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Unlicensed administrator access to Microsoft Intune

Administrators can sign in to and manage Microsoft Intune without an assigned Intune license. This access is enabled by default for tenants created after July 2021 and applies to all administrator roles, including Intune administrators and Microsoft Entra administrators. Tenants created before July 2021 can enable this access manually.

Unlicensed admin access grants sign-in and management access to the Microsoft Intune admin center. It doesn't replace license requirements for other features and services. For example, features that depend on Microsoft Entra ID P1 or P2 still require the appropriate license.

Whether you need to enable this setting depends on when your tenant was created:

  • Tenants created after July 2021: Unlicensed administrator access is supported by default. No action is required.
  • Tenants created before July 2021: Administrators require an Intune license unless the Allow access to unlicensed admins setting is enabled. This setting can't be undone after it's turned on.

Prerequisites

Roles requirements

To enable this setting, use an account assigned the Intune Administrator Microsoft Entra role. Because this role is privileged, use it only when necessary.

Important

  • Intune supports up to 1000 unlicensed admins per security group. If more than 1000 administrators are needed for a role assignment, you can use multiple security groups.
  • Members of nested security groups aren't included in the unlicensed admins feature. If you prefer to retain nested security groups, admins in those nested groups still require an Intune license even when unlicensed admins setting is enabled.
  • It can take up to 48 hours for access changes to take effect.

Enable the setting for pre-July 2021 tenants

Tenants created after July 2021 already have unlicensed admin access enabled by default. The following steps apply only to tenants created before July 2021.

  1. In the Microsoft Intune admin center, select Tenant administration > Roles > Administrator Licensing.

  2. Select Allow access to unlicensed admins.

    Warning

    You can't undo this setting after selecting Yes.

  3. Select Yes to allow access to unlicensed admins.

    Screenshot of administrator licensing to allow unlicensed admins.

After you enable this setting, users who sign in to the Microsoft Intune admin center don't require an Intune license. Roles assigned to users define their scope of access.