[Microsoft 365] Explain how to change or upgrade your plan

If you are subscribed to one of the Microsoft 365 plans and need to change to another plan, you can do so from the admin center.

In this article, we will explain how to change or upgrade your Microsoft 365 plan.

It also mentions that the Microsoft 365 plan name has been changed, so please refer to it as well.

Note: Some service names changed in 2020

First, it is important to understand that some of the plans included in the current Microsoft 365 have been renamed from the old Office 365.

The list of plans whose names have been changed is as follows.

Only the name of each plan has changed, and the functions and services included in the plan have not changed.

Some people may be worried that “the name has suddenly changed even though I have not changed the plan”, but please rest assured that you can continue to use the same service.

Upgrade your Microsoft 365 plan

If your business changes or you need more features, you can upgrade your Microsoft 365 subscription plan.

Next, let’s take a closer look at how to upgrade your Microsoft 365 contract plan, and the causes and solutions if you can’t perform the upgrade operation.

Upgrade procedure

Here are the steps to upgrade your Microsoft 365 subscription plan:

1. Visit admin center
2. Click “Billing”
3. Click “Your Product”
4. Select subscription to upgrade
5. Click “Subscription Details”
6. Click “Product details and upgrades”
7. Click “View recommended upgrades for your organization”
8. Select the plan you need and click “Upgrade”
9. Set the required number of licenses and payment method and click “Go to purchase procedure”
10. Confirm the address, billing contact information, items, etc., and click “Finish” if there are no changes.

After completing the purchase process, you can immediately start using your new subscription. (*The upgrade process may take several minutes.)

Can’t upgrade

If you click “View Upgrades” in the step above and still don’t see your plan, it means that for some reason automatic upgrades are not available.

The main cases where automatic upgrade is not possible are as follows.

• User count exceeds license count
• Your current subscription settings are incomplete or the service is unavailable (expired, etc.)
• A change to another plan is already in progress
• Credit check pending

Even if you cannot use the automatic upgrade for the above reasons, you may be able to handle it without problems by manually changing the plan using the method introduced in the next chapter.

Manually change your Microsoft 365 plan

From here, we will explain the cases where you need to manually change the plan and the specific operation method.

Cases where you need to switch plans manually

The cases where you need to manually change the contract plan of Microsoft 365 are as follows.

• I don’t see my plan in the upgrade tab
• Plans are displayed on the upgrade tab, but the desired plan is not available (for example, if you want to change to a lower plan than the current one)
• I want to transfer only some of the users in my account to another plan

Step 1. Sign up for a new subscription

If you want to change your Microsoft 365 plan manually, first subscribe to a new subscription to which you are changing by following the steps below.

1. Visit admin center
2. Click “Billing”
3. Click “Purchase Service”
4. Select the plan you want to purchase and click “Details” and “Buy”
5. Set the required number of licenses and payment method
6. Choose whether to assign licenses to all users who do not currently have licenses
7. Click “Pay Now”
8. Click “Next”
9. Enter payment information and click “Order”

Step 2. Confirm Purchased Subscription License

After purchasing a new subscription, follow the steps below to check the details.

1. Visit admin center
2. Click “Billing”
3. Click “Your Product”

Proceed to the next step after confirming that the original subscription and the newly purchased subscription are listed as active.

Step 3. Reassign licenses

If you manually change plans for Microsoft 365, you must also manually change user assignments.

Even if you move everyone, automatic assignment will not be performed, so let’s reassign according to the following procedure.

Reassign licenses for one user

1. Visit admin center
2. Click “User”
3. Click “Active Users”
4. Click “Licenses and Apps”
5. Check the license to be assigned from the “License” column
6. Click “Save Changes”

Reassign licenses for multiple users at once

1. Visit admin center
2. Click “User”
3. Click “Active Users”
4. Check the ○ next to the user column to reassign the license
5. Click “… (more actions)” at the top of the screen
6. Click “Manage Product Licenses”
7. Click “Replace existing product license assignments”
8. Click “Next”
9. Toggle assigning licenses to “on”
10. Click “Replace”
11. Click “Close”

Step 4. Delete unnecessary licenses

If you no longer need the previously contracted subscription, such as reassigning all users to a new subscription, delete the license by following the steps below.

1. Visit admin center
2. Click “Billing”
3. Click “Your Product”
4. Hover over the subscription you want to cancel
5. Click “… (more actions)”
6. Click “Cancel Subscription”
7. Enter feedback as necessary, such as the reason for canceling
8. Click “Save”

Article Summary

• When Office 365 was renamed to Microsoft 365 in 2020, some plans were also renamed.
• When upgrading your Microsoft 365 plan, you can quickly proceed from the admin center upgrade
• If you cannot upgrade or want to upgrade individually, you need to manually change the plan.

Microsoft 365 has a wide variety of corporate licenses, so you can choose the plan that best suits your company’s size and business content.

Plan change procedures can be easily done online, so be sure to review the license as appropriate as your business changes.