Lesson 02Beginner6 min read
Licensing without losing your mind
F1, F3, E3, E5, EMS — what's actually included, what isn't, and the SKUs people forget.
M365 licensing is intentionally complicated. Here's the shortest possible map.
The five SKUs you'll actually meet
- Business Basic / Standard / Premium: for orgs under 300 seats. Premium includes Intune and basic Entra ID P1 features.
- F1 / F3: frontline workers. F3 includes web Office and Intune for shared devices.
- E3: the enterprise baseline. Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Intune, Entra ID P1.
- E5: E3 plus Defender, Entra ID P2 (risk-based CA), Purview, Power BI Pro.
- EMS E3 / E5: identity and management bolt-on if you have Office licensed elsewhere.
The SKUs people forget
- Intune for Education — different licensing path.
- Defender for Endpoint Plan 1 vs Plan 2 — a real capability gap.
- Entra ID P2 is what unlocks Identity Protection and PIM. Don't promise PIM on a P1 tenant.