March 2, 2026
BlogMicrosoft 365 E7: A New Agent-Centered Subscription Plan Expected Soon
Microsoft is expected to introduce a new Microsoft 365 subscription sometime in the next few months: The long-rumored E7. But M365 E7 isn’t simply Microsoft 365 E5 plus M365 Copilot, according to sources. The coming E7 will be key to Microsoft’s plan to license “agentic” workers like human employees, Directions on Microsoft hears.
Like Business Insider, Directions is hearing that the E7 subscription will include Microsoft 365 Copilot, as well as the company’s recently introduced Agent 365 agent-management control plane. The E7 licensing tier also could include Entra features that are not currently part of Microsoft 365 E5 as part of a broader push to integrate digital identity and governance.
Agent 365 — which is currently in preview as part of Microsoft’s “Frontier” test program — is not a service. It’s a set of features including identity management using Entra, compliance controls using Purview, and security infrastructure using Defender XDR. Agent 365 supports agents built using Microsoft tools, third-party and open-source frameworks, and those running in partner clouds. These agents can be built using Copilot Studio, Microsoft Foundry, the M365 Agents Toolkit, the Agent Framework, and the Agent 365 SDK.
We asked Microsoft for comment on M365 E7, but no word back so far.
M365 E7: First New M356 Enterprise Subscription Since 2015
Microsoft’s decision to go ahead with an E7 subscription is surprising in some ways, and not so much in others.
M365 E7 will be the first new M365 licensing tier for enterprises that Microsoft has introduced since it launched M365 E5 in 2015. In spite of Microsoft’s constant pressure on customers to move users to M365 E5, uptake has been gradual, though picking up steam in recent months. (In 2022, the last time Microsoft disclosed publicly an E5 subscriber count, officials said 12 percent of its Office 365/Microsoft 365 installed base were E5 subscribers.)
In recent years, Microsoft has been introducing pricey security, governance and collaboration add-ons to M365 E5 rather than integrating these features into its existing enterprise subscriptions. Late last year, however, Microsoft announced plans to fold some previously separately priced add-ons — such as Defender for Office Plan 1’s enhanced email security features and certain advanced Intune capabilities — into its E3 and E5 plans.
Because Microsoft 365 Copilot’s adoption to date has been modest, with just over three percent of Microsoft’s 450 million M365 business subscribers purchasing seats, Microsoft no doubt is looking for ways to try to entice more business customers to purchase and use Microsoft 365 Copilot. In recent months, the company has been discounting M365 Copilot, the list price of which remains US$30 per user per month for enterprises, in its licensing deals with some customers, but the price reduction seemingly has not moved the needle much.
Starting July 1, Microsoft will be increasing its Office and Microsoft 365 suite prices across the board. M365 E3 will go from US$36 to US$39 per user per month. And E5 will jump to US$60 per user per month from its current US$57 price. It would make sense for Microsoft to introduce E7 around that time at a price that would make it interesting to those facing these coming price hikes.
What About E7 Pricing?
The biggest question for many when it comes to E7 is the price. Business Insider’s sources say the new E7 subscription could be priced at US$99 per user per month. But E7 needs to be priced very competitively to win over those who’ve been largely fence-sitting during Microsoft’s M365 Copilot AI push.
Microsoft officials have said to expect agents, as they proliferate in the enterprise, to need to be licensed in ways similar to human employees. They’ll need Entra IDs, email accounts, OneDrive accounts, Teams accounts, and more. If the inclusion of Agent 365 in E7 gives customers a simple and affordable way to license digital agents, it might be worth more than simply E5 (at $60 per user per month) plus M365 Copilot (at $30 per user per month) combined.
We hear Microsoft could be planning to switch up how E7 is priced. Instead of simply going with a per-user subscription fee, Microsoft could be looking at some kind of hybrid user- and consumption-based pricing as the way to go here.
“Potential consumption-based pricing reinforces the convergence between M365 licensing and Azure economics. That would align AI workloads more directly with Azure revenue models and deepen the M365/Azure integration story,” said Directions’ Director of Advisory Services Lane Shelton.
Shelton added: “This isn’t about a new licensing tier. It’s about Microsoft positioning itself as the enterprise AI control plane for the emerging digital worker.”
