title: Reclaim unused Microsoft 365 and Entra licenses category: License Management tags: license waste, unused licenses, microsoft 365, m365, entra, reduce license cost priority: High
Reclaim unused Microsoft 365 and Entra licenses
Certification Center reconciles the Microsoft 365 and Entra licenses you have assigned against real sign-in activity, ranks the seats nobody is using, and lets you reclaim them as a certification action. This guide shows how to find that wasted spend and recover it.
Who this is for
License-waste monitoring is aimed at IT and identity admins who assign Microsoft 365 / Entra licenses and want to stop paying for seats that sit idle. It is included in every workspace at no extra cost — there is no separate license module to buy.
Prerequisites
- An Entra ID connector is connected to your workspace (see Connect your directory)
- The connector has the sign-in and license read permissions listed in the connector permissions guide
- At least one directory sync has completed so activity data is present
- The Admin or License Manager role in your workspace
What "unused" means here
A seat is flagged as reclaimable when a license is assigned to an account but the account shows no meaningful sign-in activity over your chosen lookback window. Certification Center pulls the assigned-license state and the last interactive sign-in for each account, then compares them.
| Signal | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| License assigned, no sign-in in window | Strong reclaim candidate — likely a leaver, a duplicate, or an over-provisioned account |
| License assigned, sign-in inside window | Actively used — left alone |
| Account disabled or blocked, license still assigned | High-priority reclaim — you are paying for a seat that cannot even sign in |
| No license assigned | Not counted as waste |
The lookback window is configurable (commonly 30, 60, or 90 days). A longer window is more conservative and produces fewer false positives; a shorter window surfaces more spend but may flag seasonal or occasional users.
Step 1: Open the recoverable-spend view
- Sign in to your workspace
- Go to License Management
- Open the Recoverable spend view
The view lists every license SKU (for example Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Premium, Exchange Online, Power BI) with a count of assigned seats, a count of idle seats, and the estimated annual spend tied up in those idle seats.
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| SKU | The Microsoft 365 / Entra product |
| Assigned | Seats currently assigned across all accounts |
| Idle | Seats with no sign-in activity in the lookback window |
| Recoverable / yr | Idle seats multiplied by the unit cost you entered for that SKU |
| Last synced | When the underlying data was last refreshed |
Step 2: Enter your unit costs (once)
Certification Center does not know what you pay Microsoft, so recoverable spend starts as a seat count until you tell it the per-seat annual price for each SKU.
- In License Management, open SKU costs
- Enter the annual unit price for each SKU you care about
- Save
From then on the recoverable-spend figures are shown in currency, so you can prioritise the SKUs where waste costs the most.
Tip: Start with your most expensive SKUs (E5, add-on packs). A handful of idle E5 seats is usually worth more than dozens of idle low-tier seats.
Step 3: Drill into a SKU
Select a SKU to see the individual accounts holding an idle seat. Each row shows the person, the account it maps to, the license, the last sign-in date, and the account status (enabled / disabled).
Sort by last sign-in to put the longest-idle accounts at the top. These are the safest, highest-value reclaims — accounts that have been dark for months while still holding a paid license.
Step 4: Reclaim the seats
You have two ways to act on what you find.
| Path | When to use it | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Reclaim as a certification | You want a manager or owner to confirm before anything changes | The idle seats flow into an access review; a reviewer approves or revokes; approved revokes write back to remove the license |
| Direct reclaim | You have already confirmed the accounts are safe to strip | You select seats and the license is removed via the connector write-back, with the action recorded in the audit trail |
For governed, auditable cleanup, prefer the certification path — it produces an attestation record and keeps a human in the loop. See Reclaim licenses as part of an access review.
Step 5: Confirm the recovery
After a reclaim runs and the next sync completes:
- The idle-seat count for the SKU drops
- The recovered seats return to your Microsoft available pool for reassignment
- The audit trail shows who reclaimed what and when
Re-open the recoverable-spend view on your normal cadence (monthly is common) to catch newly idle seats as people change roles or leave.
Good practice
- Run it monthly. License waste is a flow, not a one-time cleanup — leavers and role changes create new idle seats continuously.
- Reconcile leavers first. Disabled accounts still holding a license are the clearest waste and the safest to reclaim.
- Use the certification path for anything you are unsure about. It gives you a defensible record and a reviewer's sign-off.
- Keep unit costs current. When your Microsoft pricing changes, update SKU costs so the spend figures stay honest.
Troubleshooting
No idle seats shown, but you expect some — Confirm a sync has completed and that the connector has permission to read sign-in activity. Without sign-in data, every assigned seat looks "active" and nothing is flagged.
A seat you know is idle is not flagged — The account may have a service or non-interactive sign-in inside the window, or the lookback window may be longer than the idle period. Shorten the window or check the account's last interactive sign-in.
Recoverable spend shows seat counts, not money — You have not entered unit costs for that SKU yet. Add them under SKU costs.