How do I find paid M365 licenses nobody uses?
Unused licenses usually fall into three groups: departed employees never offboarded, duplicate SKUs assigned, and upgrades to E3 or E5 that were never rolled back for the rest of the team.
Try this first
- 1Pull an Azure AD sign-in report for the last 90 days via Entra admin center, users without a single login are direct candidates.
- 2Compare Active users against your HR list, anything in M365 not in HR is almost always a forgotten offboarding.
- 3Look at duplicate assignments, sometimes a user has Business Premium plus standalone Defender or Intune that is already in Premium.
- 4Build a spreadsheet of SKU, assigned count, active usage and yearly cost, that gives an at-a-glance picture of where the pain is.
When to bring us in
If your active counts are far below your assigned counts, we are happy to help correct without service interruption.
See also
- New hire has an account but cannot reach Outlook or TeamsAn M365 account without a license is an empty shell. Assigning takes a few clicks, but picking the right plan pays off long-term.
- Employee left, but their email must be retainedPulling the license straight away starts a 30-day timer on the mailbox. The right route keeps access to the mail without paying for the license.
- We pay for licenses nobody usesBetween leavers, duplicate plans, and test accounts there is often 10-20% wasted license spend. A usage report exposes it fast.
None of the above fits?
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