Beyond E5—What's in GCC?

While Microsoft has continued to expand the number of premium features that require additional licensing beyond any available Microsoft 365 suite, there are four add-ons in particular that point to a new trend in how Microsoft charges for new features: 

There are four add-ons that became generally available, pointing to a new trend in how Microsoft charged for new features:

• Entra ID Governance
• Intune Plan 2 and Intune Suite
• Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management
• Teams Premium.

Note that the Intune Suite and Intune Plan 2 have been partially added to Microsoft 365 E3, and fully to Microsoft 365 E5 ahead of the price increase of Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites on July 1, 2026. It’s anticipated that these Intune add-ons will likely be discontinued at some point in the future.

These add-ons shared three characteristics:

• Each required a service included in one of the Microsoft 365 enterprise suites (E3 or E5) 
• Each had reasonably