Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) Premium licenses unlock additional functionality for cloud identity and security capabilities. For many organizations, it is not possible to implement and manage Office 365 to the level of security necessary without Entra ID Premium. In addition to Office 365, Entra ID Premium functionality is also immensely useful for 3rd party software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications.

Entra ID Premium is available in two versions: “P1” and “P2”. Most of the features in Entra ID are included in P1. You can license Entra ID Premium P1 individually, or you can get it as part of a bundle such as Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) E3 or Microsoft 365 E3. The P2 licenses adds more features. This license is also available individually, or as part of EMS E5 or Microsoft 365 E5. Unless otherwise noted, you can assume that any features we discuss in this article require P1.