How to automate License Distribution to Group when user is added

Question

Let's say I have Group A and B. The people in Group A get an E3 License while people in Group B get a Business Standard License. How do I automate it so that when a user is added in either group, they automatically get assigned the license?

Answer 1

The group-based licensing feature is what you are looking for: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/fundamentals/concept-group-based-licensing

Answer 2

Hello @Alex Demetriou,

Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Q&A.

As per your request, you want to automate user license assignment based on group membership using group-based licensing. For instance, members of Group A should be assigned an E3 license, while Group B members should receive a Business Standard license.

To achieve this, you can assign licenses directly to groups. When a user is added to a group that has a license assigned (such as the HR Department group with 10 E3 licenses), they will automatically inherit the corresponding license without needing individual assignment. For example, if 5 users are added to the HR Department group, they will all receive the E3 license.

For detailed instructions, please refer to the following document on assigning licenses based on group membership in Microsoft Entra ID:

Assign licenses to users by group membership in Microsoft Entra ID

To automate license assignments based on group membership in Microsoft Entra ID, you can follow these steps:

1. Create Groups: First, create your groups (e.g., Group A and Group B) in Microsoft Entra ID. Make sure Group A is associated with the E3 license and Group B with the Business Standard license.
2. Assign Licenses to Groups: Navigate to the Microsoft Entra ID admin center. Go to the "Groups" section and select the appropriate group (e.g., Group A). In the group settings, assign the E3 license to Group A. Similarly, assign the Business Standard license to Group B.
3. Add Users to Groups: Add users to Group A or Group B as needed. Users added to Group A will automatically inherit the E3 license, and those added to Group B will receive the Business Standard license.
4. Automatic Assignment: When a user is added to Group A or Group B, Entra ID will automatically assign the corresponding license to that user based on the group's license assignment.
5. Verification: You can verify license assignments by checking the user's profile in the Entra ID admin center or using PowerShell scripts to retrieve license information for users in specific groups.

I hope this information is helpful. Please feel free to reach out if you have any further questions.

Please Accept the answer if the information helped you. This will help us and others in the community as well.

Thanks,
Raja Pothuraju.