What is the difference in between Office 365 A1 and Office 365 A3 in regards to Teams app?

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What is the difference in between Office 365 A1 and Office 365 A3 in regards to Teams app?

Jelena Stošić 40

Hello,

As I understand web and desktop access in Teams app is included in both Office 365 A1 and A3 plan. Is there any other difference?

Thanks!

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Answer 1

EmilyS_726 30,350 Volunteer Moderator

Both A1 and A3 come with the Teams app.

Major difference is:

A1's Teams does not include these features while A3 does:

Town halls, Webinars, open docs via Desktop Word/Excel/Powerpoint/Outlook, Power Virtual agent for Teams, Dataverse for Teams. Teams retention policy.

Otherwise, everything else is te same.

Jelena Stošić 40 Reputation points

2026-09-23T08:04:14.54+00:00

Thanks a lot for clarification!

Answer 2

Aetherin 2,505 Independent Advisor

Hi @Jelena Stošić,

For the core Microsoft Teams experience, there is no major difference: both Office 365 A1 and A3 include Teams desktop/web access, chat, channels, meetings, and Teams for Education classroom features.

The main differences lie in the services that accompany Teams, including Office desktop applications, mailbox capabilities, storage, security, compliance, and device management features.

User's image

Reference: Microsoft 365 Education service description, Microsoft 365 Education licenses - Microsoft 365 and Office 365 A3

Therefore, if your question is specifically about normal Teams usage, A1 and A3 provide broadly the same experience, with the additional benefits of A3 being primarily outside of Teams itself.

I hope my answer has addressed your question directly and clearly. Thank you very much for taking the time!

Note: Please follow the steps in the forum documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Jelena Stošić 40 Reputation points

2026-09-22T13:59:50.9833333+00:00

Thanks a lot for your fast response. Just one more question. Does Office 365 A1 allows meetings to up to 300 participants and Office 365 A3 for up to 1000 participants or no?
Aetherin 2,505 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-22T14:30:04.25+00:00

Yes, your understanding is correct @Jelena Stošić.

Meetings organized by an Office 365 A1 user can accommodate up to 300 interactive participants, while meetings organized by an Office 365 A3 user can accommodate up to 1,000 interactive participants.

Please note that the participant limit is determined by the meeting organizer’s license. You can find additional details here: Limits and specifications for Microsoft Teams

If you found the information helpful, please kindly take a moment to click "Yes" on my initial answer. This helps highlight the solution for other community members who may encounter a similar question in the future.

Thank you very much for your participation and for contributing to the discussion.
Aetherin 2,505 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-23T07:21:48.85+00:00

Hi @Jelena Stošić,

I’m just checking in to see whether you’ve had a chance to review my previous response. If anything I shared isn’t clear yet, or if you have any follow-up questions or concerns around the information provided, please don’t hesitate to let me know.