Assign Teams add-on licenses to users

Add-on licenses are licenses for specific Teams capabilities like Audio Conferencing, Phone System, and Calling Plans. This article describes how to assign add-on licenses to individual users and large sets of users in bulk.

You can use the Microsoft 365 admin center or PowerShell to assign licenses to users in your organization. You must be a User management admin to manage licenses.

What you need to know before you assign Phone System, Calling Plan, and Communication Credits licenses

Before you get started, review the following requirements:

• If you're using on-premises Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) connectivity for users, you only need to assign a Teams Phone Standard license. Do NOT assign a Calling Plan license.

• After assigning a Microsoft Calling Plan to a user, it can take up to 24 hours before they'll see the dial pad in their Teams client. If the dial pad isn't shown in 24 hours, check your dial pad configuration. If necessary, you can also contact support.

• You'll get an error message if you haven't purchased the correct number of licenses. If you need to buy more Calling Plan licenses, choose the option to buy more.

• Even if your users are assigned Enterprise E5 licenses, you still need to connect them to the PSTN. You have several PSTN connectivity options, including Microsoft Teams Calling Plans, Direct Routing, or Operator Connect.

• After you assign Calling Plan or Communication Credits licenses to your users, you'll need to get phone numbers for your organization, and then assign those numbers to users. For step-by-step instructions, see Set up Calling Plans.

Using the Microsoft 365 admin center

Use the Microsoft 365 admin center to assign licenses to individual users or small sets of users at a time.

You assign licenses on the Licenses page (for up to 20 users at a time) or the Active users page (for up to 40 users at a time). The method you choose depends on whether you want to manage product licenses for specific users or manage user licenses for specific products.

For step-by-step instructions, see Assign licenses to users.

If you need to assign licenses for a large number of users, such as hundreds or thousands of users, use PowerShell or group-based licensing in Microsoft Entra ID.

Using PowerShell

Use PowerShell to assign licenses to users in bulk. To learn more, see Assign licenses to user accounts with PowerShell.

Example script

Here's an example of how to use a script to assign licenses to your users.

1. Install the Microsoft Graph PowerShell Module.

2. At the Windows PowerShell command prompt, run the following script to assign licenses to your users, where CompanyName:License is your organization name and the identifier for the license that you want to assign. For example, litwareinc:MCOMEETADV.

   The identifier is different than the friendly name of the license. For example, the identifier for Audio Conferencing is MCOMEETADV. To learn more, see Product names and SKU identifiers for licensing.

    # Create a text file with a single column that lists the user principal names (UPNs) of users to assign licenses to. The MSOL service uses the UPN to license user accounts.
    # Example of text file:
    # [email protected]
    # [email protected]
    
    # Import Module
    Import-Module Microsoft.Graph.Users.Actions
    
    # Authenticate to Microsoft Graph
    Connect-MgGraph
    
    # File prompt to select the userlist txt file
    [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.windows.forms") | Out-Null
        $OFD = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.OpenFileDialog
        $OFD.filter = "text files (*.*)| *.txt"
        $OFD.ShowDialog() | Out-Null
        $OFD.filename
    
    If ($OFD.filename -eq '')
    {
    Write-Host "You did not choose a file. Try again" -ForegroundColor White -BackgroundColor Red
    }
    
    # Create a variable of all users
    $users = Get-Content $OFD.filename
    
    # License each user in the $users variable
      $EmsSku = Get-MgSubscribedSku -All | Where SkuPartNumber -eq ''
      $addLicenses = @(
      @{SkuId = $EmsSku.SkuId}
      )

      foreach ($user in $users){
      Write-host "Assigning License: $user"
      Set-MgUserLicense -UserId $user -AddLicenses $addLicenses -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
      }

For example, to assign Microsoft 365 Enterprise E1 and Audio Conferencing licenses, use the following syntax in the script:

    Connect-Graph -Scopes User.ReadWrite.All, Organization.Read.All

    $EmsSku = Get-MgSubscribedSku -All | Where SkuPartNumber -eq 'ENTERPRISEPACK'
    $FlowSku = Get-MgSubscribedSku -All | Where SkuPartNumber -eq 'MCOMEETADV'
    $addLicenses = @(
    @{SkuId = $EmsSku.SkuId},
    @{SkuId = $FlowSku.SkuId}
    )

    Set-MgUserLicense -UserId $user -AddLicenses $addLicenses -RemoveLicenses @()

To assign a Teams Phone with Calling Plan license, use the following syntax in the script:

    Connect-Graph -Scopes User.ReadWrite.All, Organization.Read.All

    $EmsSku = Get-MgSubscribedSku -All | Where SkuPartNumber -eq 'MCOTEAMS_ESSENTIALS'

    Set-MgUserLicense -UserId $user -AddLicenses @() -RemoveLicenses @()

Product names and SKU identifiers for licensing

Here's a partial list of product names and their corresponding SKU part names that you can reference when you use PowerShell to manage licenses in Teams.

To learn more, see View licenses and services with PowerShell, Product names and service plan identifiers for licensing, and Education SKU reference.

Related content

• Teams add-on licensing
• Manage user access to Teams
• View licenses and services with PowerShell
• Product names and service plan identifiers for licensing
• Education SKU reference