Licensing requirements for creating a learning management system

Gregory Fiudo 0 Reputation points
2026-04-13T17:25:35.9966667+00:00

I work for a small fitness training company. We have 5 paid Microsoft 365 accounts for our internal employees (trainers/instructors).

I am going to build a learning management system with Teams and 365. Most of our users who enroll in classes will not have a Microsoft account and will be a guest with temporary access for the duration of the class. They need to be able to use a personal email to enroll as a guest and use Teams for the course. Will these users need a license or a Microsoft email address to use the learning management system? I read somewhere that Microsoft restricts guests to 5 per 1 paid license, but it seems that this was more guidance than a requirement.

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  1. AI answer

    2026-04-13T17:25:51.2833333+00:00

    Guest users who join Teams-based classes with their personal email addresses do not need their own Microsoft 365 licenses.

    Key points based on the provided information:

    1. Guest access and licensing
      • Guest access is included with Microsoft 365 Business, Enterprise, and Education subscriptions.
      • For Viva Engage, for example, “Guest access is included with all Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Microsoft 365 Enterprise, and Microsoft 365 Education subscriptions. No other Microsoft 365 license is necessary. Viva Engage doesn't restrict the number of guests you can add. Microsoft Entra ID restricts the total number of guests you can add to your tenant.”
      • This pattern shows that guests are generally covered under the tenant’s existing subscription, not by individual per-guest licenses.
    2. Guest limits
      • The referenced material indicates that the limiting factor for guests is Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) guest capacity and billing model, not a fixed “5 guests per 1 paid license” rule.
      • Any such “5:1” ratio is not presented as a requirement in the provided context.
    3. Accounts and sign-in
      • Guests can use their own email identities (for example, personal email) and be invited as Microsoft Entra B2B guests. They do not need a separate Microsoft 365 subscription of their own to participate as guests.
      • They do not need a Microsoft 365 work account from the training company; they can be provisioned as external guest accounts in the company’s tenant.
    4. Teams-specific considerations
      • When using Azure B2B with Office 365 workloads, there are “key considerations” where guest users may not have the same experience as member users, but the context does not state any additional license requirement for guests in Teams.
      • Teams supports external/B2B guests; users may need to switch tenants in the Teams client when working in an external tenant.

    From the provided material, the learning management system can be built so that:

    • Internal trainers use the company’s paid Microsoft 365 licenses.
    • External learners join as guest users with their personal email addresses.
    • No additional Microsoft 365 licenses are required specifically for those guests, subject to overall Microsoft Entra External ID (guest) limits and billing.

    References:

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