Planner Premium in 2025 introduces a tiered licensing structure that integrates with Microsoft Teams to enhance project management through shared plans. The Project Manager Agent, an AI-powered assistant, simplifies workflows, automates tasks, and provides actionable insights to improve efficiency. Here’s a quick breakdown:
- Planner Basic: Free for Microsoft 365 subscribers; basic task tracking only.
- Planner Plan 1: Adds basic AI features like task suggestions and simple automation.
- Planner Plan 3: Includes advanced tools like Gantt charts, task dependencies, and resource optimization.
- Planner Plan 5: Offers enterprise-level features like compliance tools, governance, and cross-project management.
Pricing varies by tier and organization size, with volume discounts available. The Project Manager Agent is a key feature, offering smart scheduling, automated updates, and data-driven insights to streamline project management within Teams. Licenses can be assigned via the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, and advanced templates like nBold can further optimize workflows.
For small teams, start with Planner Plan 1. Mid-sized organizations may benefit from Planner Plan 3, while large enterprises should consider Planner Plan 5 for comprehensive management needs.
34 Features COMPARED | New Microsoft Planner BASIC vs PREMIUM
Planner Premium Licensing Structure for 2025
The 2025 Planner licensing model introduces a multi-tiered system designed to align with varying project management and collaboration needs. Each tier offers a distinct set of features, allowing organizations to choose what best suits their requirements.
4 Planner Licensing Tiers and Their Features
Planner Basic
Included at no extra charge for Microsoft 365 subscribers, Planner Basic delivers essential task tracking tools within Teams. However, it does not include the Project Manager Agent or advanced automation capabilities.
Planner Plan 1
This tier brings the Project Manager Agent with fundamental features like basic automated task suggestions, simple workflow triggers, and improved collaboration tools for shared plans. It’s a great choice for teams beginning to explore AI-assisted task management.
Planner Plan 3
Planner Plan 3 offers a comprehensive suite of AI-driven insights and advanced automation. It includes enhanced planning tools such as Gantt chart views, task dependencies, and expanded reporting and integration options. This tier is ideal for organizations managing more complex projects.
Planner Plan 5
The top-tier option, Planner Plan 5, builds on Plan 3 by adding enterprise-grade governance, compliance, and support features. It includes advanced security, audit logging, and cross-project portfolio management, making it suitable for large organizations with stringent requirements.
US Pricing for Each Planner Premium Tier
Pricing is based on Microsoft’s usage-driven model. Rates depend on subscription terms, with volume discounts available for larger teams.
Feature Comparison Across All Tiers
The table below highlights the key features included in each licensing tier:
| Feature | Planner Basic | Planner Plan 1 | Planner Plan 3 | Planner Plan 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Task Management | Basic task tracking and boards | Enhanced collaboration tools | Advanced planning (e.g., Gantt charts) | Enterprise-grade project management |
| Project Manager Agent | Not available | Basic AI assistance | Full AI automation and insights | Advanced AI with portfolio-level tools |
| Automated Workflows | Manual only | Simple automation | Comprehensive automation and reporting | Extensive automation with governance tools |
| Reporting & Analytics | Basic visuals | Standard dashboards | Advanced analytics and integrations | Custom reporting with compliance features |
| Template Management | Standard templates | Basic customization | Extensive custom templates | Enterprise-level template tools |
| Support Level | Community support | Standard support | Priority support | Premium support with dedicated account management |
Higher-tier plans unlock advanced features like task dependencies, resource management, and robust compliance tools. These capabilities enable teams to optimize workflows and enhance productivity within Microsoft Teams. In the next section, we’ll explore how the Project Manager Agent integrates seamlessly with shared plans in Teams.
Project Manager Agent in Shared Plans
The Project Manager Agent brings the power of AI to Microsoft Teams shared plans, simplifying project workflows, cutting down on repetitive tasks, and helping teams focus on what matters most – delivering results.
What the Project Manager Agent Does
Think of the Project Manager Agent as your automated project assistant. It takes care of routine tasks, tracks progress, and flags potential issues before they turn into major problems. Plus, it offers actionable suggestions to keep things on track.
Here’s how it works:
- Smart Task Scheduling: The agent analyzes workloads and task dependencies to assign work effectively. It ensures no one is overwhelmed, balancing assignments based on team members’ availability and expertise.
- Automated Updates: By tracking milestones, deadlines, and task completion rates, it generates detailed progress reports. If a project starts to fall behind, it suggests adjustments to timelines or resources.
- Data-Driven Insights: Using historical data, the agent predicts when projects might be completed, spots recurring workflow inefficiencies, and recommends ways to improve processes.
All this happens seamlessly within Microsoft Teams, making collaboration and project management smoother than ever.
How It Works with Microsoft Teams Shared Plans
The integration with Microsoft Teams shared plans means the Project Manager Agent fits right into your team’s existing workflow. No need to juggle multiple tools – everything happens in one place.
Here’s what it does:
- Dependency Tracking: The agent monitors how tasks across different shared plans are connected. If a delay in one area threatens another, it notifies the right people and suggests solutions to keep everything moving.
- Collaboration Insights: It analyzes team activity to highlight strategies that work well and shares these insights with other teams facing similar challenges.
- Automated Reporting: Forget manually compiling status updates. The agent sends progress reports directly to Teams channels, complete with visual indicators, milestone alerts, and summaries of resource usage.
- Dynamic Resource Management: By keeping an eye on workloads across shared plans, the agent identifies imbalances and proposes task reallocations or timeline tweaks to optimize productivity without sacrificing quality.
Which Features Are Available in Each Tier
The Project Manager Agent comes in different tiers, each designed to meet varying organizational needs:
- Planner Plan 1: This entry-level option focuses on the basics. It offers simple task suggestions, assignment recommendations, and weekly summary reports. Ideal for small teams, it also provides basic workload balancing.
- Planner Plan 3: For more advanced needs, this tier adds features like dependency tracking, project forecasting, and intelligent resource optimization. Teams also gain access to performance analytics, custom reporting, and Power Automate integration for more complex workflows.
- Planner Plan 5: Built for enterprise-level operations, this plan includes cross-portfolio analysis, executive dashboards, and automated compliance reporting. It also handles intricate multi-team dependencies and offers strategic planning insights, along with detailed audit trails for all automated actions.
Higher-tier plans also allow for greater customization, enabling organizations to tailor the agent’s behavior to fit their unique processes or industry-specific requirements. This ensures the tool aligns perfectly with existing project management practices, making it a valuable asset for even the most complex environments.
Setting Up Planner Premium and Shared Plans
To get started with Planner Premium, you’ll need to assign licenses through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. Once that’s done, activate the features within Teams to finalize the setup.
How to Assign and Activate Licenses
Here’s how you can assign Planner Premium licenses, depending on the scale of your deployment:
- For small-scale deployments:
- Navigate to Billing > Licenses in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
- Select the Planner Premium product you want to assign (e.g., Planner and Project Plan 3 or Planner and Project Plan 5).
- On the product details page, click Assign licenses and add the relevant user names.
- For individual user assignments:
- Go to Users > Active users in the Admin Center.
- Find the user’s row and select it. Then, in the side pane, choose Licenses and Apps.
- Expand the Licenses section, check the box for the Planner Premium license, and save.
- For bulk assignments with larger groups:
- From the Active users page, select multiple users.
- Click on Manage product licenses at the top of the page.
- Choose the option to assign additional licenses without removing existing ones.
- Under Licenses, check the Planner Premium license(s) and save your changes.
Once the licenses are assigned and activated, you’ll be able to enable premium features in your shared Teams plans.
Microsoft 365 Admin Center documentation
Product details reference
sbb-itb-8be0fd2
Real-World Uses for the Project Manager Agent
The Project Manager Agent is built to streamline project management by simplifying shared plans and removing the need for manual task tracking.
Automating Workflows and Task Management
This tool can handle routine tasks automatically, reducing the need for repetitive manual coordination. By automating workflows, teams can focus on higher-priority work while ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.
Seamless Integration with Microsoft Teams and Power Automate
By integrating with Microsoft Teams, the Project Manager Agent becomes a part of team communication, making it easier to stay aligned on tasks and updates. Its connection to Power Automate allows teams to design custom workflows that can be triggered by specific project milestones. This ensures a smoother handoff between different phases of a project and helps maintain momentum. These integrations make the tool adaptable to a variety of team needs.
Tailored Applications for Different Teams
The flexibility of the Project Manager Agent means it can be customized to meet the needs of various teams. Here are a few ways different departments might use it:
- Marketing Teams: Simplify campaign coordination by managing deadlines and deliverables.
- IT Departments: Schedule and track regular maintenance tasks effortlessly.
- Operations Teams: Organize and oversee recurring processes to improve efficiency.
- Human Resources Teams: Streamline onboarding by automating key steps in the process.
These examples highlight how the tool can adapt to different workflows, offering practical solutions tailored to each team’s unique requirements.
Selecting the Right Planner Premium Tier
Picking the right Planner Premium tier means looking at your organization’s specific needs, future growth plans, and budget. It’s about matching the Project Manager Agent’s features with your team’s workflow requirements. Here’s how to identify the best option based on your team’s size and project demands.
Upgrading from Planner Basic or Project Online
If you’re currently using Planner Basic, moving to Planner Premium is fairly seamless since both are part of the Microsoft 365 suite. The main distinction lies in the advanced tools, like the Project Manager Agent, which enhances workflow automation for shared plans.
For teams transitioning from Project Online, it’s crucial to ensure that your current needs align with what Planner Premium offers. Larger organizations might also explore Planner and Project Plan 5, which caters to enterprise-level project management.
With the rebranding of "Project for the Web" to "Planner Premium", the tier structure is now clearer, while retaining all the functionality users are familiar with.
Decision Guide for License Selection
- Small teams: Planner Plan 1 is a great starting point, offering essential Project Manager Agent tools without unnecessary complexity.
- Mid-sized organizations: Planner Plan 3 strikes a balance between advanced features and cost, making it ideal for teams with growing needs.
- Large enterprises: Planner Plan 5 is designed for managing large-scale projects and enterprise-level demands.
Budget is a key factor in choosing the right tier. The added automation and advanced tools provided by the Project Manager Agent bring substantial value, making it easier to justify the investment for teams seeking more efficient project management.
Getting More Value with Planner Premium Templates
Take your Planner Premium experience to the next level by using advanced templates designed to simplify and speed up project deployment.
After selecting your Planner Premium tier, the key to maximizing its potential lies in template-based automation. Templates replace manual project setups with pre-configured frameworks, ensuring consistency and efficiency in every project.
Why Collaboration Templates Matter
Pre-built templates are the backbone of effective and consistent project management. Instead of starting from scratch for each new initiative, teams can rely on predefined structures, tasks, and workflows. Here’s how this approach benefits your organization:
- Speed: Templates drastically reduce setup time, allowing projects to kick off faster and boosting team productivity.
- Consistency: With standardized naming conventions, task structures, and workflows, templates ensure projects align with organizational standards. This consistency is especially crucial when the Project Manager Agent handles multiple shared plans, providing reliable automation across the board.
- Compliance: By embedding approval steps and documentation requirements into every project, templates help meet compliance standards from the start. The Project Manager Agent monitors these elements automatically, ensuring nothing is overlooked.
Microsoft Planner includes basic plan templates with most Microsoft 365 subscriptions (starting at about $6 per user per month) and offers premium templates with Planner Plan 1 at $10 per user per month.
For those looking for even more advanced solutions, nBold Templates provide enterprise-grade tools for efficient and standardized project management.
nBold Templates for Premium Planner Boards
nBold Collaboration Templates take Planner setups to a higher level by automating the creation of fully equipped Microsoft Teams environments. With nBold, you can create a master template – referred to as the "Original Team" – that includes pre-set channels, Planner tabs, tasks, deadlines, assignments, labels, checklists, and attachments. This means that when a new project begins, teams can jump straight into actionable plans rather than starting with a blank slate.
nBold templates go beyond basic setups by integrating tools like SharePoint document libraries, Power BI dashboards, Microsoft Forms, and even third-party apps like Salesforce into the workspace. These templates pair seamlessly with the Project Manager Agent, ensuring automated workflows are built on a consistent foundation. They also include advanced governance features such as:
- Automated naming conventions (static or dynamic) using Azure AD data to prevent duplicate team names.
- Approval workflows and audience targeting to control who can create or access specific templates.
- Power Automate flows for additional automation, like creating tasks directly from Microsoft Forms submissions.
nBold templates are priced at $3 per user per month, with volume discounts for organizations with 100+ users. This modest investment delivers immediate returns by speeding up project launches and ensuring consistency across the board.
Key Takeaways
Planner Premium brings AI-driven automation to Microsoft Teams shared plans, making project management smoother and more efficient. With the Project Manager Agent acting as your virtual assistant, it takes care of repetitive tasks like mapping dependencies and automating workflows, freeing up your team to focus on more strategic responsibilities.
To get started, you’ll need a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, access to an eligible Planner Premium tier, and administrator activation using the following command: Set-PlannerConfiguration -AllowPlannerCopilot $true.
This setup minimizes manual effort while improving consistency. For example, Planner Plan 1 can create tasks from overarching goals and identify tasks that require action. Additionally, template-based deployment accelerates project launches. Tools like nBold offer preconfigured Teams environments with preset Planner boards and workflows for just $3/user/month, making it easier to standardize and scale your project management processes.
The key to success lies in strategically allocating licenses based on team roles and project needs. Start with Planner Plan 1 for core teams that benefit most from AI support, and gradually scale up to higher tiers as your requirements grow. For new projects, choose the "Plan with Project Manager" option in Teams, while existing users can assign or generate tasks directly from Goals. Combined with proper governance and standardized templates, Planner Premium significantly enhances project delivery speed and team efficiency.
These insights highlight how Planner Premium simplifies project management while boosting productivity across your organization.
FAQs
What are the main differences between Planner Premium tiers, and how do they enhance project management in Microsoft Teams?
The Planner Premium tiers offer varying levels of advanced tools and features to support project management needs.
- Planner Plan 1 ($10 per user/month) includes essential premium features, such as the Timeline (Gantt) view, which helps with tracking tasks more effectively.
- Project Plan 3 ($30 per user/month) expands on this with tools for portfolio management, demand planning, and improved resource allocation.
- Project Plan 5 ($55 per user/month) provides the most advanced features, including analytics, budgeting, and financial management tools, offering greater automation and control.
These options let businesses choose the right level of project management support, whether they need basic task organization or tools for handling complex workflows and detailed analytics – all seamlessly integrated within Microsoft Teams.
How does the Project Manager Agent work in Microsoft Teams to improve team collaboration and project management?
The Project Manager Agent is an AI-driven tool designed to work effortlessly within Microsoft Teams, making teamwork smoother and project management more efficient. It helps teams stay on track by turning goals into detailed plans, transforming chats into actionable tasks, and automating workflows – all directly within Teams channels and chats.
With its intelligent capabilities, you can assign and update tasks instantly, create documents using straightforward prompts, and even convert meeting discussions into structured plans. By keeping everything within the Teams platform, it minimizes manual work, improves communication, and helps teams get more done without switching between tools.
What should organizations consider when choosing the right Planner Premium tier for their projects?
When deciding on the right Planner Premium tier, it’s essential to start by identifying your organization’s specific project management requirements. Features like advanced reporting tools, dependency tracking, and automation options can simplify workflows and boost collaboration. These tools are particularly beneficial for handling complex or large-scale projects.
Budget is another critical factor. Weigh the cost of upgraded features against the value they bring to your team’s productivity. Think about how these tools fit your team size and project demands. Selecting the right tier ensures you’re paying for features that genuinely align with your business objectives.