What is the cheapest Dynamics 365 licence?
By Emil Björk · Microsoft business apps consultant, Gothenburg
Dynamics 365 Team Members — a light per-user licence around a tenth of a full-user price. It grants read access across the apps, plus limited write on Accounts, Contacts, personal records, and a small set of scenarios (time, expenses, approvals). It is not a cheap Sales or Customer Service licence and cannot be used to sidestep those entitlements.
Team Members exists for the sales manager who reads dashboards, the finance user who approves an expense, or the executive who reviews an opportunity — not for the salesperson working leads. Every scenario Microsoft allows under Team Members is listed in the Licensing Guide, and Microsoft audits against it: partial pipeline updates, opportunity ownership, or case work all require the full app licence.
The right question is rarely 'what's the cheapest' — it's 'which users can genuinely be Team Members and which need a full licence'. Get that split right and the total is usually 20-40% lower than provisioning everyone on the full SKU.
Go deeper
- Dynamics 365 licensing explainedThe whole Dynamics 365 licensing model in one place — base and attach licences, per-user tiers, Team Members, device licences.
- Dynamics 365 TCO modellingHow to model total cost of ownership for Dynamics 365 — license, implementation, operations, evolution, and the 5-year picture.