Microsoft 365 E7 – what’s included in the new premium package, and is it worth it?
Introduction
On May 1, 2026, Microsoft introduced a new enterprise-grade license, Microsoft 365 E7 (also called the “Frontier Suite”). It is the first new Enterprise tier in ten years, with the previous E5 license having launched in 2015.
The list price is €91.92 per user/month (annual subscription, VAT 0%). It’s worth noting that in the European Economic Area (EEA), a version without Teams is also available for €84.51 per user/month if Teams is purchased separately.
E7 is not an entirely new product. Rather, it bundles four components that were previously sold separately into a single subscription/SKU, plus one genuinely new addition.
In this article, we'll cover:
What the package consists of
What each component does
Who it is relevant for
When moving to E7 makes financial sense
What Is Included in E7?
1. Microsoft 365 E5 (€58.13/month if purchased separately)
Description: The foundation for company productivity, security, identity, and compliance. It includes Office applications, Teams, Microsoft Defender (XDR) protection, Microsoft Purview compliance capabilities, Entra ID P2, and analytics tools.
Benefits and target audience: This is already the current or target licensing level for many organizations. There is nothing new about E5 within E7, but it provides the foundation on which the other components are built. It includes comprehensive security and compliance capabilities, making licensing simpler and more centralized.
2. Microsoft 365 Copilot (€26.00/month if purchased separately)
Description: Generative AI embedded within Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams, connected to your organization's own data.
Benefits and target audience: Provides tangible time savings for routine work. Copilot helps draft content, create summaries, and assist with data analysis, among many other tasks. You can read more about Copilot’s benefits in our blog and customer success stories.
The key difference within E7 is that Copilot is included in the package rather than being a separate add-on. This simplifies procurement and standardizes adoption across the organization instead of maintaining a separate license pool.
3. Microsoft Entra Suite (approximately €12/month if purchased separately)
Description: A comprehensive identity and network access management solution that extends Entra capabilities to their full potential. The Entra Suite includes:
Entra Private Access: Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) for internal applications, replacing VPNs
Entra Internet Access: Secure Web Gateway for internet and SaaS traffic
Entra ID Governance (full version): Identity lifecycle automation including lifecycle workflows, dynamic processes, automation capabilities, and extensibility through Logic Apps
Entra Verified ID Premium: Verifiable credentials and Face Check (biometric verification)
Benefits and to whom: Replaces standalone point solutions such as VPNs and separate SWG products and brings Zero Trust access management together under Conditional Access. It also reduces dependency on on-premises network infrastructure such as firewalls, making it particularly suitable for remote offices and remote workers.
Important note: The Entra ID P2 included with E5 provides only basic governance features. Lifecycle Workflows, machine learning-assisted access reviews, and many other automated identity governance capabilities require the full Entra Suite. This is therefore much more than a product renaming exercise.
Who benefits?
• CISOs: Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), risk-based protection, and centralized identity management.
• IT teams: Replaces VPNs and standalone SWGs, reducing the number of products that need managing.
• HR teams: Automates the employee lifecycle (joiner-mover-leaver) and enables reliable remote onboarding.
Learn more about Entra Suite in our guide: From AD to Entra Suite: Embracing Cloud-Only Identity and Access Management.
4. Agent 365 (€13.00/month if purchased separately – the only truly new component in E7)
Description: A centralized platform for governing and securing AI agents. It integrates with Microsoft Defender, Entra, and Purview, extending existing security and compliance policies to AI agents. It unifies security controls, privacy protections, monitoring, and governance.
Benefits and to whom: As organizations begin deploying autonomous AI agents, each agent effectively becomes a new identity and a potential attack surface. From an identity perspective, agents should be treated similarly to human users. Agent 365 provides the same level of visibility and governance for agents that organizations already have for employees: what each agent does, which permissions it has, and who is responsible for overseeing it.
Important note: Purview DSPM for AI is not new to E7, as it is already included in E5 and E5 Compliance. What is new is the integration. Agent 365 feeds agent activity directly into Purview’s governance interface, creating a unified view of both human and AI agent activity.
Learn more about Agent 365 in our webinar: AI agent governance and security in practice
A Cost Perspective on E7
Three of the four components alone (E5 + Copilot + Agent 365) add up to approximately €97/month, which already exceeds the cost of the entire E7 package.
In that sense, you could say that Entra Suite comes bundled at no additional cost.
Additional promotional discounts may also be available through the CSP channel during 2026. Final pricing depends on the licensing model and the CSP partner, meaning calculations should always be performed on a customer-specific basis.
One important consideration is that the E7 subscription does not cover all AI agent usage costs. Consumption-based charges related to agents, such as Cowork, Copilot Studio and Microsoft Foundry, are billed separately (=token usage, pay-as-you-go or prepaid consumption).
When Does E7 Make Sense?
The clearest value comes for organizations that already use Microsoft 365 E5, purchase Copilot separately, have strong identity governance practices in place, is ready to move Copilot from pilot projects into production and to scale the use of AI agents. For these organizations, adopting E7 is almost an obvious choice.
Organizations should evaluate more carefully if Copilot adoption is still in its early stages or if AI agents are not yet in use. In such cases, Agent 365 as a standalone add-on may be an appropriate first step, allowing to address agent governance challenges without committing to the entire suite.
Licensing decisions may also be influenced by broader identity modernization initiatives and requirements for Entra Suite-based identity management capabilities.
E7 delivers the greatest value when organizations utilize all four components, or at least three of them. Otherwise, you paying for capabilities that remain unused.
Summary and Next Steps
E7 represents a shift from managing individual productivity tools toward governing AI agents at scale. Its pricing is particularly attractive for organizations that are already AI leaders or aspire to become one. However, it is not automatically the right solution for everyone.
We recommend reviewing your current licensing landscape and actual usage patterns. When user groups are properly mapped to the correct licensing tiers, organizations typically achieve savings of 15–20%.
We are happy to help assess your current environment, create a realistic transition roadmap, implement the new capabilities across your organization, and ensure you achieve the maximum value from your investment. Get in touch!
