Investing in tools for collaboration and communication is no longer an option for most businesses; it’s a necessity. In a changing workplace, where employees are spending more of their time in “digital hubs” rather than physical office environments, companies need an all-in-one way to unify staff.

Brimming with everything from Office app integrations to video and audio conferencing tools, messaging solutions and file sharing capabilities, Teams has become the go-to platform for millions of businesses. The question for many smaller, budget-conscious companies is: can they access all the functionality Teams has to offer, without paying anything?

The good news is, despite some changes to the Microsoft Teams pricing structure, there is still a free version of Microsoft Teams available. Here’s what users need to know.

Microsoft Teams Free (Classic) vs Microsoft Teams Free

Microsoft has offered a free version of Microsoft Teams for almost as long as the platform has existed. However, the free version of Microsoft Teams available today isn’t the same as the original. The first free Microsoft Teams plan, now referred to as Microsoft Teams (classic) was removed from the pricing structure on the 12th of April 2023.

This caused a little confusion for many companies already using the free version of Teams. Most of these companies were given the option to either upgrade to Microsoft Teams Essentials (available for $4 per month), or a Microsoft 365 plan (starting with Business Basic at $6 per month).

However, users who didn’t want to upgrade to a paid plan could also choose to switch to the new version of “Microsoft Teams Free”, too. While the new free version doesn’t offer access to quite as many features as the previous solution, it does include:

  • Unlimited meetings for groups of up to 60 minutes
  • A maximum of 100 people per meeting
  • 5GB of storage in the cloud for each user
  • Unlimited chat via Microsoft Teams messaging
  • Polling, task management, and file sharing
  • Data encryption for all conversations (calls, meetings, and chats)

Unfortunately, users couldn’t simply switch from a “classic” free plan over to the new version. While they could save and view files in their current Teams account through to April 12th, none of the information collected in the previous Teams instance could be passed through to a new account.

The only way to retain any information from a previous free version of Teams was to upgrade to a paid plan. Additionally, while users could download data from their previous Teams instance, Microsoft didn’t offer access to any automated tools from moving from “classic” to the new service.

The Limitations of Microsoft Teams’ Free Service

For small businesses, freelancers, and other casual users, the updated free version of Microsoft Teams still has a lot to offer. Users can still connect with as many users as they like via chat, and create channels for Teams. Meetings in the new Teams free app work exactly the same as they did in the “classic” version, and there are numerous ways to invite people to a conversation too.

Unfortunately, users will also miss out on a lot of the more advanced capabilities and features offered to users on a paid plan. For instance, on the free plan, only 100 people can join a meeting, while 300 people can collaborate on a paid plan. Meetings are also limited to 60 minutes (unlimited on the paid plan), and there’s no option for adding third-party Teams apps to the service.

Other limitations include:

  • Live captions are available in English only
  • No breakout rooms for meetings
  • No whiteboard functionality
  • No guest access for Teams
  • No webinars
  • No recording or transcription services
  • No Multi-factor authentication
  • No customer support
  • No exchange email account
  • No support for any other Office 365 apps or tools

Additionally, with the current version of Microsoft Teams’ free plan, users need to choose whether all of the people in their team are using the free app or the paid plan in advance. It’s not possible to mix and match between some users with paid plans, and others with free access.

What are the Other Pricing Options for Teams?

Ultimately, while Teams is available for free, it’s a very pared down version of the complete toolkit Microsoft can provide. The overall reason for this is that Microsoft wants customers to upgrade to a more advanced, premium plan.

The good news is that plans start at a relatively affordable $4 per month per person. The bad news is that once a user upgrades to a premium account, there’s no option to revert back to a free account using the same email address. Users looking to upgrade their Microsoft Teams experience can choose between the following plans:

  • Microsoft Teams Essentials: $4 per user per month for everything in the free version of Teams, plus 300 participants, 30-hour meeting durations (For groups and one-on-one meetings), Microsoft Whiteboard integration, collaborative annotations, 300 active chat users, 10GB of file storage, and phone and web support.
  • Microsoft 365 Business Basic: $6 per user per month for all the features of Essentials, plus extra administration and reporting tools, configurable user settings and policies, 99.9% uptime guarantee, advanced MFA, single-sign-on, Microsoft Bookings, Additional Microsoft Services, 1TB of storage per user, Exchange email hosting, access to Teams apps and add-ons, 30 languages for live captions, and meeting recordings, transcripts, and breakout rooms.
  • Microsoft 365 Business Standard: $12.50 per user per month for all the features of Business Basic, plus webinar access, desktop versions of Microsoft Office apps, and more.

Microsoft also announced the “Microsoft Teams Premium” add-on for Teams recently, which includes access to more AI tools, personalization options for meetings, and improved security features. This costs another $7 per person, and needs to be purchased alongside a base Teams license.

So, is Microsoft Teams Free?

Simply put, there is still a free version of Microsoft Teams available, but it’s limited, and not exactly the same as the classic free version of Teams. Users can still access Teams without paying anything, but they’ll be locked out from a lot of the more advanced tools available on the platform.



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