License drift is one of the most common — and most invisible — ways growing businesses overspend on Microsoft 365. Here's how to find and fix it.
The slow leak in your M365 bill
Microsoft 365 is easy to grow into — and hard to grow out of. People join, get licensed, change roles, and eventually leave. Along the way, licenses accumulate.
The result is license drift: the gap between what you're paying for and what you actually use. It's one of the most common, and most invisible, sources of overspend we see.
Where the waste hides
- Former employees still licensed. Until an account is removed or downgraded, the bill keeps coming.
- Premium features for users who don't use them. Not everyone needs a full E5.
- Duplicate services. Third-party tools that overlap with features already in your plan.
- Shared mailboxes assigned a full license. A common misconfiguration that's easy to fix.
A simple quarterly review
- Reconcile active users against licenses. Anything assigned to a disabled account is immediate savings.
- Match license tier to actual usage. Downgrade where the premium features go unused.
- Check for overlapping tools. If M365 already does it, the third-party subscription may be redundant.
Done quarterly, this review typically pays for itself within the first cycle — and keeps paying.
Microsoft 365Cost OptimizationIT Strategy