Assign or remove licenses in the Azure Active Directory portal

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Many Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) 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 Azure AD services for which that's true.

Available license plans

There are several license plans available for the Azure AD service, including:

  • Azure AD Free

  • Azure AD Premium P1

  • Azure AD Premium P2

For specific information about each license plan and the associated licensing details, see What license do I need?.

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 the Azure Active Directory > Users > Profile > Settings area in Azure AD. Any user whose usage location is not specified inherits the location of the Azure AD organization.

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

  1. Sign in to the Azure portal using a License administrator account in your Azure AD organization.

  2. Select Azure Active Directory, and then select Licenses.

    Licenses page, with number of purchased services and assigned licenses

  3. Select the Purchased link to view the Products page and to see the Assigned, Available, and Expiring soon numbers for your license plans.

    services page, with service license plans and associated license info

  4. Select a plan name to see its licensed users and groups.

Assign licenses to users or groups

Make sure that anyone needing to use a licensed Azure AD service has the appropriate license. You can add the licensing rights to users or to an entire group.

To assign a license to a user

  1. On the Products page, select the name of the license plan you want to assign to the user.

    services page, with highlighted service license plan

  2. On the license plan overview page, select Assign.

    services page, with highlighted Assign option

  3. On the Assign page, select Users and groups, and then search for and select the user you're assigning the license.

    Assign license page, with highlighted search and Select options

  4. Select Assignment options, make sure you have the appropriate license options turned on, and then select OK.

    License option page, with all options available in the license plan

    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 the Azure Active Directory > Users > Profile > Settings area in Azure AD. Any user whose usage location is not specified inherits the location of the Azure AD organization.

  5. Select Assign.

    The user is added to the list of licensed users and has access to the included Azure AD 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

  1. On the Products page, select the name of the license plan you want to assign to the user.

    Products blade, with highlighted product license plan

  2. On the Azure Active Directory Premium Plan 2 page, select Assign.

    Products page, with highlighted Assign option

  3. On the Assign page, select Users and groups, and then search for and select the group you're assigning the license.

    Assign license page, with highlighted search and Select options

  4. Select Assignment options, make sure you have the appropriate license options turned on, and then select OK.

    License option page, with all options available in the license plan

    The Assign license page updates to show that a user is selected and that the assignments are configured.

  5. Select Assign.

    The group is added to the list of licensed groups and all of the members have access to the included Azure AD services.

Remove a license

You can remove a license from a user's Azure AD user page, from the group overview page for a group assignment, or starting from the Azure AD Licenses page to see the users and groups for a license.

To remove a license from a user

  1. On the Licensed users page for the service plan, select the user that should no longer have the license. For example, Alain Charon.

  2. Select Remove license.

    Licensed users page with Remove license option highlighted

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

  1. On the Licensed groups page for the license plan, select the group that should no longer have the license.

  2. Select Remove license.

    Licensed groups page with Remove license option highlighted

Next steps

After you've assigned your licenses, you can perform the following processes: