Where do Microsoft 365 licenses get lost in large tenants?
Most license loss in large Microsoft 365 tenants comes from three patterns: two suites assigned to the same person, such as E3 alongside E5; a service bought separately that a suite already includes, such as Power BI Pro alongside E5; and licenses left on disabled or inactive accounts. On its own, each assignment looks like an ordinary license.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Across the first ten tenants assessed with Ntracko, more than 34,000 license assignments were flagged for review, worth more than $7M per year in potential savings.
- Most of it falls into three patterns: two suites on one person, a service bought separately that a suite already includes, and licenses on unused accounts.
- Licenses on disabled accounts alone came to more than $4M per year.
- In one Fortune 100 tenant we found, 13,000 Power BI Pro assignments already covered by other licenses added up to $2.2M per year.
Why does one person end up with E3 and E5/E7 at the same time?
Adding a license is always someone's task. Removing the old one usually is not. A person is promoted or requests new capabilities (such as Power BI or Copilot) and gets E5/E7, and their E3 stays. A business unit buys its own licenses and later joins the central agreement, or an acquired company brings its own assignment logic into the tenant. The same happens with smaller plans, such as Visio Plan 1 assigned alongside Visio Plan 2.
In the admin center, each of these assignments looks correct on its own. The overlap only shows when every plan a user holds is compared with every other plan – manually, separately for every user.
Why does Power BI Pro stay assigned after a move to E5 or E7?
In most tenants, the standalone licenses arrive first, and the suite comes later. Teams get Power BI Pro one by one as reporting grows. When the organization moves to a suite that already includes it, the earlier assignments stay in place unless someone removes them on purpose.
This happens to organizations that track licenses carefully, too. Every time Microsoft brings a service into a suite, the suite becomes more valuable, and every older standalone assignment of that service becomes a decision someone has to make.
Why do licenses stay on disabled and inactive accounts?
Offboarding and license recovery are two separate steps, and only the first one has a fixed date. The account is disabled on the last day, and the license is recovered later, often in a periodic cleanup that does not catch every case. Shared and project accounts tend to outlive the projects they were created for.
Ntracko Licensing Assessment can give you a straight answer: here are 300 accounts nobody has logged into for months. Consider removing the licenses and putting the savings into something else.
Some of these licenses are kept on purpose. A useful list shows each one with its disable date and last sign-in, so the decision stays with the people who know why it is there.
How do the three patterns compare?
| Pattern | Example | How it builds up | What the assessments found |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two suites on one person | E3 alongside E5, Visio Plan 1 alongside Plan 2 | Promotions, new platform capabilities, business units joining the central agreement, acquisitions | Found almost everywhere |
| A service already inside a suite | Power BI Pro alongside E5 or E7 | Standalone licenses first, suite upgrade later | $2.2M per year in one Fortune 100 tenant |
| Licenses on unused accounts | Disabled accounts, no sign-in for 12 months | Account disabled first, license recovered later or never | More than $4M per year across ten tenants |
What are recovered licenses worth?
A recovered license goes back to your pool, so the next new starter gets one on day one, and the next purchase moves months down the line. The budget freed from overlapping assignments can go to Copilot for the teams that use it, to Azure capacity for the next data project, or to whatever the business needs next.
What the numbers show
$7M+
Potential licensing savings per year identified across the first ten tenants assessed.
CASE
A customer moved to Microsoft 365 E7 with its own automated license management in place. The tool had not yet been updated for E7, which already includes Power BI, so the separate Power BI Pro assignments stayed, up to $200,000 per month.
Source: Ntracko licensing assessments, first ten tenants, September 2026Estimates at public Microsoft USD prices.
Where to start
Request an assessment, and we will set up a short scope call.