Upgrade to Microsoft 365 Business from Office 365 Business Premium

  • 4 minutes to read

If you have an Office 365 for business subscription, for example, Office 365 Business Premium, you can easily upgrade to Microsoft 365 Business. Upgrade to Microsoft 365 Business if you want to add:

  • Windows 10 Pro (to PCs running Windows 8 or later)
  • Simple controls that manage business data on devices
  • Advanced security capabilities. Find out more about Microsoft 365 Business at Microsoft.com

What's the difference between Office 365 Business Premium and Microsoft 365 Business?

We've added a side-by-side comparison of these two plans to the Microsoft 365 Business Service Description.

Before you get started

  • When should I choose to upgrade? Upgrade is the right choice when you want to upgrade all users assigned to a single plan. When you choose upgrade, all plan users get switched to another plan at the same time. If you don't want to upgrade everyone assigned to a single plan, buy licenses for the new plan (in this case Microsoft 365 Business), and assign those licenses individually to each user that you want to upgrade.
  • Some add-ons might prevent the upgrade If you try to start an upgrade and you have an add-on that prevents you from continuing, you can remove the add-on first, and then add it back later if you still need it.
  • If you prepaid your plan There isn't a straightforward upgrade path for prepaid plans. You'll know if you have a prepaid plan because you set up your plan using a product ID that you might have purchased in a store. Contact a partner, go to the Microsoft Store, or wait until your prepaid plan expires to switch to a new plan.

Upgrade to Microsoft 365 Business

Buy your licenses by following these steps in the new admin center:

  1. Sign into the admin center at https://admin.microsoft.com.

  2. Go to the navigation pane and select Billing > Products & Services. Find your Office 365 subscription and select it to view the details.

    A screenshot shows how to find and select your subscription in the admin center.

  3. On the next page, select Upgrade.

    A screenshot shows where to select Upgrade in the admin center.

Note

If you see a message that says Upgrading your subscription is not supported with group-based licensing in Azure Active Directory, you can safely ignore this unless you have a very large organization. Organizations who have selected this option will be aware that they're using group-based licensing.

  1. Next, you can view a list of Office plans that you can upgrade to. In this case, find the Microsoft 365 Business plan. You can scroll down if you want to see all the Office apps and services that are included with this plan. Under Microsoft 365 Business, select Upgrade to add Microsoft 365 Business to your cart.
  2. In the cart:
    1. We'll automatically include licenses for all your current users. If you need more or fewer licenses, you need to buy and assign those licenses individually.
    2. You can adjust how you'd like to pay: monthly or yearly. Select the drop-down menu to make your choice.
  3. Select Go to Checkout where you'll see a summary of your purchase, including the payment method for this account. You can also add a promo code here if you have one.
  4. Select Place order to complete your purchase. It takes Microsoft a few minutes to set up your new service plans. To check on progress, select Check upgrade status.
  5. Once your plan is ready, you might need to complete some additional setup steps in the admin center. In the navigation pane, select Home to complete any additional setup steps.

Note

You'll receive a prorated refund for the Ofifce 365 licenses that you no longer need. Your bank account or credit card will be charged about two days after you set up the new plan.

Protect user devices and files

Now that Microsoft 365 Business licenses have been assigned, complete steps to start protecting devices and files. You'll use some new options included in the admin center navigation pane.

  1. In the admin center, in the navigation pane, go to Devices > Policies.

  2. On the Device policies page, select Add.

  3. In the Add policy pane give the policy a name (for example, Protect work files), and then choose a Policy type from the drop-down list.

    You can set up application policies for protecting files on Android and iPhone devices, as well as Windows 10, and you can set up device configuration policies for company owned Windows 10 devices. See the following links for details:

  1. After you set up policies, you and your employees can set up devices: