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MICROSOFT 365 PLANS FOR ENTERPRISE USERS

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On December 4, 2025, Microsoft announced new features coming to the Microsoft 365 plans for Enterprise users, with full details available in a downloadable Partner Launch Kit. The additions will begin to roll out from July 2026, and are summarized in the table below:

Newly added featuresMicrosoft 365 E3Microsoft 365 E5
Copilot Chat Analytics
Copilot Chat enhancements
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1
Intune Plan 2*
Intune Remote Help*
Intune Advanced Analytics*
Intune Endpoint Privilege Management*
Intune Enterprise Application Management*
Microsoft Cloud PKI*

*These features are equivalent to the Intune Suite.

Overview

The Microsoft 365 plans are all licensed by user and aimed at one of three different user types: Frontline Workers, SMB users, or Enterprise users. In this section we’ll look at the plans specifically aimed at Enterprise users: Microsoft 365 Enterprise E3 and E5. There isn’t really an official definition of an Enterprise user – we’ll use it to describe a user who works for an organization that has more than 300 users, or that needs more sophisticated security, management or compliance tools than a “regular” SMB.

The precursor to the Microsoft 365 Enterprise plans was the Enterprise Cloud Suite which launched in December 2014 as a single license for Windows 8, the EMS suite, and Office 365 E3. It evolved into Secure Productive Enterprise in October 2016 with two editions: E3 and E5. Finally, Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 were launched in July 2017, and are the collections of the plans shown in the table below:

Microsoft 365 E3Microsoft 365 E5
Windows 11 Enterprise E3 
Windows 11 Enterprise E5 
Office 365 E3 
Office 365 E5 
EMS E3 
EMS E5 

Find out which licenses include which features by using our interactive Microsoft 365/Office 365 Plan Picker. It’s an intuitive tool which provides licensing suggestions based on your selected features. For further in-depth detail, Microsoft’s Plan Comparison document is a splendid resource which is updated regularly and will assist you in finding out about the (seemingly endless) individual components that are included In the Microsoft 365 E3/E5 plans.