Microsoft Teams Premium: Everything You Need To Know

Microsoft Teams premium

Since Microsoft launched Teams Premium in February 2023, everyone has been trying to get to grips with what’s included, what they will actually achieve, and whether or not their business needs it. 

The functionality available is genuinely game-changing if you need it.  

For the majority of day-to-day Teams users, nothing will change even if you give them the license. 

So don’t rush to roll out Teams Premium for every single user. 

If you do that, you’ll end up needing to read our article on How To Reduce Costs In Microsoft Teams

Instead, have a scroll through what Microsoft Teams Premium is, and the new shiny features you’ll get, and make the decision if and who needs access. 

“Teams Premium has surpassed three million seats, up nearly 400% year over year as organizations like dentsu, Eli Lilly, and Ford choose it for advanced features like end-to-end encryption and real-time translation.”

  • Satya Nadella, Q4 FY24 Earnings Call.

What is Microsoft Teams Premium? 

Microsoft Teams Premium is an add-on license that gives access to advanced features that help facilitate the following: 

  • Meeting customization 
  • Meeting protection and security 
  • Meeting AI and reporting 
  • Webinars 
  • Virtual appointments 

These features are ideal for those who rely heavily on meetings and are governed by tight security and compliance regulations.  

With some features, all users will need a Teams Premium license. For others, only the meeting organizer will need access. 

For example, when using Teams to run virtual appointments, you can’t expect a patient to have a Teams Premium license. 

What features are included in Teams Premium? 

  1. Meeting customization
  2. Meeting protection and security 
  3. Meeting AI and reporting 
  4. Webinars
  5. Virtual appointments

1 – Meeting customization 

  • Organizational lobby branding 
  • eCDN 

In both above features, only the meeting organizer needs a Teams Premium license. 

For the features below, individuals need a Teams Premium license for the feature to work for them. 

  • Organizational meeting backgrounds 
  • Organizational Together mode scenes 
  • Custom policy packages 
  • Meeting templates 
Adding a global (organizational) meeting background
Adding a global (organizational) meeting background 

2 – Meeting protection and security 

  • Control who can record meetings 
  • Control who can copy and paste meeting chat  
  • Advance meeting and monitoring alerts 
  • Meeting templates 
  • Meeting sensitivity labels (requires E5 or E3 Plus Advanced Compliance as well) 
  • End-to-end encryption for meetings with up to 50 participants (all participants need Teams Premium) 
Sensitivity labels for Microsoft Teams meetings available with Teams Premium
Sensitivity labels for Microsoft Teams meetings 

3 – Meeting AI and reporting 

  • Live Captions translation (meeting-level feature) 
  • Post-meeting transcript translation 
  • Time markers in recordings 
  • Autogenerated chapters within meetings 
  • Autogenerated tasks from meetings 
Live Captions translation is available with Microsoft Teams Premium
Live Captions translations in Microsoft Teams 

4 – Webinars 

  • Green room for presenters 
  • Manage what attendees see 
  • Reminder emails to registrants 
  • Registration approval 
  • Wait lists for overcapacity webinars 
  • Allow registrants to bypass lobby 
  • Limit registration availability period 
  • RMTP-In (produce Teams Meetings directly from an external hardware or software-based encoder) 

All the webinar features included in Teams Premium are unlocked by the meeting organizer.  

5 – Virtual appointments 

  • Customized lobbies 
  • SMS notifications 
  • Chat with attendees in lobby 
  • Organizational and department analytics 
  • Scheduled queues 
  • On-demand queues 
  • Post-appointment follow-ups 
Virtual appointments analytics Microsoft Teams
Virtual appointments analytics Microsoft Teams

All the virtual appointment features are unlocked by the meeting organizer.  

As of July 2023, Teams Premium features aren’t available on mobile devices. 

What is the difference between Teams standard and Teams Premium? 

Teams Premium is an add-on license, so everything included is “as well as” what you’ve already got access to.  

As standard, you get access to all the features included in your original Microsoft Teams license. These do not change. 

Teams Premium vs Standard

Teams PremiumTeams Standard
An add-on to standard MS licensesStandalone or part of Microsoft Office, E, or F  licensing
Adds meeting customization Core meeting functionality
Adds meeting protection and security Core chat and channels functionality
Adds Meeting AI and reportingCore collaboration functionality
Adds advanced webinar functionalityOn-net calling
Adds virtual appointmentsGateway to Microsoft PSTN calling

How much does Microsoft Teams Premium cost? 

Microsoft Teams Premium costs $10 per user per month, on top of an existing Teams license.  

If you sign up before the end of December 2023, Microsoft is offering an introductory discount of 30% to commercial (including worldwide commercial public sector), nonprofit (standard discounting applies), and Government Cloud Community (GCC) organizations.  

There are some terms and conditions set by Microsoft. Its launch communications suggest that some month-to-month and some three-year subscriptions may be excluded, so do check before buying. 

As of July 2023, you can get 25 free trial licenses per organization. These will automatically end after 30 days. 

Is Teams Premium included in Business Premium? 

Microsoft 365 Business Premium doesn’t include access to Microsoft Teams Premium. 

Teams Premium is available as a standalone add-on only. 

How do I enable Teams Premium? 

Teams Premium is generally available. All you need to do is enable the license in the marketplace in your Microsoft 365 Admin Center. 

If you use a partner to buy or make changes to your Teams licensing, follow your usual route. 

Is Microsoft Teams Premium worth it? 

Microsoft Teams Premium is worth it if you are going to use it to its full potential. 

This means users with heavy meeting usage. And we mean heavy. Not just someone who has three or four meetings per day. 

If you’re a meeting organizer or webinar host for recurring events with lots of attendees, Teams Premium offers a better pre- and post-meeting experience.  

If you’re using Teams to facilitate virtual appointments, think about the patient experience improvements that can be made and whether they are worth $10 per month (or $7 if you move quickly).  

It’s an easy sell in some cases. 

In other cases, it’s simply not needed for some users. Take the independent contributor who uses Teams for chat, the occasional meeting, and opening documents to work on. They don’t have direct reports to have meetings with and they’re not public facing. There’s little in Teams Premium they need access to. 

Overall, Teams Premium offers tremendous value for $10 per month. Meeting controls and post-meeting activities like tasks and translated transcripts are a no-brainer—if you will use them

However, there are still a lot of things that you don’t get even when you subscribe to Teams Premium. 

What’s NOT included in Teams Premium? 

While Teams Premium offers a vast array of features for meeting organizers and meeting participants, Teams admins may be feeling a little left out. 

But fear not, Callroute has you covered for two key areas: 

  • Automated number management 
  • Automated user provisioning 

Automated number management 

If you’re forever fiddling around in the Teams Admin Center or, even worse, keeping manual spreadsheets, for managing who gets assigned which number, there’s some good news for you. 

Using Callroute’s number management solution, you can add your Direct Routing numbers and synchronize your Calling Plan and Operator Connect number ranges directly from your Teams tenant.  

No matter what connectivity types you have, you can use our number management solution to provision and track your user numbers.  

If you use Microsoft Calling Plan and/or Operator Connect for your Teams phone system, you can easily add these ranges to Callroute by pressing the Sync Numbers button.  

You don't get access to automated number provisioning in Microsoft Teams Premium

Synchronization takes only a few seconds, and we automatically group your numbers into ranges using their metadata received from Teams.   

This means all your numbers, whether they are contiguous or sporadic, are merged automatically together in a single range if they are from the same area code, city, and provider.   

Numbers that are already assigned to users and resource accounts are updated with their assignments so that you can easily see what number is assigned to a particular user.  

If you use Direct Routing for your phone system connection, you can add your ranges directly into the Callroute number management feature. When user synchronization is performed, numbers are updated with their assignment.  

Going further into number management, you can assign tags to numbers across ranges to make them searchable and assignable in different circumstances.   

Of course, you are also able to assign phone numbers to your users directly in the Callroute portal.  

With Callroute number management, you have all of the benefits of number management provided by the Teams Admin Center and none of the downsides.   

Suitable for  Not suitable for  
Businesses with 200+ users  Businesses with less than 200 users  
Businesses that need more automation without scripts or code  Businesses that want to make life harder for themselves  
Businesses with more than one phone connection type (DR, Calling Plans, Operator Connect)    
Businesses that use more than Microsoft Teams as their phone system    
Businesses that need to categorize numbers    
Businesses with 1000s of different numbers with different providers   

Read Next: How To Automate Microsoft Teams Number Provisioning 

Automated user provisioning 

Automated user provisioning is exactly what it says on the tin.  

Take the manual processes you do time and again, like configuring accounts for new starters, countless moves, adds, and changes, and deleting licenses for people who leave at a moment’s notice.  

Instead, using Callroute, you can create user personas, rules, and triggers, so that when someone new starts, they are automatically provisioned based on their job role, their location, or whatever characteristics you choose.  

Think of all the time you’ll save every time 50 new sales staff join your company. Or when the entire marketing team takes a sabbatical.   

And let’s be honest. You know that time when you made a manual error? When a lapse in concentration meant hours of reconfiguration.  

Automation removes all that too.  

Read Next: How To Automate User Provisioning In Microsoft Teams 

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