Changing from a Microsoft 365 E plan to a Microsoft 365 F plan
If you're considering switching some of your users from a Microsoft 365 E plan to a Microsoft 365 F3 or F1 plan, this article provides guidance to help you prepare your organization for the change. Changing from an E plan to an F plan affects the services and features users have access to.
E plans are meant for information workers (employees who typically work at a desk) and F plans are meant for frontline workers (employees who are on the go, often on mobile devices, and work directly with customers or the general public). Each plan may continue to evolve over time to become more tailored for information workers and frontline workers respectively. To learn more, see Understand frontline worker user types and licensing.
You'll get an overview of what to expect when users are switched to an F plan, how to prepare for the change, and what to do after switching plans to transition the frontline workers in your organization.
Understand the key differences between E and F plans
Start by getting familiar with the service and feature differences between the plans.
Some key differences include:
- F plans don't include Office desktop apps or the Outlook desktop app.
- F plans are limited to devices with integrated screens smaller than 10.9 inches on Office mobile apps.
- F plans pin frontline worker apps like Walkie Talkie, Shifts, Planner, and Approvals by default in Microsoft Teams.
In this section, we've included more information about these key differences and highlighted some additional differences to pay attention to. Keep in mind that this isn't a comprehensive list. To learn more:
- See Modern work plan comparison for a detailed comparison of what's included in E and F plans.
- See service availability and feature availability across plans for a list of service and feature availability across E and F plans.
Office apps
Office desktop apps aren't included in F3 and F1 plans. Your frontline workers can use Office for the web and Office mobile apps to get things done. Keep in mind that F3 users have full access to documents in Office for the web and F1 users have read-only access.
Service or feature | Microsoft 365 E3/E5 | Microsoft 365 F3 | Microsoft 365 F1 |
---|---|---|---|
Office desktop apps (Word, Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher) | Yes | No | No |
Office for the web (Word, Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint) | Yes | Yes | Read-only |
Office mobile apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote) | Yes | Yes¹ | Read-only |
¹Editing files supported on devices with integrated screens less than 10.9 inches.
Office for the web
With Office for the web, your frontline workers use a web browser to open Word, Excel, OneNote, and PowerPoint files.
Here's some differences to be aware when using Office for the web. For a detailed feature comparison between Office for the web and Office desktop apps, see Office for the web service description.
Service or feature | Some differences | Learn more |
---|---|---|
Word for the web |
|
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Excel for the web |
|
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OneNote for the web |
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PowerPoint for the web |
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Office mobile
Your frontline workers can get Office on their mobile devices in two ways:
- Install the Office mobile app that combines Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
- Install individual Office mobile apps for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.
To learn more, see Install and set up Office on an Android and Install and set up Office on an iPhone or iPad.
For more information about the features that are available in Office mobile, see What you can do in the Office apps on mobile devices with a Microsoft 365 subscription.
F3 users have a 2 GB mailbox that they can access through Outlook on the web. For a feature comparison between Outlook on the web and the Outlook desktop app, see Compare Outlook for PC, Outlook on the web, and Outlook for iOS & Android.
F1 users don't have mailbox rights. Although a mailbox is provisioned for users through the Exchange Kiosk plan, they aren't entitled to use it. We recommend that you disable Outlook on the web for F1 users.
Service or feature | Microsoft 365 E3/E5 | Microsoft 365 F3 | Microsoft 365 F1 |
---|---|---|---|
Exchange Online mailbox | Yes (100 GB mailbox) | Yes (2 GB mailbox) | No¹ |
Outlook desktop app | Yes | No | No |
Archive mailbox | Yes | No | No |
Delegate access | Yes | No | No |
¹F1 includes the Exchange Kiosk plan to enable Teams calendar only and doesn't include mailbox rights.
To learn more, see Exchange Online service description.
Teams
F3 and F1 plans include the Teams desktop app, mobile app, and web app for frontline worker communication and collaboration. Your frontline workers have access to Teams features including meetings, chat, channels, content, and apps. However, they won't be able to create live events and webinars or use Teams Phone capabilities without the purchase of additional add-ons.
Service or feature | Microsoft 365 E3/E5 | Microsoft 365 F3 | Microsoft 365 F1 |
---|---|---|---|
Live events | Yes | No | No |
Webinars | Yes | No | No |
Teams Phone | Yes | No | No |
SharePoint
F3 and F1 users can collaborate on documents and access organization-wide resources such as training materials stored in SharePoint. Keep in mind that F3 and F1 plans don't include site mailboxes or personal sites.
Service or feature | Microsoft 365 E3/E5 | Microsoft 365 F3 | Microsoft 365 F1 |
---|---|---|---|
Site mailbox | Yes | No | No |
Personal site | Yes | No | No |
To learn more about SharePoint limits, see SharePoint limits.
Content services
F3 and F1 users have 2 GB of OneDrive storage to store and share files. To learn more, see OneDrive service description.
Service or feature | Microsoft 365 E3/E5 | Microsoft 365 F3 | Microsoft 365 F1 |
---|---|---|---|
OneDrive | Unlimited storage¹ | 2 GB storage | 2 GB storage |
Microsoft Stream | Yes | Yes² | Yes² |
Sway | Yes | Yes | No |
Visio for the web | Yes | Yes | Read-only |
Delve | Yes | No | No |
¹Up to 5 TB of initial OneDrive storage per user based on the default quota of the tenant for subscriptions with more than five users. More storage can be requested.
²Users can record meetings and consume Stream content but can't publish to or share in Stream.
Insights and analytics
Service or feature | Microsoft 365 E3/E5 | Microsoft 365 F3 | Microsoft 365 F1 |
---|---|---|---|
Viva Insights | Yes | No | No |
Power BI | Yes | No | No |
Work management and automation
Service or feature | Microsoft 365 E3/E5 | Microsoft 365 F3 | Microsoft 365 F1 |
---|---|---|---|
Power Apps | Yes | Yes | No |
Power Automate | Yes | Yes | No |
Power Virtual Agents | Yes | Yes | No |
Dataverse for Teams | Yes | Yes | No |
Microsoft Forms | Yes¹ | Yes¹ | No |
Microsoft To Do | Yes | Yes | No |
¹Licensed users can create, share, and manage forms. A license isn't needed to complete or respond to a form.
Windows
Service or feature | Microsoft 365 E3/E5 | Microsoft 365 F3 | Microsoft 365 F1 |
---|---|---|---|
Windows 11 Enterprise | Yes | Yes¹ | No |
¹No Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) or Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP). Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is only for licensed users of a shared device with a Qualifying Operating System (except for Azure Virtual Desktop).
What to expect
The following table lists important things to consider and recommended actions to take during the change process. Use this information to help you identify what to do before the switch and what to plan for after the switch is completed.
We'll be referring to this table in later sections of this article.
Service or feature | Before the switch | After the switch |
---|---|---|
Office apps |
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Users:
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Email, Exchange, Outlook |
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Users:
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Teams |
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OneDrive |
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Prepare to switch plans
Create a change management strategy
An optimal change management strategy includes how you'll communicate with, train, and support your users before and after you switch them to an F plan. For example, here are a few things to consider:
- How will users be aware of the switch?
- How will users learn to navigate the differences in services and features? The switch to an F plan might need an increased effort in training as it requires a change in behavior.
- How will users get help and support?
When building your strategy, consider communication and training preferences. To help ensure a successful transition, tailor your messaging, training, and support to the specific needs of your frontline workers and company culture.
Here's some ideas to help plan your strategy.
Communication | Training | Support |
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You may also want to check out these adoption resources to help you engage and train your users:
Back up or prepare data
Identify and back up or prepare data that users want to keep. Follow the guidance in the What to expect section earlier in this article and complete the recommended actions in the Before the switch column of the table for each of the following components:
- Office apps
- Email, Exchange, Outlook
- Teams
- OneDrive
For more information, see Back up data before switching plans.
Switch users to a Microsoft 365 F plan
You can use the Microsoft 365 admin center to manually change plans or a scripted approach through PowerShell cmdlets. Whichever method you choose, it's important to complete the license change assignment in one operation. In other words, remove an existing E license and replace it by assigning an F license in the same operation.
Avoid removing an existing license for a user and then reassigning a new one at a later point in time. Doing this can impact a user's data. To learn more, see What happens to a user's data when you remove their license?.
For step-by-step guidance on how to change plans in the Microsoft admin center, see Manually change Microsoft plans
What to do after switching plans
Follow the guidance in the What to expect section earlier in this article and complete the recommended actions in the After the switch column of the table for each of the following components:
- Office apps
- Email, Exchange, Outlook
- Teams
- OneDrive
Communicate to your users that the change is completed and let them know how to get help as defined in your change management strategy. You may want to include links to help and learning resources to support them in the transition.
User setup, help, and learning resources
Here are some links to set up, help, and learning resources that you can share with your frontline workers for training and support.
App | Links |
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Office for the web | |
Outlook on the web | |
Office mobile | Setup: Office mobile app help:Individual Office mobile app help:
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Teams |
Pripomienky
https://aka.ms/ContentUserFeedback.
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