Understand Planner trials and license assignments
Within your organization's account, your users might have a Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 license that provides them with access to Microsoft Planner. These users can access Planner either through the web, or through the newly updated application in Microsoft Teams called Planner. As your users explore the benefits of Planner, they might discover that they want more advanced work management capabilities. By signing up for a trial, they can experience Planner's premium features for 30 days. As an admin, you can manage and approve license requests in your organization.
30-day trial for premium features
When your users follow the prompts to enable a 30-day trial, they're provided access to all the features and functionality in a license for Project Plan 3. Project Plan 3 includes task history, advanced dependencies, custom calendars, timeline (Gantt) view, sprints, custom fields, team workload, and managing goal. Once the trial starts, users can access these features within the Planner app in Teams, or with Project for the Web (https://project.microsoft.com).
Important
Microsoft 365 Copilot in Planner (preview) is beginning to roll out. When your organization receives this product update, your users can use this Copilot functionality in their 30-day trial or with your organization's license of Project Plan 3 or Plan 5.
During the trial period, your users can explore all the functionalities offered by the plan and gain insights into how it can benefit their workflow and project management tasks. At the end of the 30-day trial, they can request a premium license from their Microsoft 365 administrator.
Approve license requests
As an admin, you can manage license assignments within your organization. You have options to manage the incoming license requests following the 30-day trial, including:
- Process individual license requests: When a user requests a license, you receive a notification in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. You can accept or deny these requests individually using the Licenses tab located under Billing. Within the Requests tab, you can see all the submitted requests and assign the licenses either one at a time or in bulk.
- Select the license to assign: Select a request and then choose from an available license via the drop-down menu under Select a product. You can see the number of available licenses, so you can manage these requests by plan.
More admin controls
Monitor product usage: After a user starts a trial, you can track product usage metrics within the Microsoft 365 Admin Center to determine which users can benefit most from a permanent license.
Enable or disable license requests: To control who can access the trial and when, you can use the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, you can turn the option for people in your organization to request a license on or off.
Self-service purchases: Users can opt to purchase a license independently. While you can't assign or unassign licenses for these purchases, you can take over the subscription and manage it accordingly.
Other resources
Add users and assign licenses in Microsoft 365 - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn
Project for the web get started guide for administrators - Project for the web | Microsoft Learn