Assign a License to New Mailboxes in Office 365

Applies to: Office 365 for professionals and small businesses, Office 365 for enterprises

After you create new mailboxes in Microsoft Office 365, you have to assign a license to users in the Office 365 portal. If you don't assign a license, the mailbox is disabled when the grace period ends.

Assign a license

After you create new cloud-based mailboxes, the corresponding Microsoft Office 365 user account appears on the Users page in the Office 365 portal.

To assign licenses to users with new mailboxes, perform the following steps:

1. In the header of the Office 365 portal, click Admin.
2. In the left pane, under Management, click Users.
3. In the View pull-down menu, select New view.
4. In the New view page, type a descriptive name for the new view.
5. Under Select an account status to further restrict the view, select Users with mailboxes and no licenses, and then click Save.
6. In the View pull-down menu, select the new view you just created.
7. Select the check box for the users that you want to assign a license to and then click Edit.
8. Under Assign licenses, select the check box for the licenses that you want to assign to the selected users, and then click Save.
9. On the Settings page, select the user location from the drop-down list. On the Settings page, you can also assign a Microsoft Office 365 administrator role and set the sign-in status for the selected users.
10. Click Save.

Note Licenses are required for all new cloud-based mailboxes regardless of how you create them.

Create new mailboxes in small quantities	Create a New Mailbox Use Windows PowerShell in Exchange Online
Create lots of new mailboxes at once	Import New Exchange Online Users with a CSV File
Migrate mailboxes from an on-premises Exchange organization to the cloud	Migrate All Mailboxes to the Cloud with a Cutover Exchange Migration Migrate Mailboxes to the Cloud with a Staged Exchange Migration Migrate E-Mail from an IMAP Server to Cloud-based Mailboxes

Important   Mailbox plans correspond to Office 365 license types. When you create a new cloud-based mailbox using the Exchange Control Panel, all mailbox plans are available, even if the corresponding licenses aren't included in your organization’s subscription to Microsoft Office 365.

Why does this matter? If you create a mailbox and assign a mailbox plan that corresponds to a license that gives users more features than you paid for, they may not be able to access their mailbox or they may lose data after you license the mailbox in the Office 365 portal. Be sure to assign a mailbox plan that supports your organization’s licenses.