Enterprise agent inventory
Find Microsoft, partner, custom and synchronized third-party agents and assign accountable owners or sponsors.
Independent tool overview
Microsoft Agent 365 at a glance
Microsoft Agent 365 is an enterprise control plane for inventorying, observing, governing and securing Microsoft and third-party AI agents with Entra, Defender, Purview, Intune and Microsoft 365 controls.
Visit the official Microsoft Agent 365 site ↗
- Best for
- Microsoft-centered enterprises operating many first- and third-party AI agents
- Core jobs
- Inventory, identity, observability, governance, security and lifecycle management
- Standalone list price
- $15/user/month, paid yearly
- Microsoft 365 E7
- $99/user/month, paid yearly, with Agent 365 included
- License unit
- Per user; agents and agent instances are not licensed separately
- General availability
- Available since May 1, 2026
Overview
What Microsoft Agent 365 is
Microsoft Agent 365 gives IT and security teams a central place to see which AI agents exist, who owns them, what they access and how they behave. It extends familiar identity, data-protection, threat-detection, compliance and lifecycle controls from human users and applications to agents—including agents built outside Microsoft when they are synchronized or integrated correctly.
The product is a governance layer, not an agent builder or model runtime. Its value comes from the Agent Registry, Entra-backed identities, activity maps and telemetry, lifecycle policies, least-privilege access, Defender threat protection and Purview data controls. Organizations already standardized on Microsoft's security stack are the clearest fit; everyone else should model the prerequisite licenses, integration work and per-user coverage before treating the $15 standalone price as the total cost.
Use cases
Who Microsoft Agent 365 is best for
The strongest fit depends on the job you need the product to complete, not the size of its feature list.
Agent identity and least privilege
Give agents Entra-backed identities and apply scoped permissions, access reviews and Conditional Access based on risk.
Agent observability
Monitor connections between agents, people, tools and data, then route relevant telemetry into security and operations workflows.
Lifecycle governance
Approve, publish, deploy, block, reassign, expire and retire agents with consistent policies and audit trails.
Security and data compliance
Extend Defender threat detection and Purview data-loss, sensitivity, retention and investigation controls to supported agent activity.
Capabilities
Core Microsoft Agent 365 features
Agent Registry
Create a tenant-wide inventory of agents, ownership, origin and status across Microsoft and integrated external platforms.
Shadow-agent discovery
Surface unsanctioned or previously unmanaged agents and bring eligible activity into an administrative review process.
Entra Agent ID
Assign first-class agent identities with owners, sponsors and permissions instead of relying on shared human credentials.
Access control
Use RBAC, ABAC, access packages, identity governance and risk-based Conditional Access to restrict resources and actions.
Agent Map and analytics
Visualize relationships among agents, people and data while monitoring activity, adoption, performance and risk signals.
Lifecycle automation
Apply conditions and policies to approval, deployment, ownership, access review, expiration, blocking and retirement.
Defender protection
Assess agent security posture, detect suspicious behavior, investigate threats and block high-risk activity in supported environments.
Purview data governance
Apply sensitivity, data-loss prevention, retention, eDiscovery, communication compliance and insider-risk controls to agent data and interactions.
Intune and network controls
Extend endpoint compliance and network-access guardrails to supported local and cloud agent scenarios.
Third-party registry sync
Synchronize supported platforms such as Amazon Bedrock or Google Vertex AI for centralized visibility without requiring every integration to use the SDK.
Agent 365 SDK and CLI
Add identity, observability, notification, security and governed Microsoft 365 access to custom agents built with supported frameworks.
Work IQ MCP tools
Give integrated agents auditable access to approved Microsoft 365 tools such as Mail, Calendar, SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Word and Dataverse.
Process
How the Microsoft Agent 365 workflow works
Step 1
Inventory the estate
Combine the registry, endpoint discovery, platform sync and owner reports to identify agents, users, sponsors and unmanaged gaps.
Step 2
Classify risk
Document each agent's purpose, data, tools, autonomy, blast radius, human approval points and business owner.
Step 3
Resolve licensing and prerequisites
Map users who interact with, delegate to, own, sponsor or manage premium agents and confirm the required Microsoft base, Defender and Purview entitlements.
Step 4
Assign identity and access
Use a dedicated agent identity where appropriate, grant the minimum resources and tools, and prohibit shared credentials or broad standing access.
Step 5
Apply lifecycle and security policy
Set approval, publication, monitoring, DLP, retention, threat response, access review, expiration and retirement controls.
Step 6
Monitor and attest
Review logs, behavior, ownership, unused permissions and security signals continuously, then reapprove, restrict or retire agents as conditions change.
Cost
Microsoft Agent 365 pricing and free plan
Agent 365 is licensed per user, not per agent. Microsoft says one licensed user can oversee many agents and there is currently no Agent 365 consumption charge, but users who interact with, delegate access to, own, sponsor or manage agents using premium capabilities may require coverage. Base Microsoft, Defender and Purview prerequisites can materially increase the total cost.
Foundational capabilities
Included with eligible Microsoft cloud subscriptions
A starting governance layer without a paid Agent 365 premium license.
- Agent identity and registry
- Basic usage insights and core admin actions
- Agent audit logs and eDiscovery
- Endpoint AI discovery and blocking of unsanctioned local agents where supported
Agent 365 standalone
$15/user/month, paid yearly
Premium observability, governance, data security and threat protection for eligible licensed users.
- Licensed per user, not per agent
- No current per-agent or consumption charge
- Requires an eligible Microsoft 365 foundation and applicable security prerequisites
- Premium feature depth can vary by agent origin and integration
Microsoft 365 E7
$99/user/month, paid yearly
The broader Microsoft secure-AI bundle with Agent 365 included.
- Agent 365 included
- Microsoft 365 E5 capabilities
- Microsoft 365 Copilot and Entra Suite in the E7 bundle
- Designed for organizations scaling Copilot, agents, identity and security together
Frontier previews
Included for eligible preview tenants
Opt-in access to experimental Agent 365 capabilities, not a production pricing tier.
- Requires eligible Microsoft 365 Copilot or E7 licensing and tenant enrollment
- Preview terms apply
- No specific Frontier SLA
- Microsoft says Frontier should not be used for product evaluation
Pricing checked . Check current pricing at the source ↗
Assessment
Microsoft Agent 365 strengths and limitations
Where it stands out
- Unifies agent inventory, identity, observability, governance, security and compliance in a familiar administrative stack
- Covers Microsoft-built agents and supports several paths for external and custom agents
- Per-user licensing does not add a separate fee for every agent or agent instance
- Entra-backed identity provides clearer ownership and least-privilege controls than shared service credentials
- Defender, Purview and Intune integration can connect agent risks to existing enterprise response workflows
- Foundational registry and governance capabilities are included for eligible Microsoft cloud subscribers
- SDK, CLI and OpenTelemetry-aligned observability give custom-agent teams integration options
- The $15 standalone option is available without requiring the full $99 E7 bundle
What to consider
- The $15 license is not the whole stack; eligible Microsoft 365, Defender, Purview, Entra or Intune prerequisites may be required for full capability
- Per-user licensing can be difficult to model because coverage can include people who interact with, delegate to, own, sponsor or manage agents
- Users tied to premium agents without the required entitlement can create a licensing-compliance gap
- Multiplexing or pooling service access to reduce licensed-user counts is not permitted under Microsoft's stated model
- Feature depth varies by agent type, platform, identity model and level of telemetry integration
- External agents may require registry sync, administrative configuration or code-level SDK work before they are fully observable
- Some registry-sync and Frontier capabilities remain previews and may change or lack an SLA
- Agent 365 does not build the agent, pay for its model or tools, or provide its runtime compute
- Windows 365 for Agents is a separate runtime billed at a listed $0.40 per VM hour when used
- Registering an agent does not make its reasoning, outputs or actions correct, safe or compliant
- Policies can block legitimate work or miss dangerous behavior if identities, resources and risk rules are configured poorly
- Telemetry gaps can create false confidence when an agent, tool or data path is outside the supported visibility boundary
- A dedicated operating model is still needed for risk acceptance, human approval, incidents, exceptions, red teaming and retirement
- The platform is most compelling inside Microsoft's ecosystem; multi-cloud organizations should test how much parity external agents actually receive
- Security and compliance teams must coordinate across multiple admin centers rather than assume one dashboard owns every control
- Licensing and prerequisites are evolving quickly, so the organization's Microsoft agreement takes precedence over summary pages
Compare
Microsoft Agent 365 alternatives
The right alternative depends on the specific output, workflow, controls and budget your project requires.
Agents
Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform
Choose Google's Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform when building and governing agents across Google Cloud models and services is the primary ecosystem requirement.
Explore Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform →Coding
Galileo (now Splunk Agent Observability)
Choose Splunk Agent Observability when model and agent telemetry, evaluations and production diagnostics matter more than Microsoft identity and lifecycle governance.
Explore Galileo (now Splunk Agent Observability) →Coding
AgentOps
Choose AgentOps for developer-focused testing, debugging and session observability when a full enterprise control plane is excessive.
Explore AgentOps →Agents
GitHub Agent HQ
Choose GitHub Agent HQ when the primary need is orchestrating software-development agents inside GitHub workflows rather than governing enterprise agents across business systems.
Explore GitHub Agent HQ →Questions
Microsoft Agent 365 FAQs
What is Microsoft Agent 365?
Agent 365 is Microsoft's control plane for observing, governing and securing AI agents. It combines a registry, agent identities, analytics, lifecycle controls and integrations with Entra, Defender, Purview, Intune and Microsoft 365.
Is Agent 365 an agent builder?
No. Copilot Studio, Microsoft Foundry and third-party frameworks build or host agents. Agent 365 inventories and governs them, with integration paths for Microsoft, partner and custom agents.
How much does Agent 365 cost?
The standalone list price is $15 per user per month with annual commitment. It is included in Microsoft 365 E7, listed at $99 per user per month annually. Eligible cloud subscriptions also receive foundational capabilities.
Is Agent 365 licensed per agent?
No. Microsoft licenses it per user. Agents, blueprints and instances do not need separate licenses, but people who interact with, delegate to, own, sponsor or manage premium agents may need coverage.
Does Agent 365 require Microsoft 365 E7?
No. It is sold as a standalone add-on. However, Microsoft documents base and security prerequisites, and E7 bundles the broadest integrated experience.
Can Agent 365 govern third-party agents?
Yes, but integration depth varies. Supported agents may use built-in integration, registry sync or the Agent 365 SDK and CLI. Teams should verify identity, telemetry, policy and response coverage for each platform.
Does Agent 365 include runtime compute?
No. Agent builders, models, tools and runtime remain separate. Windows 365 for Agents is also a separate pay-as-you-go product rather than part of Agent 365.
How should an enterprise pilot Agent 365?
Inventory a representative agent set, map owners and licenses, integrate telemetry, test least privilege and policy enforcement, simulate incidents, measure gaps for third-party agents and validate total licensing cost before scaling.
Bottom line
Our Microsoft Agent 365 verdict
Microsoft Agent 365 is a serious governance option for enterprises that already rely on Entra, Defender, Purview and Microsoft 365. The registry, dedicated identities, lifecycle controls and security integrations address real gaps created by growing agent fleets. The headline $15 price is only meaningful after prerequisites and licensed-user scope are modeled; a successful rollout is as much an operating-model and integration project as a software purchase.
Visit Microsoft Agent 365 website ↗Similar Agents Tools
View all Agents AI tools →
Holo 2
Holo 2 - Lightweight AI models that power cost-efficient computer-use agents
Lux
Lux - OpenAGI's fast, cost-effective computer-use model that tops industry benchmarks
Kimi K2 Thinking
Kimi K2 Thinking - Moonshot AI's open-source thinking agent
Nemotron 3
Nemotron 3 - Nvidia's new family of open-source AI models in three sizes designed to help developers build multi-agent systems more efficiently
AI training for the future of work.
Get access to all our AI courses, hundreds of real-world AI use cases, live expert-led workshops, an exclusive network of AI early adopters, and more.
AI Courses
Get unlimited access to all of our current & upcoming industry-specific AI courses for the duration of your subscription.
Daily Guides
To keep up with the rapid pace of AI, our team publishes AI implementation guides daily. Our library contains 300+ practical use cases to automate real-world work.
Workshops
Join weekly, live, interactive sessions with industry leaders who are at the forefront of AI for hands-on implementation guidance and exclusive insights.
Community
Network with an exclusive community of AI-first professionals who are working smarter with AI. Learn how early adopters are using AI in their work and businesses.