some customers will struggle to accept the higher priced plans which might include a bunch of features that they don’t need. Often this is based on the assumption that cloud services should be cheaper. That’s true, cloud services are often cheaper. The basic Exchange Online Plan 1 license is inexpensive. But it only really includes a mailbox, with no Office client software, and no advanced features. If your Office 365 project is all about shifting a single service like email to the cloud, and running it as cheaply as possible, then that’s fine – Exchange Online Plan 1 might be all you need. But if your IT strategy is moving more services and productivity tools to the cloud, then the higher tier plans are what you need to be looking at.

You can manage costs by being sensible about the number of licenses you purchase. Savings can quickly be found in areas such as shared mailboxes (which do not require a license), and converting departed users to inactive mailboxes (which also do not require a license). You can also reduce your on-premises infrastructure costs by making simple changes such as shifting user home drives (My Documents, personal data, etc) to OneDrive for Business. Ultimately, a cost-efficient cloud strategy will make the best use of available services and features to avoid unnecessary expense.

If in doubt, my recommendation is to set up a trial tenant that is separate from your production tenant. Explore the features of the higher tier plans (you can see a detailed comparison in the service descriptions ) and see the value that they can provide to you. However, if you can’t make a decision in the time you have available to you, don’t worry too much. You can change your licenses at a later date if you need to upgrade or downgrade them.

The Complete Office 365 and Microsoft 365 Licensing Comparison

I've only met one other person that could write the complete Office 365 and Microsoft 365 licensing comparison. That person is Glenton Davis, Sr. Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft. (Although, I did stump him on a few CAS unified labeling features...after he schooled me about the new Microsoft 365 Security E5 plan.) To put it another way: Microsoft subscriptions are confusing.

What did I just buy?

Or if you work in sales—what did I just sell? Microsoft has no shortage of comparison charts.

When I see that Office 365 E3 sort of includes AIP, I always need to refer to my notes for clarification. Updates to the chart are listed at the bottom of the page, so you can be sure if recent announcements have been added to the Microsoft 365 licensing comparison chart.

Note: as of April 2020 the term "Microsoft 365 Business" now means "limit of 300 users." The only bundle of Office 365, EMS, and Windows 10 in the M365 Business family is the M365 Business Premium plan.

* Microsoft 365 A1 is a one-time purchase. ** Does not include a personal SharePoint site.

RO = Read Only. EOK1 = Exchange Online Kiosk Plan 1. SOK1 = SharePoint Online Kiosk Plan 1. OME = Office Message Encryption.

Include Other Vendors When Making Your Microsoft 365 Licensing Comparison

At Infused Innovations, we prefer when our customers purchase a given feature set only once. Too often, we see a company purchase Enterprise Mobility + Security (EM+S) for the sole purpose of enabling Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR) with writeback for on-premises AD. That same company also owns Okta for SSO, AirWatch for MDM, and Netskope for CASB.

When we explain to the CFO that they already own EM+S, which contains similar functionality as those three other vendors, it's usually a pretty quick discussion to get approval to start a proof of concept deployment standardizing on Microsoft 365. The budget that was allocated for the other vendors can then be used to purchase new security features like Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (previously MD ATP) and Azure Sentinel .

Circle the solutions you have deployed above. Is the price more than $57/user/mo?

Infused Innovations partners with a few other security vendors to fill some gaps, including KnowBe4, CyberArk, and SecPod, but Microsoft's 60+ security products cover most customer's needs. The added benefit to standardizing on Microsoft services is that they all integrate with the Microsoft Intelligent Security Graph, which allows the services to work with each other and reduce false positives.

Even if you think you have a good grasp of your Microsoft 365 and Office 365 Licensing, I’d encourage you to sign up for one of our free cyber security assessments to have one of our experts review what you already own and create a strategic cyber security roadmap for your organization.

Which Microsoft 365 licensing plan should I buy?

I already expressed my thoughts that you’re (likely) on the wrong Microsoft license . For an organization of any size with an online presence, you should seriously consider one of the Microsoft 365 plans. (Unless you have purchased parts of the bundle through an EA, non-profit, or educational SKU.)

Just as you can purchase a new car without adaptive cruise control to save money in exchange for having to manually turn cruise control on and off, you can purchase Office 365 by itself to reduce your initial costs at the expense of having to manually review logs. But with the projected shortfall of 3.5 million cyber security professionals by 2020, you may actually be increasing your overall costs if you don't invest in automation now.

Microsoft spends over $1 Billion a year on security research and uses AI to interpret 6.5 trillion signals daily via the Intelligent Security Graph. With over 3,500 security engineers, it’s possible that Microsoft has more employees in its cyber security department than you have in your entire organization. All you have to do to take advantage of this combined risk intelligence and automation is purchase the correct Microsoft 365 license. And as of September 2019, you can now ingest your Microsoft 365 threat analytics data into Azure Sentinel for free !

Are you an educational organization? Read up here . Are you a non-profit organization? Read up here .

Microsoft 365 F1 for Frontline Workers

In April 2020, Microsoft changed the old Microsoft 365 F1 plan to Microsoft 365 F3. The new M365 F1 plan has no email or OneDrive storage. It's essentially Microsoft Teams plus EM+S E3 to provide a secure device to access Microsoft Teams on.

What appears to be an oversight, is that EMS E3 appears to be available for only $4/mo now if you add the M365 F1 plan to any Office 365 plan. We'll see if Microsoft addresses this by restricting licensing assignments.

Here's a comparison of the Microsoft 365 Frontline worker plans:

Microsoft 365 F3 Licensing Comparison to Office 365 F1

At only $8/user, firstline workers, employees that only need email, and contractors are a few types of users that would benefit from the Microsoft 365 F3 license. The business value for investing in M365 F3 licenses include:

• Foster culture and community: By utilizing Microsoft Teams, your employees will have access to persistent chat, and provide your firstline workers access to the same corporate resources in SharePoint Online that are used by the rest of your organization.
• Train and upskill employees : Microsoft Teams can serve as your source of institutional knowledge. Train and upskill your employees, creating opportunities for workers to develop, grow, and apply their skills.
• Digitize business process: Give your firstline workers and contractors access to your organization’s modern digital workflows that are embedded in SharePoint, Flow, and Teams.
• Minimize risk and cost: Make sure your organization’s data is only accessed from compliant devices and reduce your attack surface for potential breaches.

Microsoft 365 F3 provides the following productivity tools:

• Exchange Online Kiosk
• SharePoint Online Kiosk
• Microsoft Teams
• 2 GB of OneDrive Storage
• Microsoft 365 for the web versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

The main reason to upgrade to the Microsoft 365 F3 plan from Office 365 F1 is to add mobile security features. These include:

• Multifactor Authentication (MFA)
• Conditional Access
• Intune for MDM and data sandboxing
• Office Message Encryption
• Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics

Infused Innovations also recommends adding Microsoft Defender for Office 365 P1 to this plan to help protect users from phishing attacks.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Azure AD P2

If you have fewer than 300 employees and are currently using Office 365 E3, you need to switch to Microsoft 365 Business Premium right now. Both 365 licensing plans are priced at $22/mo and Microsoft 365 Business Premium adds Windows 10 Pro licensing, along with all the security features that you need to keep your organization secured. The price to value ratio is immense for M365 Business Premium.

Microsoft 365 BP includes most of the security features from Microsoft 365 F3 plus the Microsoft Defender for Office (previously Office 365 ATP P1) benefits. This allows you to deploy MFA to all your users without them noticing . Update 4/21/2020: M365 Business Premium now includes Conditional Access and full AAD P1.

Infused Innovations recommends deploying Microsoft 365 Business Premium with the Azure AD P2 add-on ($9/mo) to gain the following benefits:

• Azure AD Identity Protection
• Impossible Travel
• Stolen credentials
• Anomalous behavior
• Automatically force password changes for breached accounts
• Automatically require MFA challenges for high-risk users

Microsoft 365 E3 with Microsoft 365 E5 Security (Formerly Identity Threat Protection)

Microsoft 365 E3 with Microsoft 365 E5 Security is the new “hero” SKU if your organization doesn’t need VoIP or Power BI. Pricing for the Microsoft 365 E5 Security add-on is $16.40/mo and can only be added to the Microsoft 365 E3 plan, which is $36/mo. (Note: the M365 E5 Security/Compliance add-ons are also available if you purchase Office 365 E3 with EM+S E3.)

The M365 E5 Security add-on gives you the following advanced features to your M365 E3 plan:

• Azure AD P2
• Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
• Microsoft Defender for Identity (formerly Azure ATP)
• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (formerly Microsoft Defender ATP)
• Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (formerly Office ATP P2)

The five SKUs above provide comprehensive cybersecurity licensing to detect breaches and perform digital forensics across the entire attack chain. The P2 features of Microsoft SKUs also add automation features that respond to breaches at the speed of the cloud. Human minds can no longer keep up with modern attacks. Microsoft 365 E3 with Microsoft 365 E5 Security provides enterprise-class security features for your organization.

Microsoft 365 E3 is also the entry-level plan to allow access to Windows Virtual Desktop from a non-Windows 10 Pro device. All lower level Microsoft 365 plans require at least Windows 10 Pro to access WVD.

Microsoft 365 E5 Licensing Comparison

Microsoft 365 E5 allows you standardize on the entire Microsoft security and productivity stack for your organization for $57/mo. As previously mentioned, Microsoft 365 E5 adds VoIP integration to the Microsoft 365 E3 + Microsoft 365 E5 Security plan.

The other important SKU that you receive is Azure Information Protection P2. AIP P2 allows you to automatically apply encryption templates to documents based on regular expression templates. Microsoft will be releasing a new unified labeling experience to use across your AIP, DLP, and Cloud App Security policies. Update 5/2019: The new unified labeling experience has been released.

Unless you’re on Microsoft 365 E5, licensing and pricing plans are confusing. Fortunately, Microsoft is trying to simplify and consolidate their bundles around the features that fit common roles across multiple industries.

However, you’re probably asking yourself something like: I already own Windows 10 Pro licenses—do I need Microsoft 365 Business? Or, I have a volume license for Windows 10 Enterprise--- how can I license only Microsoft Defender for Endpoint ? The easiest answer is to schedule a call using the form below to speak with one of our licensing experts. Prices change every month and Microsoft releases new Office 365 plans several times a year. Keeping up to date with Microsoft licensing can feel like a full-time job by itself. Which is why it’s important to select a Microsoft Gold partner to help guide you through the maze of licensing and Microsoft 365 pricing plans.

• 1/2/2019 - Added Microsoft 365 E5 Security and Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance add-ons. Available for Microsoft 365 E3 only.
• 6/12/2019 - Microsoft 365 Business Premium adds Conditional Access .
• 12/31/2019 - Added feature names, grouped add-ons by SKU, and replaced matrix image with HTML table.
• 4/1/2020 - Added Microsoft 365 F1 plan and updated previous F1 to M365 F3 .
• 4/2/2020 - Updated Microsoft 365 Business Premium to include full AAD P1 .
• Office 365 Business Essentials  will become  Microsoft 365 Business Basic .
• Office 365 Business Premium  will become  Microsoft 365 Business Standard .
• Microsoft 365 Business  will become  Microsoft 365 Business Premium .
• Office 365 Business  and  Office 365 ProPlus  will both become  Microsoft 365 Apps.
• 11/9/2020 - Corrected statement that Microsoft 365 E5 Security/Compliance add-ons can be purchased with Office 365 E3 and EM+S E3.
• 12/28/2020 - Added SharePoint Syntex and Insider Risk Management to the matrix. Updated Microsoft Defender XDR product names.
• 3/17/2021 - Pricing updates for M365 F1 and M365 F3.
• 6/16/2021 - Added Universal Print. Updated M365 BP to include unlimited archiving.
• 3/1/2022 - Pricing updates.
• 9/21/2022 - Pricing updates.
• 7/20/2023 - Pricing and Product Updates

Reference Material

• Microsoft 365 and Office 365 Plan Options
• Microsoft 365 and Office 365 Platform Service Description
• Microsoft 365 Business Service Descriptions

Chat With An Expert

162 comments.

This is really great! Nice job! Very comprehensive. Could I get a copy of the Excel spreadsheet to socialize internally?

Thanks for your help.

Hi Dan, excellent job, I have same question as Jesse. Is there some posibility to get such xls file for internal usage? Thank you for your help Adam

I update this matrix every month, so I do not allow it to be downloaded since it becomes out of date frequently. Aaron Dinnage has several PDFs that are similar that you can download though: https://github.com/AaronDinnage/Licensing Keep in mind that Aaron’s spreadsheets are usually updated 1-2 times a year. He just updated them 5/18, so now is a good time to grab them.

Absolutely! It’s in Excel format here: https://infusedinnovations.sharepoint.com/:x:/s/Public/EcWcoHQRZzVNnoo8GAYLqDwBj01kz2j3VKXaJHNOhFZQjw?rtime=sUuLgEvT1kg

If you’d like to partner on EM+S deployments, I can have my COO provide the original spreadsheet with price lookups.

Hi Dan! The link is expired. Could you please send an updated link? Much appreciated!

typo in the chart e1 / f1 for 1 drive usage

Thanks! I swapped the 2 GB / 1 TB values.

Hi, your spreadsheet says, that conditional access is not included in Microsoft 365 F1 and later, that conditional access is one of the main reason for upgrading from O365 to M365. Is conditional access included in M365 or not?

Thank you in advance. Best regards, Alexander.

Conditional Access is included in the following Microsoft 365 SKUs: F1 / E3 / E5.

Microsoft 365 Business does not include conditional access at the moment. The spreadsheet has been updated.

Dan – I love this! Awesome work! I love the Executive Briefing Center, meeting great customers like you, and talking about epic stuff. I’ll definitely brush up on those CASB nuances for next time 😉

Looking forward to it. Talk soon.

Dan, from now on, you are my Avenger. Awesome work here.

Conditional Access is the way to go if you want to phase users into MFA.

Great work here, do you have a legend for the fields ? What does the “-” or “blank” means?

A blank means that I’m fairly certain it’s not included but I don’t have a reference to a Microsoft document one way or another yet. The “-” means not included with a verified statement from Microsoft.

We’ve purchased E3 + EMS E5 and then were surprised to find out that Defender ATP wasn’t included.

We can’t seem to find any information regarding EMS E5 including Defender ATP other than this blog. Can you confirm if the above table/content is incorrect about ATP being included in EMS E5?

Defender ATP is only included with Windows 10 E5, Microsoft 365 E5, or Microsoft 365 E3 + Microsoft 365 E5 Security as correctly indicated on the table. EMS E5 does not include Defender ATP and the table above does not state that it does either. (EMS E5 is a green column, currently 4th from the right side of the table.) I believe you are looking at the Microsoft 365 E3 + E5 Security column, which is different from Office 365 E3 ($20) + EMS E5 ($14.80).

If you purchased Microsoft 365 E3 ($32) (you didn’t specify which E3 was purchased) and bought EMS E5 as an add-on, then I would swap EMS E5 with Microsoft 365 E5 Security ($12) instead to get access to Defender ATP. M365 E5 Security can only be purchased as an add-on to M365 E3 and no other SKUs. Feel free to request a licensing review at the bottom of the page if you would like assistance from our sales team.

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly and your response is very helpful. I can see where we went wrong now as we were confusing E5 Security with EMS E5. We’ll look at swapping those add-ons. Thats great.

This is actually not true. M365 E5 Security and M365 E5 Compliance can also be purchased as add-ons to Office365 E3 together with EMS E3. This seems to be somewhat hidden but can be seen on the M365 Compliance Licensing Comparison chart, see footnote 2, https://opdhsblobprod04.blob.core.windows.net/contents/e0993bf6e82e4fa8ac18b48839521869/93969b96fb41733347b4dbb8bba02771?sv=2018-03-28&sr=b&si=ReadPolicy&sig=sCkjASidX%2FW6V3HGJmaVUXfQ28an2Kl%2B85kcHfAQMWs%3D&st=2020-11-09T11%3A28%3A11Z&se=2020-11-10T11%3A38%3A11Z .

Microsoft have confirmed the same for M365 E5 Security.

It was true last year when this comment was made. You are correct that earlier this year Microsoft made the E5 Security/Compliance add-ons available if you already own O365 E3 and EM+S E3.

Azure AD Premium P1 is not included in M365 Business. They have a new version called “Small Business”, but i can’t seem to find any information about it. I first noticed this when i tried accessing Sign ins in a tenant with M365 Business licenses. I have compared M365 Business and AAD P1 in the Office-portal to verify.

Thanks for pointing this out. I’ll get the spreadsheet updated this week.

This is the best information on security and its financial considerations that I have ever seen in a one place. Thank you for sharing. Do you know of any product/service that analyzes Microsoft audit logs and combines it with information from the dark web so that you know how many of your accounts are already compromised? how many bots/websites are impersonating your credentials to spam or phish your customers? how many of your users have weak password/practice? how many of your vendors/suppliers logins are already compromised?

Azure AD Premium 2 (Part of EM+S E5) scans the dark web for compromised accounts. If a compromised account is detected, the user will receive a “High” security risk rating. If you have Azure AD Identity Protection enabled, you can force an immediate password reset as soon as this is detected–there is no human interaction required for this once the protection policy is enabled.

AAD logs will tell you that an account breach was detected, but it doesn’t state where on the dark web it was discovered.

Phishing spam via domain impersonation can be completed via DMARC monitoring. We have a guide on how to setup DMARC with free Valimail monitoring here: https://www.infusedinnovations.com/blog/secure-intelligent-workplace/step-by-step-guide-to-configure-valimail-for-dmarc-monitoring-with-office-365-and-azure-sso

As for supply chain risk, Cloud App Security will tell you if any websites or SaaS tools you’re using have been compromised. This either requires shipping firewall logs to CAS or using Microsoft Defender ATP on Windows 10 with CAS integration enabled.

Do you have any information on how SCCM/Intune/Microsoft Endpoint Management fits into the stack? My understanding is it is included with anything that includes the EMS E3/E5 license.

Thank you for this resource. It’s incredibly helpful!

MileIQ is now available as part of the Office E* Plans

Wow! This is, quite frankly, the single best summary I’ve found regarding this topic on the Web. Thank you very much for the great aggregation, and I agree with many of the suggestions made.

Office 365 is a solid product. Also, I am a huge fan of Azure AD. While Microsoft is clearly delivering best-of-breed solutions in many aspects, it’s disappointing that it’s such a chore to collect this data and then come to an understanding of what each of the myriad of licenses will or will not include. There’s a tool to help me estimate Azure spend for a whole slew of services, so why doesn’t Microsoft just provide a tool that will suggest the best licenses based on the features I select as necessary?

A bit of context regarding the situation that lead me to this article:

1. My organization is a SMB well below the limits of the 300 user mark. A few users here and there need full-on O365 E5 licenses for the VoIP, and a couple use Power BI. Otherwise, it’s just E3 level capabilities. 2. We have Windows 10 Pro endpoints, all of which roam. Our endpoints just “happen” to authenticate against a DC the times the employee is working onsite and is connected to the network, otherwise, it’s just cached credentials (and stale Group Policies). I would be absolutely thrilled to get them all Azure AD device joined, as we have absolutely no systems requiring internal auth. 3. I really want to harness the powerful identity and data protection capabilities offered, such as Azure AD conditional access and user risk assessment, and Office 365 DLP and ATP.

I’m thinking the M365 Business license, +add-ons for the few users that need them, might be the best option.

1. We’ll be able to Azure AD join devices and manage them wherever they may roam using Intune. 2. User/endpoint authentication will be performed against Azure AD, thus unifying the individual to the identity that actually matters when it comes to security. 3. While my goal is to eventually utilize any and every feature Microsoft offers that can help us better manage and secure our identities…my organization doesn’t move very quickly. Sure, it’s only a subset of the functionality provided by a P1 license, but the chances that we’d actually utilize the ones that are missing anytime soon are slim. The benefits we would get, such as conditional access policies, are ones that we are currently missing the most. In addition, the device management features are quite complete, and I feel that we would lay a perfect foundation for a future P1/P2 by migrating our endpoint model to utilize them.

Maybe you can help ensure I’m deciphering this information accurately and am on the right track? Any input would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks again for a solid slice of insight.

Hey Simon! Sounds like an exciting project! A few tips: get at least one license of Microsoft 365 E5 or Microsoft 365 E3 + E5 Security. The latter option is missing customer lock box, automated AIP labels and a few advanced governance features, but will unlock Microsoft Cloud App Security and risk-based conditional access.

Absolutely start with Microsoft 365 Business as the minimum license for your all your users to get access to Intune, Conditional Access with MFA, and Office Business desktop apps.

The Azure AD P2 license is helpful because it automates the response to breached accounts, and forces a password reset immediately. With the single M365 E5 license, you’ll get this benefit for everyone in your tenant, although you’re officially supposed to license each user for it. Microsoft does not currently restrict Azure AD Identity Protection to licensed users only.

If you’d like to actually chat, just submit a contact us form below. If you buy your licenses from us (same cost as from Microsoft), we have free proof of concepts available to help accelerate your onboarding.

Hi Dan, great overview! I want to share another observations which is about “MyAnaltics”. Based on your chart its included in section “Add-Ons” and listed in E5 suites only. In January 2019 however it was announced that MyAnalytics will be included in every Business& Enterprise Plan of Office365/ Microsoft365. You may want to update your chart accordingly?

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2019/01/02/myanalytics-the-fitness-tracker-for-work-is-now-more-broadly-available/ Thanks and regards simon

[…] https://www.infusedinnovations.com/blog/secure-modern-workplace/complete-office-365-and-microsoft-36&#8230 ; […]

Thanks for this chart. I had seen this last year when I was researching moving a bunch of our clients from E3 to M365 Business, and had lost the link for it. Thankfully found it via an old reddit thread. This is far better than the documentation that Microsoft puts out for their stuff. Thanks for keeping this up to date!

Thanks for the compliment! Bing has the page as the first search result, but Google has us buried on the second page and only as the Reddit link. I haven’t figured out why Google is hating on this post yet.

This is the holy grail of license comparisons. My question is two fold. I’m a little confused here when it comes to Office 365 E3 and Office 365 E1 licensing.

I’ve confirmed with Microsoft that Office 365 E3 is compatible with the Microsoft 365 E5 Security Pack. I have the option to add this to the license when I purchase it for 12.00 per user per month.

I’ve also been told….Office 365 E1 is fully compatible with the 12$ Microsoft 365 E5 Security Pack but when I purchase the license it doesn’t have an option to add this feature Directly. However, I’ve been told you can just purchase extras of the security pack under the office 365 E3 license category and apply those to the E1?

Due to volume we purchase Most things through a distributor and don’t pay list but I’m including list price instead.

Thanks! And, unfortunately, your source at Microsoft is wrong. Microsoft 365 E5 Security can ONLY be added to Microsoft 365 E3. I’ve been bugging the product teams to open this up to other plans for over a year, but no movement yet.

Would you allow the current spreadsheet to collapse columns so it is easier to directly compare some of the plans and their features to one another?

I am interested in really being able to show off and derive the value between Office E3, EM+S E5, Microsoft E3, and Microsoft E3 + EM+S E5 bundle.

It can be difficult to inspire some small/medium businesses to double their per-user license costs without concise understanding that can be derived from the great work you’ve provided here!

Check out the diagram on this post: https://www.infusedinnovations.com/blog/secure-modern-workplace/youre-on-the-wrong-microsoft-365-license-for-your-business

Good blog! I have a question for you regarding EMS: what’s the difference between Enterprise Mobility and Security E3 Full Kiosk and E3 Full?

First, let me thank you for really good licensing spreadsheet. This really simplifies a lot.

But I have a question regarding the licensing that I cannot find a answer to anywhere: Do the M365 packages (especially the M365 Business) also include Client Access License (CAL) rights. I understand that you get the Exchange, Sharepoint and Teams “CALs” for the licensed users, but how about the CALs for other, basic, on-premise services like AD and Fileshare servers and SystemCenter products? Do customers which have hybrid infrastructure with users covered by M365 licenses, still need to buy Core CAL / Enterprise CAL for their users, in order to be able to use on-premises infrastructure in a formally licensed way?

Most of your on-prem CALs are not included with online licensing. EMS includes some SCCM and MIM CALs, but that’s about it.

If you run AD or a file server in Azure, user CALs are included with the compute cost.

On this page, it says that EMS includes a “Windows Server Client Access License (CAL)” https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/enterprise-mobility-security/compare-plans-and-pricing

Is this also included in some of the M365 licenses or do i only get this with the EMS license?

I am familiar with that page, and it is worded poorly. It does not state that a Windows Server Client Access License (CAL) is included with EMS. EMS only includes CALs for specific workloads, such as Microsoft Active Directory Rights Management Services or SCEP. These are not Windows Server CALs, which need to be purchased separate from the service CALs.

To answer your question, yes these service CALs are included in the Microsoft 365 SKUs that contain the EM+S E3 feature set.

Hi, what a great page full of detailed information. One question though, what does the 0.75 mean in the M365 Business license under AD P1. I’m torn between M365 E3 and M365 Business for my company. I don’t need Win10 cloud licenses as everyone works in the office with a desktop that will be licensed. What would you recommend E3 or Business?

M365 Business just received full AAD P1 this month. I would get M365 Business plus Microsoft Defender ATP Standalone and Cloud App Security for everyone. Pickup one or two seats of full Microsoft 365 E5 to get automated threat responses and Power BI for the tenant.

Hey Dan, I think Power BI Pro is not a tenant level service so a single E5 license doesn’t do the trick unfortunately. Would you be able to confirm? Many thanks!

Hello, Will you be updating this with new Microsoft plans renaming? Great work. Thanks a lot.

New naming for business plans is live!

What do the P1 and P2 values indicate? I don’t see a key or reference to them in the documents you link to…I may just be missing them. Thx.

Microsoft SKUs have different levels. Premium 1 / Premium 2 = P1 / P2. Enterprise 3 / Enterprise 5 = E3 / E5.

Great resource – will you be updating to include the new MS security and compliance packages?

These updates? https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/partners/news/article/important-compliance-sku-update I’m waiting for the May price list to update. It’s not 100% clear on how AIP P2 is being replaced yet.

Thank you so much for this blog. We use this comparison a lot!

One question that comes to mind: in row 5 you say M365 E3 + E5 SEC. Do you mean EMS E5 with E5 SEC? because according to this comparison I would get ATP P2 as wel. But according to MS, EMS E3/E5 does not include ATP..hope you can clear this for me..I struggle with choosing the right licences from time to time..also because they change a lot..Ideally we would choose for M365 E3 because we dont use the VoIP options..but than again you need a lot of add ons to get the good stuff still (EMS E5, ATP P2).

Ps. they are also changing the AAD P1 license to a full one soon!

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/small-and-medium-business-blog/azure-active-directory-premium-p1-is-coming-to-microsoft-365/ba-p/1275496

Column 6 (previously 5, but F3 was just added) is Microsoft 365 E3 + Microsoft 365 E5 Security. I did not mean EMS E5 plus Microsoft 365 E5 security as that bundle would be a waste of money, since you’d be paying for the same features twice.

M365 E5 Security is a different SKU from EMS E5 and is only $12, but can only be added-on to M365 E3. There are three ATP’s but I’ll assume you’re referring to Office 365 ATP P2, which is included with the M365E5 Security add-on.

M365 BP has been updated to include full AAD P1.

Thank you so much for clearing that up! That was the missing piece of our puzzle..

One more small thing we came across that might be interesting with the current crisis..with any E of A license you have the functionality to broadcast live events in Teams..with M365BP you do not..we found this out the hard way when we downgraded a customer to M365BP. Hope this is usefull!

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/stream/live-event-overview

Thanks for that caveat! I wasn’t aware of that. If you keep one M365E3 or O365E3 license, will it allow you to stream Live Events by all or just the licensed user?

Disclaimer: If a user is using a feature, the Microsoft Terms of Service require you to license that feature for that user even if it is available ‘gratis’.

Sorry! did not see your reply till now.

We upgraded only the users that needed to use live events and the feature became availible again for them. The other users which were still on M365BP still can’t use it!

This is a fantastic license comparison chart and by far the most comprehensive and accurate that I’ve found to date – please keep up the excellent work!

A couple of points of feedback for consideration… 1. Windows Virtual Desktop licensing entitlement is provided with Windows 10 E3/E5, but only when the WVD is accessed from the Windows 10 E3 instance (i.e. no BYOD/HTML5 access) – https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/virtual-desktop/ 2. Whilst the Office 365 ProPlus client is provided in the M365 Business plans, Group Policy and Cloud-based Policy control of the Office 365 ProPlus Client is not supported in the Microsoft 365 Business plans – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/office-applications-service-description/office-applications-service-description?redirectedfrom=MSDN . This is quite critical for a lot of organisations, so it would be good if this could be distinguished in the table. 3. The Screenshot at the top of this blog post is updated to reflect the new license changes, but the Excel it hyperlinks to is outdated. 4. Desktop Analytics should be added as a Service, since its licensing is dependent upon the Online Service SKUs (Win 10 E3/E5 + Intune/ConfigMgr) – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/configmgr/desktop-analytics/overview#prerequisites

Thanks for the feedback! I’ll find a way to clarify the WVD exceptions. Microsoft 365 Business is meant to be managed with Intune, not Group Policy. Although I suppose there are still folks that care about having a Microsoft supported ADMX file. And Desktop Analytics is only available if you have SCCM, so I left it out of the chart. The Excel file will be updated next month when I get a new pricing sheet since there are a lot of lookups in the file based on license name.

I just want to say thank you and bless you for putting this together. This is absolutely amazing!

Thank you for this very clear comparison. I’ve just seen today that Microsoft has updated again information on this page: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/news/m365-firstline-workers They have added the “User Eligibility” frame for M/O365 F-SKU users. If you have a way to display eligibility in this license comparison, it could be helpfull.

Do I understand correctly, that if we buy Microsoft 365 Business Basic + ATP Plan 1 licenses, we will get the same Advanced Threat Protection as for Microsoft 365 Business Premium?

For Office 365 ATP P1, yes, they are the same in both of those scenarios. (There is also Azure ATP, and Microsoft Defender ATP, but those SKUs are not included in M365 BP.)

M365 Business Basic does not include EMS E3 or Windows 10 Pro licensing.

This is brilliant. Definitely highlights why there is so much confusion over the licencing! Is there any way I could get the excel file so I can share this with my organisation?

I update this matrix every month, so I do not allow it to be downloaded since it becomes out of date frequently. Aaron Dinnage has several PDFs that are similar that you can download though: https://github.com/AaronDinnage/Licensing Keep in mind that Aaron’s spreadsheets are usually updated 1-2 times a year. He just updated them 5/18, so now is a good time to grab them.

Really nice spreadsheet – thank you. Do you have a version for GCC High? Struggling with the actual licenses we need.

I was working on a GCC High version right before the massive work from home movement started. It’s not ready yet, but I’ll give you this advice, if you’re in GCC High and need to be NIST-800 compliant, you need the automated security plans:

At least 1x Microsoft 365 G5 license for advanced compliance reporting if needed. EM+S E5 as an add-on for any of the Office SKUs. Windows 10 E5 for MD ATP and virtualization based security. Minimum of Office 365 G3.

I’m not sure if Microsoft 365 G3 + G5 Security exists, but that would be the plan to get if it’s available.

Hi Dan. I must say – really great work. The best I have seen on the Internet.

Would you be able to add (or share of you already have it) which of the products get ticked/enabled for the E5 Compliance add-on and E5 Security add-on? You have the columns for E3 + E5 Compliance and E3 + E5 Security but it would be nice to know separately what products each of the add-on’s unlock interdependently. I appreciate you are saying E3 + E5 Security is the Hero SKUs, but it would be good to see what other combinations you can create – so having E5 Security and E5 Compliance in separate columns would help massively!!

For example, if a user has an Exchange Online or Office 365 E1 license – could they just add E5 Security add-on (but I think that lacks intune?), so would they need both EM+S E3 and E5 Security (which seems a big cost and overlapping licenses). If you have/add E5 Security and E5 Compliance in separate columns – you would be able to clearly see what you need/get.

Looking forward to your reply! Thank you!

At the moment, the M365 E5 Compliance and M365 E5 Security add-ons can ONLY be added to Microsoft 365 E3. So the scenarios you described are not possible. I have a request to the product team to make these SKUs available to all Microsoft 365 plans, but there is no movement on that yet. (To my knowledge.)

According to the product terms, you can also add Microsoft 365 E5 Security if you have both O365 E3 + EMS E3. You don’t need M365 E3. Look at table with license prerequisites on page 60 ( https://www.microsoftvolumelicensing.com/Downloader.aspx?documenttype=PT&lang=English ).

We’ve done this for several customers already. Works like a charm.

Wow, thanks for this gem! I’ll start updating my guidance.

Can you point me to a documentation which outlines the differences between the different Whiteboard plans (F1/P1/P2/P3)

I wish I could provide a link. My best guess is that F1 is read-only, and I have no idea what the differentiation for the other plans would be. There’s no official “Service Description” page for Whiteboard. I’ll bring it up with my PDM, and post if I receive an update.

Fantastic chart! Thank you. One potential correction: I believe that Microsoft 365 Business Premium is now free for qualified nonprofit tenants.

Thanks! And Non-profits receive 10 free Microsoft 365 Business Premium licenses. If the nonprofit needs more than 10 licenses, then it’s $5/u/m.

Excellent Blog. Can you please share the link to download the latest updated license matrix. Appreciate your help.

Is there anything that would keep someone from using a G1 license and an M365 Apps for Business license, instead of getting G3? I see that G3 has some security features not found in G1. Is there anything else?

No technical limitations on doing this. It’s purely a choice of desired feature set. Although I would test if a G1 license works with desktop Outlook before you commit to that bundle.

This was really helpful, but I also have some users on older E2 plans which I of course can’t find any information on anywhere. Any idea what is gained/lost by switching to E1 or to one of the Business plans (this is a smaller company, well under the 300 limit).

You do not lose any features when switching from Office 365 E2 to E1. You gain a few new features, like To-Do and Whiteboard but nothing to write home about. They’re mostly the same license.

Dan this is awesome, thanks for making this list. I am confused.. The excel sheet displayed on this website seems the correct one with new M365 naming etc, but when I click the link to your sharepoint excel sheet I see the older plans. What is up with that? Should I bookmark the website rather than the sharepoint link?

Sorry, the webpage is more current than the Excel document at the moment. I will try to update both resources this month.

Brilliant overview – I currently have 1900 M365E3 licenses to cover our 1900 users who are sourced from AD On Premises. I have a requirement to onboard 600 M365 F3 users. Am I able to source the First line workers from the on premise Active Directory (to keep the same Starter Leavers Process) without purchasing any additional ECALS. The F3 users will never need to authenticate on premise, as we use PHS not ADFS/PTA/

Hi Chris, if you sign up for CSP with us we can get you a definitive answer. Are asking about if you need to license CALs for your AD DS box if they’re only going to be using AAD joined devices? M365 F3 includes EM+S E3, which includes AD DS CALs, so you’re probably fine. And if those users are never going to interact/authenticate against a Domain Controller, you don’t need Windows Server CALs for the users either.

Hi Dan, I believe M365 Business Premium includes unlimited archiving through ‘Exchange Online Archiving’ – see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/microsoft-365-service-descriptions/microsoft-365-business-service-description note 3.

M365 Business Basic – Is there a specific reason why you only note “X” for Exchange Online, but not “P1”?

According to the Microsoft page ( https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/office365/servicedescriptions/office-365-platform-service-description/office-365-plan-options ) M365 Business Basic includes “Exchange Online Plan 1”, just as M365 Business Standard.

Dan this is awesome! I may have missed it, but are the storage allocations for the Standard Services are calculated separately? For example, the storage allocation for SPOL as part of Government E3 (currently 1 TB plus 10 gig per entitlement) is in addition to the storage provided via Premium 2 (P2) for OneDrive, correct?

Correct, the 1 TB plus 10 GB per user is for shared storage in Teams / SPO sites. This is separate from the 5-25+ TB per user in their personal OneDrive accounts.

Hi Dan, Thank you for this information. It is certainly very useful. I am curious to know if EMS E3 a Technical or Licensing prerequisite to M365 E5 Security? Can’t find that information anywhere. Thank you.

Microsoft 365 E3 is the only license that you can add M365 E5 Security to. EMS E3 is included in the Microsoft 365 E3 license, so don’t purchase EMS E3.

Right now I see that a couple of my Microsoft 365 E5 users have an unusual license configuration.This crept in as we needed more security and compliance features for a certain project.

1. Microsoft 365 E3 ($32 / month) 2. Microsoft 365 E5 Security Add on ($12 / month) 3. Enterprise Mobility and Security E5 ($14.80 per month) Total, $58.80 per month

This is actually more than the $57 E5 license. Question, what features do we lose by just having the first two licenses? Is there a chart anywhere that would show this?

Get rid of EM+S E5. The only thing you would lose is AIP P2, which you can either buy standalone or as part of the M365 E5 Compliance add-on for $10. The M365 E5 Compliance add-on also includes Insider Risk Management, which isn’t part of EM+S E5.

Hi Dan, does the E5 licence provide sufficient rights in SharePoint to create TeamSites and Template laydowns, or do we have to revert to Enterprise licencing for SP?

Thanks in advance.

The ‘E’ in E5 stands for Enterprise, so I’m not sure what you meant by the alternative. But Office 365 E5 and Microsoft 365 E5 both include rights to create Microsoft Teams sites and SharePoint sites. A number of the SMB SKUs include Teams/SharePoint rights as well.

I have a question regarding the operating system license of the VM in Azure. Let’s say I want to deploy WVD for 5 users and I deploy 1 Win 10 multi-session VM. My 5 users have a Microsoft 365 Business Premium license. For the OS license of that VM, can I check “Azure Hybrid Benefit” (“I confirm I have an eligible Windows 10 license with multi-tenant hosting rights.”) ? Or should I add “Windows E3” license to my users to have virtualisation rights?

Many thanks.

VMs that are used for WVD are eligible for the Hybrid Use Benefit. If this was not automatically enabled during deployment, you should be able to safely check the box now.

Could you help me to understand what did you mean with “RO”, “EOK1”, “SOK1”, “OME”, “CAD”? Also, why for Forms there are “F1”, “E1” “E3” etc.? And is there “P3” plan for “To-Do” and “Yammer”?

RO = Read Only. EOK1 = Exchange Online Kiosk Plan 1. SOK1 = SharePoint Online Kiosk Plan 1. OME = Office Message Encryption. CAD = Cloud App Discovery.

In all honesty, I don’t understand the different SKUs for To-Do and Forms, but they exist. So I noted them.

Hi, I have a number of questions regarding O365 licensing. Our organisation has bought a combination of E1, E3 and F3 O365 licenses as part of their Enterprise licensing on a 30/30/40 split accordingly. Firstly I cannot find any reference to F3 licenses altho’ I do find reference to F1 and E5 licenses. Is F3 the same as one of these under a different guise? Secondly it is my understanding that those who are accessing O365 via a thin client (e.g. Citrix) would require access to a shared activation code which is available for users with E3 licenses only, ergo all Thin Client users would require an E3 license (if I have understood that correctly). However I am being told by our technical teams that in our environment that is not the case because we have VDI installations of Windows 10 on eac of our desktops therefore negating the requirement to access O365 apps. This does not sit well with me and this does not feel right: why would you bother giving Citrix users O365 accounts if they are not going to use O365 apps and surely this will mean that we would essentially be double paying: once for the O365 licenses and also for Win10 licenses? Would welcome some further insight into this.

The old F1 licenses are now called F3. The new F1 licenses are geared towards Teams-only users. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/enterprise/f3

I’m not sure I follow your second question. You need Microsoft 365 Business Premium or Office 365 E3+ to get the shared activation license for VDI. You can use the same O365/M365 license on your desktop/laptop/phone and your VDI session–you don’t need to buy it twice. If you’re running Office 365, you’ll need a legacy Windows 10 VL for Citrix. If you’re using Microsoft 365, you get Windows 10 licensing in WVD when you run it in Azure. Hope that helps.

Dan – If I have an M365 Business Premium license, that is good for 5 Windows 10 Pro activations correct? If I want to add a 6th Win10 Pro activation can I add another M365 Business Premium license or do I have to buy individual Windows 10 Enterprise E3 licenses? I have searched high and low for the answer to this question.

Windows 10 subscription licenses are per user, so a single user cannot have both W10 Pro and W10 E3. If you need to license 6 devices, you’ll need at least two users for that. You can purchase up to 300 M365 BP licenses in a single tenant.

Thanks for this excellent table, it simplifies understanding MS licensing a lot 🙂

My organization is a SMB (around 40 users), and currently we have all on-prem (AD, Exchange, Sharepoint and Dynamics). We have plans to move everything to 365, but I’ve some doubts after checking the table:

– To get anti-phising/spoofing/malware detection etc… do all the users need to be licensed on (for instance) M365 BP? It looks like the best license for us anyway.

– Our on-prem SharePoint is being used as a commercial management solution for externals. With that in mind, I guess our best option would be to have P2 for SharePoint Online. We probably need InfoPath as well. Do we need to license all users for this? Or is it enough to have just one license in our tenant?

– Aside from the 40 internal users, we “sell” access to our customized SharePoint. At this time, all we have to do is create a user in our AD and add it to the appropriate pages. What (minimum) license would we need for this, bearing in mind that ideally we want to have 2FA for all of them, but being externals they don’t really need anything else?

– Regarding Exchange, our version is 2013. We have several public folders, all of them contained in a single public folder mailbox, which is about 250GB right now. Before migrating I know we need to do a massive cleaning on that, but anyway… what would you recommend? I’ve seen that the (supported) limit for public folders is 100GB. Maybe splitting them?

– Again for public folders: do these need any special license? If so, I think a good alternative would be shared mailboxes, as they don’t consume any license, is that correct?

– It’s quite confusing how the archiving feature works/is licensed. I recall reading somewhere that it’s unlimited, in the sense that when it needs more space, it just grows. Is that right? Or is it hard-limited to 50GB for M365 BP?

Basically, we don’t have anything that requires local auth, so I think we can move everything to AAD and 365, only pitfall is Dynamics, CFO doesn’t quite like D365 🙂

Adding some info:

It seems that archiving for M365 BP is unlimited. See here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/microsoft-365-service-descriptions/microsoft-365-business-service-description

“Microsoft 365 Business Premium includes Exchange Online Archiving subscription. Each Exchange Online Archiving subscriber initially receives 100 GB of storage in the archive mailbox. When auto-expanding archiving is turned on, additional storage is automatically added when the 100 GB storage capacity is reached. For more information, see Overview of unlimited archiving.”

Another thing I find confusing is this:

“Microsoft 365 Business Premium subscribers are licensed to use full Intune capabilities for iOS, Android, MacOS, and other cross-platform device management. Features not available in the admin center in Microsoft 365 Business Premium, like third-party app management and configuration of WiFi profiles, VPN certificates, etc., can be managed in the full Intune console.”

What license do you need to get the “full Intune console”? Is it deliberated that they are omitting Windows on that description?

We plan to use M365 E3 with M365 E5 Security addon but we also have around 100 users with M365 F3, How can we have the same security and compliance for those users? We plan to use DLP, Sign in risk policys, ATP plan 2. We know that M365 E5 Security can´t be combined with M365 F3….

Hello Daniel,

I have the same question, about M365 F3 users and the M365 E5 security add-on. Do you already know the answer?

It is my understanding that the M365 E5 Security/Compliance add-ons are only available for M365 E3 or O365 E3 with EM+S E3. I do not believe you can purchase the add-ons for M365 F3 users.

Great comparison. Just want to verify the difference of being tagged as “X” as against “P1”. This is for example – Outlook and Sharepoint. Thanks

[…] compare costs of cloud-based services with on-premises services […]

Hi Dan, Does this table apply for Australia Region Please? It would be very helpful if you could let us know what are the changes in this table for Australian region. Thank you so much.

The features are the same for Global Commercial Office 365 tenants. (Meaning that features may be different for GCC High, 21Viacom, and German clouds.) Pricing for AUD is not the same as USD pricing and would be the only difference in this chart.

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This was tremendously helpful. I think I can cut costs by a good 6 grand a year without cutting corners, so thank you for putting the time into this. BTW, Microsoft is misspelled in the M365 F1 for frontline workers section (spelled micorosft) (I prefer to go by alt-write rather than grammar nazi)

Haha, thanks for alt-write check! I can’t believe we’re not the #1 search result for Micorosft though. 🙁

Which Plan includes On-Prem Gateway (Used for PowerApp, PowerAutomate, & PowerBI)?

Any of the plans that include Power BI also include the on-premises data gateway.

Hi Dan, this is a great resource. Thanks for creating it. There is an update needed now though. Microsoft 365 Business Premium now includes Exchange Online Archiving SKU. This provides an unlimited Archive mailbox instead of the 50 gigs that was previously included. Could you update the document to include unlimited on Microsoft 365 Business Premium Archive Mailbox size instead of 50 gigs?

M365 Business Premium now shows unlimited archiving.

[…] Details and public pricing (in dollars) of the various Microsoft 365 licensing plans, by Dan Chemistruck (Infused Innovation). […]

Hope everything is well. As I still use your site very often I was wondering when you might add Universal Print..it took me a while to understand that it comes included with the most imprortant sku’s. I thougth we had to pay a few dollars extra for every user..

Universal Print for Windows 10 has been added to the licensing comparison.

Great comparison chart, thank you for keeping this up to date! I notice that Stream is not listed as part of M365 Business Premium, yet people with that license can use Stream (i.e. when recording Teams meetings). It seems to be included.

Stream has been added to all Microsoft Business SKUs.

Hello, Great chart. I see in the that you have Azure AD join and Manage with Intune (In the Windows 10 section) checked under Business Premium but shouldn’t they be checked in the EM S E5 also? EM S E5 comes with AD Premium P2 which has those features (and more)

EMS E5 allows you to join a device to Azure AD, but it does not include the Windows 10 Pro license. Whereas Microsoft 365 Business Premium includes Windows 10 Pro.

This is by far the best pricing matrix I’ve seen for Microsoft 365 services. Thank you for putting this together and maintaining it with a changelog!

Thank you for this great overview, it is very helpful. We have 30 users with a mix of Business Basic and Business Standard. We would like to deploy Intune and conditional access. Instead of upgrading everybody to Business Premium, we could just purchase Microsoft 365 F1 at a quarter of the cost?

Yes, I believe you can combine those two SKUs.

The Exchange Archiving Mailbox size in M365 Business Premium is 100 GB (initially) and unlimited – not 50 GB as noted in the table. Source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/exchange-online-archiving-service-description/exchange-online-archiving-service-description

This is an awesome table thank you! However it is two years out of date now.. Has there been any updates since 2019?

It is not out of date. Please see the change log at the bottom of the post.

[…] Prior to today’s announcement, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint was primarily available for companies that signed up for a Microsoft 365 E5 license or a E3 license with a E5 security extension tier, both of which are some of the most expensive tiers in Microsoft’s enterprise licensing scheme. […]

Exellent thank you!

This is an awesome chart that we use weekly when trying to demystify 365 licensing for our customers. Thanks again for all your hard work. This is hands down the best licensing matrix we’ve seen.

Can you please update a few things?

1. EM+S E3/E5 have increased in price as of 08/01/2021: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/enterprise-mobility-security/compare-plans-and-pricing#:~:text=Take%20your%20business%20further%20with%20Microsoft%20365%20Enterprise,%20%20%20%2021%20more%20rows%20

2. Office 365 F1 has been renamed to Office 365 F3: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/enterprise/office-365-f3?activetab=pivot%3aoverviewtab

Thanks again! DC

Hi Dan, Does this table apply for Middle East Parts (Dubai) Please? It would be very helpful if you could let us know what are the changes in this table for Middle East . And is it possible to get the Pricing detail too please? Thank you so much.

Dan – The SharePoint link for the file has broken. Would you mind posting a new one or renewing the link? I’ve used it consistently and recommended it to people. I’d really like to have it available again, even in read only form, please.

Thank you for the presentation of this licensing information. It is very informative. Does Office 365 E3 + EMS E3 + Microsoft 365 E5 Security Add-on include Defender for Endpoint?

We’re seeing Exchange Online Kiosk being included in M365 F1 licenses now. Can this be updated in the matrix here?

Does anything change with the addition of Microsoft Defender for Business to Microsoft 365 Business Premium?

Great article

This is amazing, thank you Dan! We refer to this a lot internally.

Are you intending to update this with the NCE pricing?

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Is the government pricing updated in this matrix? It is a different number than what I am getting from my reseller.

Hi Dan, thanks for this!

I’m having a little argument with our CSP provider at the moment about the MS F1 licence.

Effectivly what I want is, Teams, Sharepoint (read only), Stream (training videos) and an AD identity with MFA. My CSP are saying I can’t use the F1 license because it’s limited to a 10.1 inch screen. However, I’m looking at Online versions of Sharepoint mainly here and stream. I.E our intranet is on Sharepoint and best viewed via a browser.

Any advise, I would be grateful.

Can you update this with something about the Windows Defender for Endpoint Business that now comes with Business Premium. It’s a hybrid mix of Defender for Endpoint P1/P2 just for those using the Business SKUs.

Thanks for the great guide.

We are looking at Remote Help add on for Intune, but need some info about the licencing.

Is this included in any licence package? Who needs to be licenced? Helpers, Sharers, or both?

Thanks Pip.

Thank you for this comprehensive table. I use it regularly and a link to this page lives in my Chrome toolbar! Please let us know if you ever update it! 🙂

Hi Dan, thanks for this awesome resource. It’s my go-to summary of Microsoft 365 plans when I am discussing options with customers. I have just provisioned an environment with Microsoft 365 Business Premium licences and I have discovered that in the Compliance Manager I have options for Data Lifecycle Management. On here – https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/enterprise-mobility-security/compare-plans-and-pricing , I think it’s the ‘Persistent data protection’ option. I’m just checking before I commit to customers that data retention is part of Business Premium. I don’t see this listed under EM+s E3 on your table. Any ideas/advice? Thanks

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I really love this overview, but with the recent changes from Microsoft I would love to see an updated version of it. Would you be so kind?

Would you mind updating this with the new pricing since NCE?

Any chance I could buy the Excel version from you? This is so helpful but would be great if I could move the columns around too.

Can you add the Defender for Endpoint Plan 1 and Plan 2?

Thank you for sharing this wonderful and informative blog with us.

Why are add-ons like App Governance not included in the table overview of the licenses? I know this is not part of the largest license model, E5, but still, a feature that can be purchased and, therefor, part of this overview, like a few others.

The overview supports nicely a comprehensive overview of (all) user-based licenses of Microsoft. Expanding this to all (latest) features, make it the perfect reference to use.

Not all ‘Heros’ wear capes. You are definately doing a social service. Thank you for compiling this list for the rest of us.

Thank you for keeping this up to date. It’s been a resource to me for literal years now.

This is excellent information, thank you very much. You are providing something that should be front and center for Microsoft

I’ve been looking for something exactly like this for a long time, so thank you for putting this together end keeping it updated. This is going to be a great help for us now that Microsoft is discontinuing the Office 365 E1 product. As a nonprofit we were getting this at no cost, and had added on ES+M E3, so now we are going to determine how to proceed, and this will help tremendously.

One note – the nonprofit pricing for ES+M E3 has increased to $2.70.

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Copilot for Microsoft 365 is now available for small and medium-sized businesses.

Microsoft 365 Business Basic

For PC, Mac, iOS, and Android

• Benefit from identity, access, and user management for up to 300 employees.
• Use web and mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook only.
• Get custom business email ([email protected]) with Outlook.
• Book client meetings and collaborate with Teams.
• Store and share files with 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage per user.
• Get help with around-the-clock phone and web support from Microsoft.

Copilot for Microsoft 365 available as an add-on. 3

Compatible with Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and the two most recent versions of macOS. All languages included.

Talk with a sales expert To speak to a sales expert, call 1-855-270-0615. Available M-F 6 AM to 6 PM PT.

Originally starting from $6.00 now starting from $6.00

$6.00 $6.00

Annual subscription–auto renews 1

Services included

Email and calendars

Get business-class email with Outlook, including a 50 GB mailbox per user, and send attachments of up to 150 MB.

Instant messaging and online meetings

Chat, meet, and collaborate with Microsoft Teams. Combine messaging, voice calls, video calls, and availability in one app.

1 TB of secure cloud storage per user

Get 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage to edit and share documents, photos, and more from anywhere, on all your devices.

Intranet and team sites

Inform and engage your organization and connect people to content, knowledge, and processes with team sites through SharePoint. Tell your story with beautiful, easy-to-use sites.

Microsoft 365 apps on the web

Use always-up-to-date Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook on the web. Simultaneously collaborate with others in the same document in real time, across web, mobile, and different devices—no installation required.

Organize schedules and manage appointments

Bookings includes a web-based booking calendar and integrates with Outlook to give your customers flexibility to book a time that works best for them. Email and SMS text notifications reduce no-shows and enhance customer satisfaction.

Compare a similar plan

(Annual subscription-auto renews) 1

Web and mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook only

Custom business email ([email protected])

Chat, call, collaborate, and meet online

1 TB of cloud storage per employee

Microsoft 365 Business Standard

Originally starting from $12.50 now starting from $12.50

$12.50 $12.50

Desktop, web, and mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook

Custom business email ([email protected]

Chat, call, collaborate, meet online, and host webinars up to 300 attendees

1 TB of cloud storage per user

Video editing and design tools with Clipchamp

See how Microsoft Teams helps you manage business

Connect your business.

Work from anywhere

Host meetings with up to 300 attendees, make and receive calls in Microsoft Teams, and chat internally and externally with partners and clients using guest access.

Collaborate in real time

Create, share, and collaborate with Microsoft 365 apps such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Access apps on the web in your favorite browser—no app installation required.

Get 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage

Share documents, upload files, and sync libraries. Access documents in real time and create shareable links, and grant access to employees and business partners.

Additional services

Copilot for microsoft 365.

Achieve more than ever using AI integrated with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and other Microsoft 365 apps.

Microsoft Defender for Business

Get enterprise -grade endpoint protection, that's cost effective and easy to use. Included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium.

Audio Conferencing

Join Microsoft Teams meetings on the go, without an internet connection.

Windows 365

Securely stream your Windows experience—including apps, content, and settings—from the Microsoft cloud to any device.

Additional resources

Shop devices.

Explore Surface for Business and other solutions for your small business.

Get started

Find resources to help you start, run, and grow your business.

Schedule a demo

Meet with a Microsoft expert.

Find a partner

Connect with an authorized solution provider.

Get more with Microsoft Teams Phone

Make and receive phone calls from anywhere with a cloud-based phone system in Microsoft Teams. Enjoy cloud calling features like consultative transfer, music on hold, and cloud voicemail.

Frequently asked questions

How many users does microsoft 365 business basic support.

Microsoft 365 Business Basic supports a maximum of 300 users. If you have more than 300 users or think you will soon, take a look at our  enterprise plan options .

What forms of payment can I use?

Pay with all major credit cards, and your subscription amount will appear on your credit card statement. For Microsoft 365 business plans, you have the option to receive an invoice and, depending on your choice of services, you’ll be billed monthly or annually. Receive an email message when your invoice is ready to be viewed and, if a purchase order number is entered when you buy your subscription, that number is included in your invoice.

What payment options are available? Can I pay monthly or annually?

Choose a monthly commitment payment or an annual commitment payment for Microsoft 365.

• Monthly commitment payment: Pay month by month and cancel at any time.
• Annual commitment payment: Sign up for a one-year subscription and benefit from a discount for using this payment option. By default, your billing plan will be set to monthly billing. After your purchase, you can change your billing plan to annual billing within the Admin Portal.

Can I cancel my subscription at any time?

You can cancel your subscription at any time; you may be entitled to a partial refund. Read the complete  Microsoft Online Subscription Agreement .

What happens to my data if I cancel my subscription?

Your data is yours. If you decide to cancel your Microsoft 365 subscription, you can download your data—for example, your email and documents on team sites—and save it to another location. You should save your data before you cancel. After you cancel your subscription, data associated with your Microsoft 365 account will be available to your administrator(s) in a limited-function account for 90 days.

Can I switch to other Microsoft 365 plans?

Yes, you can transition your account to a different plan.

In most cases, you can use the switch plans wizard in your Admin Center to upgrade your plan. If your subscription has more than 300 users or if you used a prepaid card to purchase your plan, the switch plans wizard is not available. Plans that are not eligible for the switch plans wizard can be upgraded manually. Learn more about  switching Microsoft 365 plans .

NOTE: When you change your account, your domain name is transferred to your new account, whether you brought your existing domain name to the Microsoft 365 account or you set up a new domain name with Microsoft 365.

Where can I find more information about the value I’m getting with Microsoft 365?

Download the full plan comparison table.

Where can I find more frequently asked questions and read support articles?

Visit  Microsoft 365 for Business FAQ  or  Microsoft 365 Support forum .

See more solutions for your business

Additional requirements.

• [1] Once your paid subscription begins, cancellation policies vary based on your status as a new customer, product, and domain selections on Microsoft.  Learn more . Cancel your Microsoft 365 subscription any time by going to the Microsoft 365 admin center. When a subscription is canceled, all associated data will be deleted.  Learn more about data retention, deletion, and destruction in Microsoft 365 .
• [2] After your one-month free trial ends, your subscription will automatically convert into a 12-month paid subscription and you will be charged the applicable subscription fee. Cancel anytime during your free trial to stop future charges. Credit card required to sign-up.  Learn more .
• [3] Copilot for Microsoft 365 may not be available for all markets and languages. To purchase, customers must have a qualifying plan for enterprise or business .

Connect with Microsoft 365 :

• Chat with sales
• Contact sales

Available M-F 6 AM to 6 PM PT.

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OneDrive service description

• 13 contributors

OneDrive for work and school accounts is online storage space in the cloud that's provided for individual licensed users in an organization. Use it to help protect work files and access them across multiple devices. OneDrive lets you share files and collaborate on documents, and sync files to your computer. Learn more about OneDrive features, functionality, and pricing .

OneDrive is included in Microsoft 365 and Office 365 plans, in SharePoint plans, and can also be purchased as a standalone plan.

Available plans

For detailed plan information on subscriptions that enable users for OneDrive, see the Microsoft 365 business plan comparison and Microsoft 365 Enterprise plan comparison .

For detailed plan information on subscriptions that enable users for OneDrive and are currently available in European Economic Area (EEA) countries and Switzerland see the Microsoft 365 business plan comparison for EEA and Microsoft 365 Enterprise plan comparison for EEA .

Feature availability

The following table lists the major OneDrive features available across plans. Certain caveats apply. See the footnotes for further information. This table may change without notice. For a full list of feature availability across OneDrive plans, go to Microsoft OneDrive . More in-depth descriptions for some of these features will follow.

1 For information on OneDrive storage per user, you can check OneDrive in the Modern Work Plan Comparison or the Microsoft 365 User Subscription Suites for Small and Medium-sized Businesses . 2 Storage allocations in Education tenants may be limited. Please see Office 365 Education service description for details.

For technical information about OneDrive , check out the following resources:

• Microsoft OneDrive Blog
• For most subscription plans, the default storage space for each user's OneDrive is 1 TB. Depending on your plan and the number of licensed users, you can increase this storage up to 5 TB. For more information, see the Core features in Compare OneDrive cloud storage pricing and plans .

Supported uses

With OneDrive for Business, every person can easily store, access, and share their work files in their personal online storage space in the cloud. OneDrive for Business storage is provisioned on a per user basis and is designed to serve the needs of individual users.

Storage of data other than an individual's personal work files, including system back-ups and departmental and organizational level data, is not supported, nor is the assignment of a per user license to a bot, department, or other non-human entity. SharePoint is the best solution for more advanced content management and collaboration, including storing and managing files, communications, and intranet sites across a team or organization.

Licensing terms

For licensing terms and conditions for products and services purchased through Microsoft Commercial Volume Licensing Programs, see the Product Terms site .

To keep track of upcoming changes, including new and changed features, planned maintenance, or other important announcements, visit the Message Center. For more information, see Message center .

Accessibility

Microsoft remains committed to the security of your data and the accessibility of our services. For more information, see the Microsoft Trust Center and the Office Accessibility Center .

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