Microsoft 365 Business Premium: What Is Included and Who Needs It
Microsoft 365 Business Premium is the plan we put most clients on, and the plan whose contents people most often misunderstand, partly because Microsoft has renamed it twice. This article lists exactly what is in it as of 2026, how it differs from Business Standard, what it costs, and the honest answer to who needs it. If you last looked at these plans when they were called Office 365, most of what follows will be new.
First, the naming
In 2013 Microsoft launched Office 365 Small Business Premium, which became Office 365 Business Premium. In April 2020 that plan was renamed Microsoft 365 Business Standard, and a different plan, then called Microsoft 365 Business, was renamed Microsoft 365 Business Premium. So today’s Business Premium is not the old Business Premium; it is the top of the three Business plans, sitting above Basic and Standard, and it is the one with the security tools. All three are capped at 300 users; larger organisations use the Enterprise plans.
What Business Premium includes
| Area | What you get |
|---|---|
| Office apps | Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote and Access (PC) installed on up to five computers, five tablets and five phones per person, plus the web and mobile versions |
| Email and calendar | Exchange Online with a 50 GB mailbox per person, shared mailboxes, and Exchange Online Archiving for an unlimited, auto-expanding archive |
| Files and collaboration | 1 TB of OneDrive per person, SharePoint, Teams (meetings, chat, phone-system ready), Bookings, Planner, Loop and Clipchamp |
| Endpoint security | Microsoft Defender for Business: endpoint detection and response for Windows, macOS, iOS and Android, with automated investigation and a server add-on |
| Email security | Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1: Safe Links, Safe Attachments and impersonation protection against phishing |
| Identity | Microsoft Entra ID P1: Conditional Access (for example, require MFA and a managed device to open email), self-service password reset and group-based licensing |
| Device management | Microsoft Intune Plan 1: enrol and configure Windows, Mac, iOS and Android devices, push settings and apps, enforce encryption, wipe a lost phone; Windows Autopilot for zero-touch setup |
| Data protection | Microsoft Purview Information Protection: sensitivity labels and data loss prevention for email and files, plus basic retention and eDiscovery |
| Windows rights | Upgrade rights from Windows Pro to Windows 11 Business, and use rights for Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 |
| AI | Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat included; Microsoft 365 Copilot inside the apps is an add-on licence |
How it differs from Business Standard
Business Standard has the same apps, email, storage and Teams. What it lacks is everything from Endpoint security downward in the table: no Defender for Business, no Defender for Office 365, no Conditional Access, no Intune, no sensitivity labels or data loss prevention. Business Basic drops the desktop apps as well. At the time of writing, Microsoft’s list price for Business Premium is $22 per user per month on an annual commitment, roughly $8 more than Business Standard; check Microsoft’s site for current pricing, which changed for several plans in 2026. For that difference you get the four products, Defender, Intune, Entra ID P1 and Purview, that a business would otherwise be told to buy separately, and that a cyber-insurance application assumes you have. Our Microsoft 365 plan picker works through which plan each type of employee needs.
Who needs Business Premium
- Anyone answering a cyber-insurance application. The questions about MFA everywhere, endpoint detection, encryption on laptops and email link protection are all answered by Business Premium features, once configured. The cyber insurance readiness check shows the questions.
- Regulated businesses: HIPAA covered entities and their vendors, firms handling card data, defence contractors working toward CMMC. Conditional Access, Intune and Purview are the controls those frameworks describe.
- Businesses with laptops and phones outside the office, which is most of them. Intune is what makes a lost laptop a lost laptop instead of a breach.
- Anyone with more than about ten users, simply because the alternative of separate security products costs more and is managed in more places.
Who does not need it: a shop-floor or warehouse employee who reads email on a shared terminal is well served by Business Basic; a business that has already standardised on SentinelOne and Huntress, Intune-free device management and a third-party email filter can reasonably stay on Standard, though we usually find the total is not cheaper. Role addresses such as sales@ or info@ need no licence at all as shared mailboxes.
The part the licence does not do
Business Premium is a box of tools, and most of them are off until someone turns them on. Defender for Business needs onboarding on every device and a person watching alerts. Conditional Access policies have to be written, tested and enforced; the default “security defaults” setting is a starting point, not a policy. Intune needs enrolment, compliance rules and an encryption policy with recovery keys escrowed. Data loss prevention needs rules that match how your business actually handles card numbers or patient records. We regularly meet businesses paying for Business Premium with none of this configured, which is Business Standard at a higher price. Configuring it properly is a project of a few weeks and then part of the monthly Microsoft 365 support under a managed plan.
How it fits with what we run for clients
Our clients on Business Premium get Conditional Access requiring MFA and a compliant device, Intune managing every laptop with BitLocker enforced, Defender for Office 365 in front of every mailbox and sensitivity labels where the business needs them. For endpoint detection we run SentinelOne with Huntress behind it, per computer and server, because that is what our 24/7 monitoring is built around; Defender for Business is used where a client prefers a single-vendor stack. Our endpoint security guide explains the reasoning, and the pricing calculator gives the monthly figure for the whole arrangement.
Moving to Business Premium
From Business Standard the move is a licence change with no migration: assign the new licence, then configure the security features in a planned order, usually MFA and Conditional Access first, then Defender for Office 365, then Intune enrolment, then encryption and data protection. From an on-premises Exchange server or a perpetual Office licence it is a migration project; our article on whether to migrate to Microsoft 365 covers that, and our comparison of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace helps if you are choosing between platforms rather than plans.
Free tools from OAC Technology
- Microsoft 365 plan picker: which Microsoft 365 plans fit your people
- Cyber insurance readiness check: fourteen questions insurers ask, scored in a minute
- Email spoofing check: whether a criminal can send email as your company
Common questions
Is Microsoft 365 Business Premium the same as the old Office 365 Business Premium?
No, and the naming is genuinely confusing. In April 2020 Microsoft renamed the old Office 365 Business Premium to Microsoft 365 Business Standard, and renamed the plan then called Microsoft 365 Business to Microsoft 365 Business Premium. If your invoice from 2019 said Business Premium, you are on what is now Business Standard.
What is the user limit?
Business Premium, like all the Business plans, is capped at 300 users. Organisations above that move to the Enterprise plans, E3 and E5, which cost more and include more.
Does Business Premium include Copilot?
It includes Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, the web-based assistant. Microsoft 365 Copilot, which works inside Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams with your company data, is a separate add-on licence per user.
Do we still need antivirus if we have Business Premium?
Business Premium includes Microsoft Defender for Business, a genuine endpoint detection and response product. It needs to be deployed, configured and watched to be worth anything, and many managed providers, including us, still run SentinelOne with Huntress behind it because that is what our monitoring is built around. Either way, the licence alone protects nothing.
Can we mix Business Premium with cheaper plans?
Yes. A common pattern is Business Premium for staff with laptops and mailboxes, Business Basic for shop-floor or part-time staff who only need web email and Teams, and a shared mailbox, which is free, for role addresses. Our plan picker works through it.
Is Teams included?
In the United States, yes. Microsoft also sells versions of the plans without Teams for customers who use another meeting platform; the difference is a few dollars per user.
Talk to us
If you are paying for Business Premium and are not sure which of its features are actually turned on, we will review your tenant and tell you, at no charge. Call 952-548-5558 or contact us; the first conversation is free and there is no long-term contract.
