How is App Registration billed in Entra ID?

Question

Hello,

I'm using app registration in Entra Id as an Identity Manager for my API which is using Oauth Client Credentials flow to authenticate other applications.

I'd like to know if each client application that I register in Entra Id will be billed and if each api call from a client application to entra id to generate an access token is also billed?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

1. Are client applications billed just for being registered?

Simply registering app registrations (client applications) in Entra ID does not incur any cost. You can register many applications without being charged, as long as you're within the limits of your Entra ID license (Free, P1, or P2).

2. Are token requests (such as when using the OAuth 2.0 client credentials flow) billed?

Not directly in most standard enterprise scenarios. Token issuance (including access tokens acquired via client credentials flow) is typically included with your Entra ID license. For example:

• If you are using Microsoft Entra ID Free, P1, or P2, token issuance is included for most use cases.
• Making token requests via the token endpoint (e.g., https://login.microsoftonline.com/{tenant}/oauth2/v2.0/token) does not result in a separate charge per call.

However, there are situations where billing can occur:

• If you are using Microsoft Entra Workload Identities (for service principals or managed identities), Microsoft is introducing per-identity billing beyond a certain number of active identities.
• The free tier includes 50,000 monthly active workload identities for P1.
• If you exceed that threshold, you could be billed based on how many unique identities are active in a given month.
• Token requests that activate these workload identities count toward that quota.

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hth

Marcin