Azure Virtual Desktop - use both Microsoft 365 license and per user license on same subscription

[mruiter]

Is it possible to use both licensing methods on the same subscription. For example internal users with business premium and a few users without Microsoft 365 license so per user license. Or if the subsciption is enrolled in per user pricing wil the existing internal users with Business Premium license also be billed with a per user license?

[#2]

You could do this YES.

The way i see this is some of the users will be external (outside your organization), with per user license, while the other will have the organizations benefits. After creating you different host pools you can go ahead and:

• Add internal users to the host pool.
• Assign external users to the host pool using per-user licenses.

See here for more on internal/external users: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-desktop/licensing

Here are also the different plans you can have on azure virtual desktop based on different requirements: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/virtual-desktop/

Feel free to ask for any further assistance ;)

[#3]

Thanks for your reaction!

That is indeed the situation but the users need to be working on the same host pool, will this still give the internal users organizational benefits and external users per user license?

Furthermore the per user license are automatically assigned if its enabled on the subscription and the entra user has the permissions to AVD? Or do i need to add the license to the "external" user, if yes where?

[#4]

Yes you can work on the same host pool, you just need to add users in each host pool in a different way, while this of course can be automated.

The assignment can be done automatically for external users if per-user access pricing is enabled on your subscription. This setting is probably by default but you can check on host pools:

Properties>Assignment>Automatic

For permission to azure AVD for external users:

- Ensure they have Azure AD accounts.
- Confirm that their permissions allow access to Azure Virtual Desktop. (Azure resource settings)
- Azure AD will handle license assignment automatically.

[#5]

@mruiter 

Yes it is possible

[#6]

I'm assuming when you say "per user pricing", you're referring to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-desktop/enroll-per-user-access-pricing.

I'm not sure why you're getting some "yes" answers here, but the answer is very much "no".

There's a couple of reasons for this:

1. The configuration is set per-subscription and there's no way to configure more granularly. That means that users coming in with a Microsoft 365 license are effectively being double-charged for the AVD access - once for the part that's included in the M365 license, and once for the per-user license meter (counter) on the Azure subscription.  This point basically gets you to a "no" from a technical viewpoint.
2. Per-user licensing is explicitly for external customers accessing an AVD solution you are hosting.  Licensing Azure Virtual Desktop | Microsoft Learn gets into this pretty clearly, Your use case is not completely clear to me but it sounds like you have users performing internal business functions (e.g. contractors, front line workers, whatever), which means they are like Fabrikam or Wingtip Toys on that page, The per-user license is for the Contoso use case - a software vendor selling access to their Windows application hosted in AVD.  I think this point basically gets you to a "no" from a proper licensing viewpoint.

If I misunderstood your question, please feel free to clarify.

Thanks!

[#7]

@MikeBazMSFT Thank you for your reply, this is in line with what I could make up from the documentation. I will clarify the situation. 

There is one subscription, with one AVD Host pool where the internal users with M365 license make use off. My intention was to use per user access pricing for a few users on the same subscription for the same host pool. but as i understood from you and the documentation then the internal users with M365 pay double.