When do Service Accounts Require Additional Licensing?

• Applications and automated tasks running on-premises servers or in the cloud may require additional licensing that organizations may not have planned for.
• Surprise licensing can be required with service accounts (services that run as a specific user on PCs), as well as automated scripts and applications or robotic process automation.
• Organizations should assess and understand the scope of their potential licensing shortfall before purchasing licenses to resolve license noncompliance.

Service accounts are used in certain scenarios where applications or automated tasks must run in the security context of a user to access resources or services. This use of service accounts—more expansive than the specific definition of service accounts within Windows—is likely to need additional licensing for Microsoft software or services that are being directly or indirectly accessed.

This issue can introduce unexpected licensing costs and complexity for organizations. Few options are available other than purchasing additional licenses to achieve license compliance, although larger organizations may be able to negotiate exceptions to avoid additional costs.