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Assign or unassign licenses for users in the Microsoft 365 admin center

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You can assign or unassign licenses for users in the Microsoft 365 admin center on either the Active users page, or on the Licenses page. The method you use depends on whether you want to assign or unassign licenses for specific users, or assign or unassign users for a specific product. You can also add a user and assign a license at the same time.

Note

  • As an admin, you can't assign or unassign licenses for a self-service purchase subscription bought by a user in your organization. You can take over a purchase or trial subscription, and then assign or unassign licenses.
  • For some subscriptions, you can only cancel during a limited window of time after you buy or renew your subscription. If the cancellation window has passed, turn off recurring billing to cancel the subscription at the end of its term.

Tip

If you need help with the steps in this topic, consider working with a Microsoft small business specialist. With Business Assist, you and your employees get around-the-clock access to small business specialists as you grow your business, from onboarding to everyday use.

Before you begin

Use the Licenses page to assign or unassign licenses

The Licenses page lets you assign or unassign licenses for up to 20 users at a time. The page shows the products you own, the number of available licenses for each product, and the number of assigned licenses out of the total licenses available.

The Licenses page shows an aggregate total of licenses for all subscriptions for the same product name. For example, you might have one subscription for Microsoft 365 Business Premium that has five licenses, and another subscription that has eight licenses for the same product. The Licenses page shows that you have a total of 13 licenses for Microsoft 365 Business Premium across all your subscriptions. This number is different from what you see on the Your products page, which displays a row for each subscription you own, even if they are for the same product.

Assign licenses by using the Licenses page

  1. In the admin center, go to the Billing > Licenses page.
  2. Select a product.
  3. On the product details page, select Assign licenses.
  4. In the Assign licenses to users pane, begin typing a name, and then choose it from the results to add it to the list. You can add up to 20 users at a time.
  5. Select Turn apps and services on or off to assign or remove access to specific items.
  6. When you're finished, select Assign, then close the right pane.

If there's a conflict, you see a message that tells you what the problem is, and how to fix it. For example, if you select licenses that contain conflicting services, the error message says to review the services included with each license and try again.

Change the apps and services a user has access to

  1. In the admin center, go to the Billing > Licenses page.
  2. On the Licenses page, select the row for a specific user.
  3. In the details pane, select or deselect the apps and services that you want to give access to or remove access from.
  4. When you're finished, select Save, then select Close.

Unassign licenses by using the Licenses page

  1. In the admin center, go to the Billing > Licenses page.
  2. Select a product.
  3. Select the check boxes of the users for whom you want to unassign licenses.
  4. Select Unassign licenses.
  5. In the Unassign licenses box, select Unassign.

Use the Active users page to assign or unassign licenses

When you use the Active users page to assign or unassign licenses, you assign or unassign users licenses to products.

Assign licenses to one user

  1. In the admin center, go to the Users > Active users page.
  2. Select the row of the user that you want to assign a license to.
  3. In the right pane, select Licenses and Apps.
  4. Expand the Licenses section, select the boxes for the licenses that you want to assign, then select Save changes.

Assign licenses to multiple users

  1. In the admin center, go to the Users > Active users page.

  2. Select the circles next to the names of the users that you want to assign licenses to.

  3. At the top, select Manage product licenses.

  4. In the Manage product licenses pane, select Assign more: Keep the existing licenses and assign more > Next.

  5. Under Licenses, select the box for the license(s) that you want the selected users to have.

    By default, all services associated with those licenses are automatically assigned to the users. You can limit which services are available to the users. Deselect the boxes for the services that you don't want the users to have.

  6. At the bottom of the pane, select Save changes.

    You might have to buy more licenses if you don't have enough licenses for everyone.

Note

If you want to assign licenses for a large number of users, use Assign or unassign licenses to a group in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Use the Active users page to unassign licenses

When you use the Active users page to unassign licenses, you remove product licenses from users.

Unassign licenses from one user

  1. In the admin center, go to the Users > Active users page.
  2. Select the row of the user that you want to unassign a license for.
  3. In the right pane, select Licenses and Apps.
  4. Expand the Licenses section, clear the boxes for the licenses that you want to unassign, then select Save changes.

Unassign licenses from multiple users

  1. In the admin center, go to the Users > Active users page.
  2. Select the circles next to the names of the users who you want to unassign licenses for.
  3. At the top, select Manage product licenses.
  4. In the Manage product licenses pane, select Unassign all > Save changes.
  5. At the bottom of the pane, select Done.

What happens to a user's data when you remove their license?

  • When a license is removed from a user, Exchange Online data that is associated with that account is held for 30 days. After the 30-day grace period, the data is deleted and can't be recovered. However, it's linked to the retention policy, and the content that matches retention labels is retained for discovery.
  • Files saved in OneDrive for Business aren't deleted unless the user is deleted from the Microsoft 365 admin center or is removed through Active Directory synchronization. For more information, see OneDrive retention and deletion.
  • When the license is removed, the user's mailbox is no longer searchable by using an eDiscovery tool such as Content Search or eDiscovery (Premium).
  • If you have an Enterprise subscription, like Office 365 Enterprise E3, Exchange Online lets you preserve the mailbox data of a deleted user account by using inactive mailboxes. For more information, see Create and manage inactive mailboxes in Exchange Online.
  • To learn how to block a user's access to Microsoft 365 data after their license is removed, and how to get access to the data afterwards, see Overview: Remove a former employee and secure data.
  • If you remove a user's license and they still have Microsoft 365 productivity apps installed, they see Unlicensed Product and activation errors in Office when they use Microsoft 365 productivity apps.

Next steps

If you assigned licenses and your users don't have Microsoft 365 productivity apps installed, you can share the Employee quick setup in Microsoft 365 for business with your users to set up things like Download and install or reinstall Microsoft 365 or Office 2021 on a PC or Mac and Set up Microsoft 365 apps and email on a mobile device.

If you unassigned licenses and you don't plan to reassign the unused licenses to other users, consider removing the licenses from your subscription so that you're not paying for more licenses than you need.

Related content

Understand subscriptions and licenses in Microsoft 365 for business (article)
Buy or remove licenses for a Microsoft business subscription (article)