Dynamics 365 is Microsoft’s family of cloud business applications for customer relationship management (Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, Contact Center, Customer Insights) and enterprise resource planning (Finance, Supply Chain Management, Commerce, Project Operations, Human Resources and Business Central). Microsoft licenses the applications as subscriptions “per User, Device, or Tenant”, and an organization may mix all three.[2] The contractual rules sit in the Dynamics 365 Services entry of the Microsoft Product Terms; the Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide explains them with examples and list prices but states that it does not replace the Product Terms.[1][2]
The model differs from Microsoft 365 in one important way. Instead of one suite license per user, a Dynamics 365 user who works in several applications holds one full-price Base license and one or more discounted Attach licenses. Lighter users can be covered by cheaper named-user licenses, shared devices by device licenses, and integrations by a tenant-level transaction license.
Editions
Most applications are sold in two or three commercial editions. The list prices below are the US prices printed in the September 2026 Licensing Guide, per user per month, billed annually.[2]
| Application | Editions and list price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | Professional $65; Enterprise $105; Premium $150 | Microsoft Relationship Sales bundles Sales Enterprise with LinkedIn Sales Navigator Advanced Plus[1] |
| Customer Service | Professional $50; Enterprise $105; Premium $195 | Contact Center Digital and Voice are $95 each; Contact Center $110 |
| Field Service | Field Service $105; Field Service Contractor $50 | Contractor license is only for external vendors and contractors |
| Finance | Finance $210; Finance Premium $300 | Premium includes 1K Copilot Credits per user per month |
| Human Resources; Project Operations | $135 each | |
| Business Central | Essentials $80; Premium $110 | Business Central Team Members and Device licenses also exist |
The SKU catalog records these as Base license prices, for example Sales Enterprise, Finance, Field Service Contractor and Business Central Premium. A lower attach price applies when the same application is added to a user who already holds a higher priced Base license.
Professional and Enterprise editions of the same application may be held side by side only if “Each Online Service is deployed under a separate instance, and Licensed users only access instances for which they are entitled.”[1] The same rule allows Business Central to coexist with Finance, Supply Chain Management or Project Operations (rule).
Metrics
Dynamics 365 uses Microsoft’s generic subscription license (SL) units, but the Product Terms and Licensing Guide give each role its own name:
- Dynamics 365 Base license and Dynamics 365 Attach license: full-access named-user licenses. The Licensing Guide states that the two “are identical in their core capabilities and are only differentiated in price”.[2]
- Dynamics 365 Team Members: a named-user license with read access across Dynamics 365 data and a short list of write scenarios.
- Operations - Activity: a named-user license between Team Members and full access, for the Finance and Operations applications.
- Dynamics 365 Device SL and Operations - Device: licenses for dedicated shared devices.
- Operations - Order Lines: a tenant license measured in created or updated order lines.
Capacity add-ons such as Dataverse capacity are tenant licenses and are shared with the Power Platform.
Counting and floors
Base and Attach
The Product Terms state: “When purchasing multiple core Business Applications, the first or Base license must be the highest priced license for the user. Every full user must have a Base license. Dynamics 365 attach user SLs may only be assigned to users with qualifying application licenses.”[1] A user who needs Finance and Sales Enterprise therefore holds Finance as the Base license (the higher list price) and Sales Enterprise as an Attach license. The Licensing Guide prints one exception: users whose Base license is Business Central Premium may add Customer Service Enterprise, Field Service or Sales Enterprise at the $20 attach price.[2] The administration portal will not assign an Attach license to a user without the required Base license (rule).
Capacity follows the first Base license
The first Base license in a tenant brings the default Dataverse or Operations storage capacity. The Licensing Guide says that “Default capacity is not cumulative, so additional licenses (either base or attach) do not increase your initial default per tenant capacity”, although each enterprise Base user license accrues extra database and file capacity. Attach licenses bring no capacity of their own, except Customer Insights Attach.[2] See the capacity rule.
Team Members and Operations - Activity
The Team Members license is “intended for those who support multiple lines of business and are not tied to a specific business unit”, with read-only access to all Dynamics 365 data and basic capabilities “such as expense entry or updating contacts.”[2] Its rights are for the user’s own work, not for activities on behalf of other people, and customization is limited to 15 additional tables per app within pre-approved scenarios (rule). The Product Terms prerequisite table lists “Dynamics 365 user SLs other than the Team Members SL” against the Team Members license.[1] Operations - Activity adds approval of operational transactions, warehouse and order maintenance, and the right to operate a point-of-sale or warehouse device.[2]
Devices
A device license lets “any number of users” work in the application through a dedicated shared device. Shared logins are enabled for Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, Operations - Device and Business Central device licenses; individual logins are enabled for Business Central Device and Operations - Device. When users share a login their individual usage cannot be tracked.[2]
Purchasing minimums
The Product Terms set minimum Base license quantities: 20 for Commerce, Finance, Project Operations and Supply Chain Management; 10 for Finance Premium, Supply Chain Management Premium and Microsoft Relationship Sales; and 5 for Human Resources.[1] Microsoft updated the table for clarity on 1 September 2026.[3] Customer Insights Attach requires 10 or more seats of one qualifying application, and Professional Direct Support must cover each Dynamics 365 and Power Platform license on the agreement, up to 250.[1][4] See the purchasing minimums rule.
Indirect access and multiplexing
The Licensing Guide states that “Multiplexing does NOT reduce the required number of licenses of any type”, and that users or devices reaching Dynamics 365 data through a pooling device, website or API must be licensed regardless of how many tiers sit in between.[2] A licensed user who manually re-keys information received from an unlicensed person is not multiplexing (rule).
Two mechanisms reduce the count legitimately. First, “External Users of Dynamics 365 Services do not need a SL to access the Online Service”, although the exemption does not extend to external users of Dynamics 365 client software outside the listed Finance and Operations applications.[1] Second, Operations - Order Lines licenses indirect creation and update of rows in designated tables such as sales, purchase and journal lines. It “includes an allowance of 100K transactions per month, enforced annually for a total of 1.2 million transactions”; orders are not blocked above the limit and the shortfall is addressed at the subscription anniversary.[2] Direct use of the applications still needs a user or device license (rule).
Power Apps users may read and write non-restricted Dataverse tables that Dynamics 365 uses, but creating, updating or deleting data in restricted tables requires a Dynamics 365 license.[2] Dynamics 365 Enterprise licenses also give internal users Power Pages rights for sites that map to the licensed application.[4]
Virtualization and on-premises use
Dynamics 365 subscriptions are Online Services, so core and virtualization rules do not apply to the cloud service itself. The Dual Use Rights program lets certain Dynamics 365 subscription licenses reach the on-premises equivalent. The Product Terms map each SL to its on-premises software and server, for example Sales Enterprise to Dynamics 365 for Sales (On-Premises).[1] The Licensing Guide adds that “Users with Dynamics 365 licenses have use rights equivalent to a CAL for the purpose of accessing equivalent on-premises workloads”, that server licenses needed on-premises are included, and that the rights “are non-perpetual and expire when the cloud subscription expires.”[2] For Finance, Human Resources, Supply Chain Management and Commerce, the on-premises rights cover only the applications for which the user holds a cloud license.[1]
Programs
Dynamics 365 is True-Up Eligible, Reduction Eligible and Extended Term Eligible under the Enterprise Agreement (Microsoft Relationship Sales excepted for the last two).[1] It is also sold through the Microsoft Customer Agreement and the Cloud Solution Provider program; see Microsoft volume licensing programs. Customers with existing on-premises Dynamics CALs under Software Assurance may buy Cloud Add-on to SA User SLs, one per qualifying license, which expire with the SA coverage. New From SA SLs are no longer sold; existing ones may be renewed.[1]
The Field Service Contractor license “may be used only by vendors or contractors engaged by Enrolled Affiliate’s Enterprise” who have a Microsoft Entra ID guest account, not by employees (rule).[1]
Out of scope
- Power Apps, Power Automate and Power Pages standalone licenses: see Power Platform licensing.
- Copilot Credits, agents and Copilot Studio capacity: see Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing.
- Dynamics 365 on-premises server and CAL licensing sold outside Dual Use Rights, Dynamics AX, CRM and NAV legacy licensing.
- Full capacity tables (Dataverse per-application entitlements, Customer Insights profiles, Contact Center minutes) beyond the rules quoted above.
- How to collect usage data for a Dynamics 365 license review: see the archived guides in See also.