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When your business changes, or you need more features, you can upgrade plans. The easiest way to do this is to use the Upgrade tab in the admin center. However, using the Upgrade tab isn't supported in all situations. In some cases, you might be able to change plans manually.
Use the Upgrade tab
When you use the Upgrade tab, you're led through the process of buying a new plan. All users are automatically assigned licenses in the new plan, and your old plan is canceled for you.
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In the Admin center, go to the Billing > Your products page.
Select the subscription that you want to upgrade.
On the subscription details page, select Upgrade.
Find the plan to which you want to upgrade, then select the Upgrade button.
Enter the number of licenses that you need, choose whether to pay each month or for the whole year, then select Go to checkout.
Note
Make sure you buy enough licenses to cover all your users.
On the next page, verify the Sold to address, the Billed to information, and Items in this order. You can change the default payment method at this step. If you need to make any changes, select Change next to the applicable section.
When you're finished, select Place order.
When you finish checkout, it might take a few minutes to finalize the upgrade. You can start using your new subscription right away. Select Check upgrade status to check the progress of the upgrade. You'll be notified when the upgrade is complete. The notification is displayed on the Your products page, next to your new subscription.
The Upgrade tab is empty
If the Upgrade tab is empty, you'll see an explanation of why you can't upgrade at this time. You can try to change plans manually. For more information, see Why can't I upgrade plans?.
I don't see the plan I want
When you use the Upgrade tab, the plans that you can upgrade to are displayed based on the services in your current plan. You can only use the Upgrade tab to move to a plan that has the samell receive a notification if a credit check is required.
Why can't I upgrade plans?
If you don't see any plans on the Upgrade tab, it means your plan can't be upgraded automatically. In some cases, you might be able to resolve the issue so that you can view plans available for upgrade, or you might be able to upgrade or change plans manually, instead.
Why are there no plans listed to upgrade?
You can't upgrade subscriptions now because you have more users than licenses.
To upgrade plans automatically, all of your users need to be assigned valid licenses. If you have assigned more licenses than you havepurchased, you'll see an alert on the Licenses page that says you have a licensing conflict that needs to be resolved. Learn how to resolve license conflicts. After you have resolved any licensing conflicts, you should see plans listed on the Upgrade tab. If not, you can change plans manually, or call support.
You can't upgrade subscriptions right now because this subscription isn't fully set up or the service isn't available.
For example, if one of the services has an incident, you won't be able to upgrade until all services are healthy. To see if there areprovisioning or service health issues, in the admin center, go to the Health > Service health page.
If you find that a service is not fully provisioned, or you have a service health issue, please wait a few hours for your service to become available, and try again. If you still have a problem, please call support.
You can't upgrade plans because another plan is in the process of being upgraded or is pending a credit check.
Wait until the credit check has been completed before upgrading plans. Credit checks can take up to two working days.
Currently, this subscription is not eligible to upgrade.
You can change plans manually or call support.
I see a different message than what's listed here.
You can change plans manually or call support.
Additional reasons you can't Upgrade
You have two or more plans for the same product
You can only use the Upgrade tab if all users subscribe to the same plan. For example, if you have two Microsoft 365 Business Standard plans, you won't be able to automatically upgrade one of them to another plan.
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You have a prepaid plan
If you've paid for your subscription in advance, you might be able to change plans manually. However, you won't receive a credit for unused time remaining on your current subscription if you upgrade plans before the current plan expires.
You can also call support for help.
You have a government or non-profit plan
If you have a government or non-profit plan, you can change plans manually or call support for help.
The subscription that you want to upgrade from has a temporary issue
You might not see any plans on the Upgrade tab because the service is in the process of upgrading a high volume of plans. Try again inabout an hour after your first attempt.
The plan that you want to upgrade to isn't a supported option
When you upgrade plans, the plans that are available for you to upgrade to are displayed based on the services in your current plan. You can only upgrade to a plan that has the samet eligible to upgrade plans automatically, you might be able to change plans manually,instead. You can also call support for help.
Your subscription has an Add-on
If you have an Add-on with your subscription, you might be able to change plans manually.
Your subscription has an unpaid balance
To resolve this, find the subscription on the Your products page, and select the Pay now link in the Billing section. After the payment has been made, check the Upgrade tab again.
What does upgrading a plan do to my service and billing?
When you upgrade plans automatically by using the Switch plans button (or the Upgrade tab in the new admin center), your services and billing are affected.
Access to services
Admins won't be able to use the admin center while the plan is being upgraded. This can take up to an hour.
Users will experience no interruption of service. They will continue to have the existing service until the upgrade is fully completed.
Users and licenses
Users on the old subscription will automatically be moved to the new subscription.
If your old subscription includes multiple services, and if you have changed which of these services your users are assigned to, you may want to make note of this before you upgrade plans so that you can recreate these changes afterwards. All users will be given access to all services in the new subscription. For example, if you previously purchased Microsoft 365 Business Premium for all 100 of your users, but unassigned the SharePoint Online service from 50 of them, this change would not be kept after you upgrade plans.
If you have more than one subscription before you upgrade plans, and have users assigned licenses to more than one subscription, this assignment pattern will be kept as much as possible in the new subscription.
All user data will be retained during the upgrade, including Exchange mailboxes and SharePoint Online documents, lists, and other information.
Billing
The day your plan upgrade is complete, the billing on your old subscription will be turned off and the billing on your new subscription will be turned on. You'll get a prorated credit for any unused service on the old subscription. You'll receive a new invoice that includes the credit for your old subscription within 30 days of upgrading to the new subscription.
Note
The length of time it takes to actually credit your payment account depends on the payment method that was used for the subscription.
Upgrading from a prepaid subscription before it expires? If the total cost of your new subscription is greater than or equal to the remaining value of your prepaid subscription, you won't lose any prepaid time. On the checkout page, you'll see a credit for your unused time. However, if the total cost of your new subscription is less than the remaining value of your current prepaid subscription, you'll forfeit some of your unused time. You'll be notified before you checkout, and you can wait to upgrade until closer to your prepaid subscription's expiration date.
M365 Business Standards
Call support to help you upgrade plans
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