Add users and assign licenses at the same time

The people on your team each need a user account before they can sign in and access Microsoft 365 for business. The easiest way to add user accounts is to add them one at a time in the Microsoft 365 admin center. After you do this step, your users have Microsoft 365 licenses, sign in credentials, and Microsoft 365 mailboxes.

Before you begin

You must be a global, license, or a user admin to add users and assign licenses.

Watch: Add users in the admin center

 Note

The steps used in the video show a different starting point for adding users, but the remaining steps are the same as the following procedure.

Add users one at a time

1. Go to the admin center at https://admin.microsoft.com.

2. Go to Users > Active users, and select Add a user.
3. In the Set up the basics pane, fill in the basic user information, and then select Next.
   • Name Fill in the first and last name, display name, and username.
   • Domain Choose the domain for the user's account. For example, if the user's username is Jakob, and the domain is contoso.com, they'll sign in by using [e-mail].
   • Password settings Choose to use the autogenerated password or to create your own strong password for the user.
   • The user must change their password after 90 days. Or you can choose to Require this user to change their password when they first sign in.
   • Choose whether you want to send the password in email when the user is added.
4. In the Assign product licenses pane, select the location and the appropriate license for the user. If you don't have any licenses available, you can still add a user and buy additional licenses. Expand Apps and select or deselect apps to limit the apps the user has a license for. Select Next.
5. In the Optional settings pane, expand Roles to make this user an admin. Expand Profile info to add additional information about the user.
6. Select Next, review your new user's settings, make any changes you like, then select Finish adding, then Close.

Add multiple users at the same time

You can use any of the following methods to add multiple users at the same time:

• Use a spreadsheet to add people in bulk. 
• Automate adding accounts and assigning licenses. Choose this method if you're already familiar with using Windows PowerShell cmdlets.
• Using ActiveDirectory? Use the Azure AD Connect tool to replicate Active Directory user accounts (and other Active Directory objects) in Microsoft 365. The sync only adds the user accounts. You must assign licenses to the synced users before they can use email and other Office apps.
• Migrating from Exchange? When you migrate multiple mailboxes to Microsoft 365 by using either cutover, staged, or a hybrid Exchange method, you automatically add users as part of the migration. The migration only adds the user accounts. You must assign licenses to the users before they can use email and other Office apps. If you don't assign a license to a user, their mailbox is disabled after a grace period of 30 days.