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Microsoft Entra ID provides several editions, each tailored to different identity, access, and governance needs. This article explains the capabilities of each edition, highlights when to choose one over another, and points to additional Entra products that complement identity management.

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Edition overview

  • Premium P2 — The most comprehensive Entra ID plan. It includes everything in lower tiers plus advanced identity protection and governance. P2 provides Privileged Identity Management (PIM) for securing and managing privileged accounts, and tools to detect and remediate identity risks across users and sign-ins.
  • Premium P1 — A strong enterprise baseline that adds Conditional Access, multifactor authentication (MFA), and advanced group management. P1 helps enforce access policies and require additional verification for sign-ins. Note: risk-based adaptive policies that evaluate user and sign-in risk depend on Identity Protection capabilities found in higher tiers.
  • Microsoft Entra ID Governance (Governance edition) — A focused offering for identity lifecycle and governance. It delivers entitlement management, automated provisioning for users and groups, regular access reviews, and other lifecycle controls that complement privileged access features such as PIM.
  • Free — Provides foundational capabilities for small organizations: self-service account management (password reset and profile updates), basic single sign-on (SSO) for core cloud apps, and essential identity and access management.
A comparison matrix for Microsoft Entra ID editions. It lists tiers (Premium P2, Premium P1, Governance, Free) and the features each includes, such as self‑service account management, SSO and core IAM, cloud/federated auth, group management/provisioning, conditional access + MFA, identity protection, and PIM.

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How the editions relate

Each higher edition builds on the lower ones to deliver progressively stronger security, management, and governance controls. When choosing a license, evaluate:
  • Compliance and audit requirements (Do you need formal access reviews, entitlement management, or separation of duties?)
  • Risk posture and threat detection needs (Do you require identity protection and risk-based adaptive access?)
  • Lifecycle automation (Do you need automated provisioning and entitlement workflows?)
  • Privileged access controls (Do you require PIM and advanced privileged access governance?)
Always consult the official Microsoft Entra plans and pricing documentation for the most up-to-date feature lists and licensing options. Product capabilities and licensing names can change over time, and the documentation provides the definitive breakdown of what each license includes.
When you examine the official plan comparison, you’ll notice some identity governance features are split across Premium tiers, while the full Governance suite is provided by the Microsoft Entra ID Governance edition. Historically, P2 was the top tier under Azure AD; with the Entra branding and newer licensing options, certain governance capabilities are now packaged in the Governance edition or offered as add-ons.
A screenshot of a Microsoft Entra (Azure AD) pricing and feature comparison table showing columns for Free, P1, P2 and Governance plans with rows of features and checkmarks indicating inclusion. A pointer/cursor is visible over one of the cells.

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Quick comparison table

Microsoft is expanding the Entra portfolio; these products address specific identity and permissions scenarios:
  • Entra Verified ID — Decentralized identity and verifiable credentials.
  • Entra Permissions Management — Permissions visibility and governance for cloud resources.
  • Entra Workload ID — Identity and authentication for workloads and applications.
Because licensing and feature sets change over time, regularly review Microsoft’s documentation and pricing pages to confirm which features are included in each plan and whether add-ons or special pricing are available (for example, governance add-ons for existing P2 customers). That covers the core differences across the Microsoft Entra ID editions and guidance to help you decide which edition aligns with your organization’s identity, security, and governance needs.

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