Azure-docs: Clarification on free Azure AD B2B users which do not need any additional Azure AD features

[ShawnPOWER]

It is unclear to me if there is a free tier of Azure AD B2B based on reading this document. It would be great to include some verbiage around that in more detail. I understand Basic and higher Azure AD Licenses and how that relates to B2B, I just am unclear on the free Azure AD use case here.

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Document Details

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• ID: d9de7df3-1669-e58d-ae57-bdc8993ac35f
• Version Independent ID: 3a1d7ec3-b46f-3c87-2dc6-846cc815a530
• Content: B2B collaboration licensing guidance - Azure Active Directory
• Content Source: articles/active-directory/b2b/licensing-guidance.md
• Service: active-directory
• Sub-service: b2b
• GitHub Login: @msmimart
• Microsoft Alias: mimart

[SaurabhSharma-MSFT]

@ShawnPOWER Thanks for the feedback ! I have assigned this issue to content author to investigate and update the document as appropriate.

[msmimart]

Hi @ShawnPOWER, the more comprehensive source for licensing and pricing details is the Azure AD Pricing page (see the footnote on that page regarding B2B). A link to the pricing page is listed under Next Steps, but we'll plan to add a more prominent link. Thanks for your feedback!

[ShawnPOWER]

Hi @msmimart, the comprehensive source is helpful and pricing. Thank you!

[ScoutmanPt]

Hi @ShawnPOWER, current Azure Pricing documentation is still not clear and we need to have a clear vision on it since most of our clients are leveraging these features
We went through this: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/b2b/licensing-guidance,https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/b2b/o365-external-user and https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/active-directory
and although it always refers the 1:5 ratio (1 AzureAD\O365 licensed user = 5 Guest accounts) the documentation and examples are not explicit enough. Some are related to Premium features (MFA) and none related to Office 365 it-self
So … here’s the scenario:

Client Office 365 Tenant, with 20 E3 users
The client wants to invite each year around 1000 external users

20 E3 users allows 100 guests accounts

External users will access Office 365 client intranet as visitors (read only)
External users will have Members rights in some client portals (site collections)

For the remaining 900 external users …

1. Client should buy 900/5 (1:5 ratio) AzureAD Basic licenses ? (around 1$ each user per month )

2. Client should buy 900 AzureAD Basic licenses ?

3. Client should buy 900/5 Office 365 licenses ?

4. Client don’t need to buy anything?

Any help we would be much appreciated.

Thanks

[heinrich-ulbricht]

@ScoutmanPt An excellent question when thinking about an extranet scenario for SharePoint Online-based solutions.

A similar case:

• adding 1000 external users each year
• they have mostly visitor rights
• EXCEPT in one document library in each site to upload documents

Based on what I read my assumption in this case would be: no additional cost ist involved (=your case 4). Unless you start adding features like MFA etc. - the payed ones.

[ScoutmanPt]

Hi @heinrich-ulbricht, thanks for the reply: I'm assuming the same . With the hub features most of our clients are increasing the number of extranet users and since the documentation is not that accurate we\they need a official confirmation on this from the supplier(Microsoft) . @ShawnPOWER can you confirm within the licensing internal team if external visitors\members in clients intranet dont need any license if no azure premium features are present? Im trying to reach my contacts in Microsoft but August is a bad time for it. Seems everybody is on vacation.
Thanks

[andikrueger]

Looking for a define answer too. It would be great to have a more detailed overview on this topic - especially in regards of this preview feature: https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/sharepoint/sharepoint-azureb2b-integration-preview

[LeonardoFelippine]

I have the feeling that not even Microsoft is sure about these rules. We have had a really long-running support case about Azure AD Premium features (not only related to guests), and no one could provide a definitive answer. They always point to these dubious documentation.

[msmimart]

I checked this out with the licensing team, who confirmed: Whether you need to buy additional licenses or not depends on what Azure AD features you want to use. If licensed users only use features that are already included in Azure AD Free and B2B external users don’t need additional premium features, you don’t need to buy additional licenses.

In the case of Office 365 subscriptions, again you need to buy additional licenses only if you need paid features. Note that if you have Office 365 E or Office 365 F, the Office 365 Apps version of Azure AD (column at the far right of the pricing page) is included. For all other Office 365 subscriptions other than E or F, Azure AD Free is included. So in the scenario mentioned earlier -- where you have 20 Office 365 E3 users and you want to allow 1000 external users -- you’re correct that if you want to provide paid features, you’d need to buy 900/5 licenses that include those features.

[ScoutmanPt]

Hi @msmimart, thanks for the reply. When you say Office 365 "paid features " you mean creating content/collaboration? If I have an external user viewing content in SharePoint no license required but if they want to upload / edit a page we should use the 1/5 ratio? Is it possible to add this information to the documentation with examples?
Thanks again

[ShawnPOWER]

Hi @ScoutmanPt, I am still confused, I don't work for Microsoft so I don't know the answers here.

I have talked with some Microsoft folks that have said you just need to license them as you would a SharePoint user internally, so buy a SharePoint license for them and Azure AD licenses as needed. Technically, I don't think certain things are enforced in the SharePoint Online Software as a Service (SaaS) so in my opinion it seems silly to license them fully if the SaaS doesn't prevent you from doing what you need without a license. I understand on premises that is different but this is a SaaS we are talking about, it should stop me if I shouldn't do something so I don't have to know the details of the licensing terms. I have talked with other Microsoft folks that the 5:1 ratio is an arbitrary limit to adding guests and can be increased via support (can't confirm this). Basically I think even Microsoft isn't 100% sure what the plan is here.

From my experience playing around with it, on your example, I think @heinrich-ulbricht is right. You wouldn't need to buy them anything technically to have them be members on the site (they would just be Azure AD Free users with the same functionality as the person that invited them (an E3). Now is that the right things licensing wise officially, I have no clue and can't get a solid answer. It would be awesome if Microsoft folks could update these documents to reflect what we need to do with examples. The SharePoint and OneDrive for business documentation on sharing externally may also need an update too in order to reflect what ever comes out of the Azure AD discussion.

[heinrich-ulbricht]

Since it is not quite clear how to interpret the multiple incarnations of similar information revolving around "paid features" we could add common scenarios to the documentation and how they are to be handled.

The first two scenarios are already here:

1. https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs/issues/36139#issuecomment-520341313 - is the answer 1, 2, 3, 4 or different?
2. https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs/issues/36139#issuecomment-520463152 - is my assumption correct or not?

Like quality scenarios for software development we need license scenarios that make the complexity of the topic easier to handle for people who are not members of the licensing team ;)

[msmimart]

As overall guidance, it might help to think of it this way:

• SharePoint Online has external sharing features (that are described here). For info about the features external users have access to, see the SharePoint Online Enterprise service description.
• The 1:5 ratio applies to paid Azure AD features, as listed on the Azure AD pricing page. This includes things like multi-factor authentication and self-service password reset (anything that isn’t included in Free Azure AD). You can add up to 5 contacts for each paid Azure AD subscription, and those contacts are allowed to use same Azure AD features as the paid subscription.

[msmimart]

Hope that helps clarify what we mean by paid Azure AD features. Thanks all for pointing out specific scenarios; I passed them along to the licensing team for consideration as they update the Azure AD pricing page. We're moving toward making the Azure AD pricing page the main source of B2B licensing info instead of expanding this B2B article. Since there aren’t updates here, I’ll go ahead and close this issue, but we're continuing to follow up on the feedback internally.

If you have additional scenarios or other feedback, you can also submit comments via the Azure product feedback page under the B2B or Licensing category. #please-close