In this guide · 7 sections
Short answer
Microsoft 365 Business plans include foundational Teams event features (registration, Q&A, chat, polls, attendance reports) for up to 1,000 attendees. Custom emails, waitlists and approvals moved to enterprise plans on 1 April 2026; new Teams Premium licences no longer add them.
What changed on 1 April 2026
Microsoft announced the change in a Teams blog post on 22 January 2026: all town hall and webinar features that were previously only in Teams Premium would come to Teams Enterprise from 1 April 2026. Microsoft's Teams events licensing overview now splits licences into two groups:
| Licence group | Foundational event features | Advanced event features |
|---|---|---|
| Small business | Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium | Not applicable |
| Enterprise | Not applicable | Office 365 E1, E3, E5; Microsoft 365 E3, E5, E7 |
| Frontline | Microsoft 365 F1, F3; Office 365 F3 | Not applicable |
| Other | Teams Essentials, Teams Exploratory, Teams Trial | Teams Premium Legacy |
The key line for small businesses: Microsoft states that Teams Premium licences purchased after April 2026 do not directly give access to the advanced event features. Customers who bought Teams Premium before 1 April 2026 keep all previously included features until those licences expire.
What your Business plan already includes for webinars
Microsoft says every eligible Teams licence includes the foundational capabilities to create and run events, engage attendees, review attendance reports and publish recordings. On Business Basic, Standard and Premium, organisers get:
- Basic registration with a customisable form
- Attendee microphone and camera, if you allow them
- Chat, Q&A, reactions and raise hand (polls are included in the engagement limits)
- Hide attendee names, so registrants cannot see each other
- Attendance reports to view and download
Attendee limits are the same for full interaction on both groups. As of October 2026:
| Event type | Foundational (Business plans) | Advanced (enterprise) |
|---|---|---|
| Registration, attendee mic and camera, chat, polls, Q&A | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| Registration with chat, reactions, polls, Q&A | 1,000 | 3,000 (up to 100,000 with Attendee Capacity Packs) |
| View-only, no registration, with Q&A | 10,000 | 10,000 |
What only enterprise licences get
The advanced list on Microsoft Learn is mostly about polish and scale. The features a small firm is most likely to notice are:
Advanced features small firms may miss
- Custom email templates for invitations and confirmations
- Changing when the reminder email is sent (default is one hour before)
- Waitlist when registration is full
- Registration open and close times
- Manually approving registrants
Advanced features small firms rarely need
- RTMP-In from external encoders or production software
- Microsoft eCDN and partner eCDN providers
- Ultra-low latency streaming and 1080p for attendees
- Silent tests and live event insights
- More than 1,000 interactive attendees
If none of the left column is a deal-breaker, a Business plan covers a typical client webinar or monthly staff town hall. If you need approvals and branded emails, you either move the organiser to an enterprise licence or use a separate webinar tool with its own registration.
Which licence a small firm actually needs
The licence that matters is the organiser's: Microsoft says event capabilities and capacity vary based on the organiser's licence. Attendees do not need a licence. A quick way to decide:
Count your largest event
Under 1,000 people with registration, or under 10,000 view-only, fits the foundational limits on any Business plan.
List the must-have registration features
If you need approvals, waitlists, registration windows or custom emails, those are enterprise-only now.
Check existing Teams Premium licences
In the Microsoft 365 admin centre, Billing, Your products, see if Teams Premium was bought before 1 April 2026. Those keep the old event features until renewal.
Decide per organiser, not per company
If only one person runs webinars, one enterprise licence for that person may be enough. Ask Microsoft or your reseller how mixing Business and enterprise plans works in your tenant before buying.
Test before the real event
Schedule a test webinar with two outside email addresses to see the registration page, emails and lobby your attendees get.
For a wider comparison with other tools, see our guide on Zoom vs Teams vs Google Meet. If events drive revenue, our guide on event and MICE company websites covers registration outside Teams.
Avoid paying twice for event features
The change creates an easy way to waste money: renewing Teams Premium expecting the old webinar features. Before renewal, check:
Before renewing Teams Premium
Our guide on Microsoft 365 licence optimisation explains how to review all licences, not just Teams.
Do it yourself or get help?
Most of this is a licensing review you can do yourself in the Microsoft 365 admin centre. The settings that often get missed when a business starts running public webinars are the security ones: who can create events, whether anonymous users can join, who can present, and what external people can see in chat and files.
IT Sorted is a Singapore-based team of developers with over 10 years of experience. Our Microsoft 365 / Google Security Lockdown (S$590) enforces MFA for up to 15 users, sets anti-phishing and anti-spoofing policies, blocks legacy sign-in and risky apps, sets external sharing rules for files, cleans up admin roles and gives you a before and after report. Microsoft licence fees are paid to Microsoft or your reseller separately.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Microsoft lists Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium as licences with foundational event features: registration, attendee mic and camera, chat, Q&A, reactions, attendance reports and hidden attendee names. Events with registration can have up to 1,000 attendees, and view-only events up to 10,000.
Not if you buy it now. Microsoft says Teams Premium licences purchased after April 2026 do not directly provide the advanced event features, which moved to enterprise plans. Licences bought before 1 April 2026 keep the previously included features until they expire. Teams Premium still covers meeting protection, intelligent recap and the Queues app.
Microsoft's events licensing overview lists Office 365 E1, E3 and E5, and Microsoft 365 E3, E5 and E7, plus Teams Premium Legacy, in the advanced group. Education faculty plans A3 and A5 are included too. Microsoft 365 Business plans and frontline plans are foundational only.
No. Microsoft says event capabilities and attendee capacity depend on the organiser's licence. External attendees join through the registration link. Microsoft may require external participants to verify with an email one-time passcode to protect against abuse, which is a service protection measure rather than a licence feature.
With foundational licences, up to 1,000 attendees with registration and interaction, or 10,000 in a view-only experience with Q&A. Enterprise licences allow 3,000 attendees with chat, reactions, polls and Q&A, and Attendee Capacity Pack add-ons raise this up to 100,000, as of October 2026.