Thinking of deploying Microsoft Dev Box service but want to understand the licensing and subscription requirements first? Then, you have come to the right place. This blog post breaks it all down—clearly and simply—so you know exactly what you need and why, whether you’re an IT admin, platform engineer, developer, or a decision-maker.

Microsoft Dev Box is a cloud-based service that provides secure, fully managed developer workstations (virtual machines) hosted in Azure. It’s designed for organizations that want fast, scalable, and policy-compliant dev environments for their developer teams. But before you spin up your first Dev Box machine, you need the right combination of subscriptions and licenses.

🧩 Licensing required for the service

Dev Box pulls together multiple Microsoft services—Azure, Windows, Entra ID (formerly Azure AD), and Intune—which means multiple licensing touchpoints. Let’s simplify it.

✅ Core Requirements for Using Microsoft Dev Box

To set up and use Dev Box, you’ll need the following:

• 🔷 An Azure Subscription – Dev Box runs on Azure infrastructure.
• 🪟 Windows 10/11 license – The Dev Box Virtual machine OS.
• 🔐 Microsoft Entra ID license – For secure authentication, SSO experience, and conditional access
• 🛠 Microsoft Intune license – For managing Dev Box machines and apps (policies, compliance, provisioning, etc.).

💡 Note: Dev Box requires a work or school account. You cannot use personal accounts like outlook.com, live.com, or gmail.com, etc.

👥 Per-User vs. Per-Device Licensing: Which One Works Better?

If you’re deploying multiple Dev Boxes per user, per-user licensing is probably what you would prefer since it allows one user license to be used across different machines:

With per-user licensing, you only need one license per user for Windows, Entra ID, and Intune—no matter how many Dev Boxes you assign to a developer in your team. All recommended Microsoft 365 subscription plans, discussed in the next section,  for the service have the required per user licensing built into them.

📦 Simplify It with Microsoft 365 Plans

Rather than purchasing separate Windows, Entra ID, and Intune license plans, most organizations benefit from using Microsoft 365 subscription plans that bundle all the required licenses needed for Microsoft Dev Box. The following table shows the recommended Microsoft 365 plans for Dev Box. All these plans come bundled with the per user licenses of Windows 10/11, Microsoft Entra ID, and Microsoft Intune.

*F3 plan users can legally access Dev Box, but the plan does not include a Windows Enterprise license. It does, however, include limited Entra ID and Intune capabilities.

🧭 Which Plan Should You Choose?

Here’s a quick cheat sheet to help you decide on which Microsoft 365 plan will work best for you:

• Enterprise IT? Go with E3 or E5
• Education sector? Choose A3 or A5
• SMB or startups? Use Business Premium
• Supporting mobile/frontline workers? Consider F3 (with limitations)
• Students at eligible schools? Use Education Student Use Benefit with your A3 and A5 plan

🎯 Final Thoughts

Microsoft Dev Box is a powerful service—once you have you have decided on your subscription and licensing strategy. By using the right Microsoft 365 plan, you can simplify setup, stay compliant, and scale your dev environment without the headache of juggling separate subscriptions and licenses.

💬 Ready to Get Started? Create your first Dev Box.

👉 Have questions about deployment or licensing strategy? Drop them in the comments!