Swap license recommendations

Overview

A swap recommendation suggests a cheaper license for a person who does not use everything their current license includes. It can also suggest removing a license that another license the person holds already covers. Swap recommendations appear under the Swap license filter on the Users tab and on the Licenses tab.

Each row shows the person, their current license, what to move them to, why, and how much you save each month. You can raise the change as a task for an approver to decide.

Business value

A person on a premium license who only uses email, or who never opens the desktop apps, costs more than they need to. Swap recommendations find these people and show the saving, so you can right-size licenses without taking anything away that the person uses.

Prerequisites

Before you use the filter, connect the tenant and let it finish its first sync. See Connect a Microsoft 365 tenant.

Required permissions

You need Read on Optimization to see swap recommendations. You need Manage on Optimization to add them to tasks, ignore them, and restore them. The Owner and Contributor roles have both. The Reader role has Read only. For details, see Roles and permissions in Tenant Manager.

Dependencies

Swap recommendations are only as good as the usage data Tenant Manager can read. Some of that data needs extra access that your Microsoft Entra administrator grants once. The Permissions button on the filter shows which access is working and which is missing. See the table in the How it works section.

How it works

Select the tenant in the tree view, expand License management, and select Optimization. On the Users tab, select Swap license. On the Licenses tab, the same filter lists the licenses that have people to swap. The rules behind swaps are in Recommendations and savings. This article shows how to read and use the list.

Tenant Manager looks at people whose account is enabled and who were active within the Inactive line. It looks only at paid licenses assigned directly to the person. People you excluded are never offered a swap. People who are past the Inactive line are not offered a swap either, because they appear under Inactive instead. Usage reports older than 35 days are not used.

How far back each check looks is set by the Evaluation duration in Recommendation settings. When it is empty, each check uses its own default, as the Swap rules table shows.

A swap moves the person to a cheaper license, sometimes with only the add-ons they use. A removal drops a license the person does not use, or one that another license they hold already covers. A recommendation is dropped when the new license would not save money.

Swap rules

This table lists the changes Tenant Manager can recommend, what must be true for the person, how far back it looks by default, and the access it needs. Every rule also needs Turbo360 to read licenses, users, and groups in the tenant.

If you set an Evaluation duration in Recommendation settings, it replaces the look-back above, up to what Microsoft keeps: 30 days of sign-ins and 90 days of calls.

Columns and reasons

The grid shows these columns.

Rows are sorted by the biggest saving, then by name, and the grid shows 100 rows per page.

The Why column uses these labels.

A swap needs a free seat of the replacement license. When there is none, the row says so, and the change cannot be added until you free or buy a seat. When you check several people, Tenant Manager adds them in grid order only up to the number of free seats.

Permissions button

The Permissions button shows a count of items that are missing or not read yet. Selecting it lists the access that unlocks more recommendations. The panel is titled Permissions for swap license recommendations, and it starts with "Each one finds more people. Grant it on the app registration with admin consent, then sync." Each item shows a state: Working, Missing, Not read yet, or Not needed. The state is the worst one across the tenants in scope. For a missing item, the panel says what to grant, for example "Call records were not read. The app registration needs the CallRecord-PstnCalls.Read.All permission, with admin consent." or "PIM role eligibility was not read. The app registration needs the RoleManagement.Read.Directory permission, with admin consent." Ask your Microsoft Entra administrator to grant a missing permission with admin consent, and then sync the tenant.

An item such as Real names in usage reports can show as missing when Microsoft conceals user, group, and site names in its usage reports, and the Troubleshooting section lists the fix.

Steps

The steps below cover the common tasks for swap recommendations. You start in Optimization for the tenant. For the shared settings and the Ignore dialog, see Optimization overview.

Review swap recommendations

This procedure shows who could move to a cheaper license and why.

1. On the Users tab, select Swap license.
2. Read the Move to, Why, and Free seats columns.
3. Select a row to open the popup. It shows the change, the current license, the reason, the free seats, and the monthly saving.

Check what is missing

This procedure shows which access would unlock more recommendations.

1. Select Permissions.
2. Read the state of each item.
3. Ask your Microsoft Entra administrator to grant any item that is Missing, and then sync the tenant. If Real names in usage reports is Missing, ask your Microsoft 365 administrator to go to Settings > Org settings > Reports in the Microsoft 365 admin center and clear Display concealed user, group, and site names in all reports, and then sync the tenant again.

Add swaps to tasks

This procedure raises one task per person for an approver to decide.

1. Select the Add to tasks icon on a row. To add several, check the rows and select Actions > Add to Tasks.
2. Read the confirmation. Enter a note if you want to record a reason.
3. Select Continue.

The tasks appear in Tasks with the status Awaiting approval. When a task is approved, Tenant Manager gives the person the new license and removes the old one in one change, so nobody is left without a license.

Ignore a swap

This procedure hides a swap recommendation for everyone in the account.

1. Check one or more rows, and select Actions > Ignore.
2. Choose Ignore always, or choose Ignore until and pick a date.
3. Select Continue.

Restore an ignored swap

This procedure brings an ignored swap back to the list.

1. Turn on Show ignored. The switch shows the number of ignored swaps, and it appears only when at least one swap is ignored.
2. Check the rows, and select Actions > Restore, or select the Restore icon on a row.
3. Select Continue.

Permission behavior

What you can do depends on your role.

• Without Manage on Optimization, Add to Tasks, Ignore, and Restore are disabled. Hover over one to see "You are not authorized to perform this operation".
• A swap is blocked when there is no free seat of the replacement license, or when you own none of it.
• A person who already has a pending request for the license is skipped. Decide that request first.

Example scenario

Ayesha Khan, a module owner at Fourth Coffee, wants to stop paying for premium licenses where a lighter one is enough. She opens Optimization for Fourth Coffee Stores, selects Users, and then Swap license. One row shows a person on a premium license whose Why says Email only, with a lighter license in Move to and one free seat.

She selects Add to tasks and Continue. A task appears in Tasks. When it is approved, the person gets the lighter license and the premium license is removed in the same change.

Limitations

• Only paid licenses that are assigned directly to a person are evaluated.
• Excluded users and people past the Inactive line are not offered a swap.
• A swap needs a free seat of the replacement license, and you cannot raise more swaps than there are free seats.
• Usage reports older than 35 days are not used.
• Recommendations come from the last sync. They are not live.

Troubleshooting

1. There are few or no swap recommendations.
   Cause: some access is missing, or the usage reports hide user names.
   Fix: select Permissions, ask your Microsoft Entra administrator to grant what is missing, and sync the tenant. If Real names in usage reports is missing, your Microsoft 365 administrator needs to turn off concealed names. In the Microsoft 365 admin center, go to Settings > Org settings > Reports, clear Display concealed user, group, and site names in all reports, and sync the tenant again.

2. A swap shows "Not purchased" under Free seats.
   Cause: your tenant owns no seats of the cheaper license.
   Fix: buy seats of the cheaper license, and then add the swap.

3. A swap was skipped and the message says it is no longer recommended.
   Cause: the licenses or usage changed after the page loaded.
   Fix: reload the page and check the recommendation again.

4. A swap was skipped because no unassigned seat is left.
   Cause: the free seats were used after the page loaded.
   Fix: free or buy seats of the replacement license, and add the swap again.

5. An ignored swap is not under Users > Ignored.
   Cause: an ignored swap is kept with the swaps.
   Fix: select Swap license, and turn on Show ignored.

6. A note says that license plans have not been read yet.
   Cause: Turbo360 has not yet read what each license includes, so it cannot check switched-off features or licenses covered by another license.
   Fix: none is needed. The plans are read on the next sync.

FAQs

1. Does a swap take anything away that the person uses?
   The recommendation is made only when the usage data shows the person does not use the features that the cheaper license lacks. Check the Why column before you add it.

2. Why do some people never get a swap?
   People you excluded, people who are inactive, and people with licenses assigned through a Microsoft Entra ID group are not offered a swap.

3. Can I undo an approved swap?
   Not from Tenant Manager. To reverse it, raise a swap back to the original license.

Related articles

• Optimization overview
• User recommendations
• License recommendations
• Group recommendations
• License tasks
• Recommendations and savings
• Syncing a Microsoft 365 tenant
• Roles and permissions in Tenant Manager