New Microsoft Entra ID Free Subscription Enhances Identity Management for Organizations
The new Entra ID Free plan helps organizations improve tenant visibility, ownership tracking, and identity governance at no cost.
Key Takeaways:
- Microsoft launches a new Entra ID Free subscription to improve tenant visibility and ownership tracking.
- The update ties tenant management directly to billing accounts for easier administration.
- Part of Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative to enhance identity governance and security.
Microsoft has introduced a new free subscription plan, Microsoft Entra ID Free, aimed at helping organizations easily track Entra tenant ownership through their billing accounts. The launch is part of Microsoft’s broader Secure Future Initiative, reinforcing identity management and governance across enterprise environments.
Microsoft Entra ID Free is a free subscription that shows up in the organization’s account to represent the Entra tenant. Enterprise admins will be able to access this subscription under Billing > Your Products in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, and Cost Management + Billing > Products + services > All billing subscriptions in the Microsoft Azure portal. Customers won’t be able to change or remove it as long as they are still using Microsoft services.
“As part of Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative, we’re making improvements to Microsoft Entra ID tenant management and security. Microsoft couples subscription ownership to a billing account to provide clear ownership and visibility for the Microsoft Entra tenants you own. The subscription tracks new tenants created with the same billing account, allowing you to maintain an inventory of all new tenants. The subscription also helps proves tenant ownership and help regain administrative access if you ever lose administrative access,” Microsoft explained.
Services included in Microsoft Entra ID free
Microsoft Entra ID Free offers key identity and access management features at no additional cost. These include user and group management, on-premises directory synchronization, basic reports, self-service password change for cloud users, single sign-on across Azure, Microsoft 365, and many popular SaaS apps.
The Microsoft Entra ID free subscription is gradually rolling out to all commercial customers, and it’s expected to be generally available in the next few months. However, it won’t affect billing or functionality and will help manage tenant ownership securely.
Benefits for IT teams and administrators
This subscription helps IT teams maintain a clear inventory of Entra tenants linked to their billing accounts, which is especially useful for proving ownership or recovering access in case of administrative issues. This initiative supports Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative that enhances governance and simplifies tenant management for IT administrators.
Microsoft has recently introduced a new Group Source of Authority (SOA) feature in Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD). It allows organizations to shift group management from on-premises Active Directory (AD DS) to the cloud. This feature requires updating to the latest version of Azure AD Connect or Entra Connect Sync.
Rabia has a master's degree in Software Engineering and she has years of experience writing professionally about Microsoft products and other technologies. Rabia has also written for OnMSFT.com as well as Windows Report. She is always up to date on t...
