MC1225192 - Microsoft Entra ID Governance: Azure subscription required to continue using guest governance features

Introduction

Beginning January 30, 2026, Microsoft Entra ID Governance will require all tenants to have a linked Azure subscription to continue using Identity Governance features for guest users. This change ensures accurate billing for governance actions performed by guests and supports continued access to advanced governance capabilities. 

When this will happen:

General availability and enforcement begin on January 30, 2026.

How this will affect your organization:

Who is affected:

• Organizations using Microsoft Entra ID Governance features for guest users (userType = Guest).
• Admins managing lifecycle workflows or Entra ID Governance features in entitlement management for external or guest identities. Access reviews will be included by March 31, 2026.

What will happen:

• If your tenant does not have a linked Azure subscription, creation or updates of policies scoped to guest users using premium Entra ID Governance capabilities will be blocked. 
• The following actions will be unavailable:
• Creating access reviews scoped to guest users (inactive user reviews, user-to-group affiliation helper)
• Creating or updating entitlement management policies involving guests, sponsor approvers, custom extensions, Verified ID, or auto-assignment rules
• Marking a guest as governed in entitlement management
• Directly assigning a guest user to an access package in entitlement management
• Creating or updating lifecycle workflows scoped to guest users.
• Existing policies will continue to run, but no new guest-governance actions can be authored without billing enabled.
• Once a subscription is linked, normal guest governance usage and billing will begin under the Monthly Active User (MAU) model.

What you can do to prepare:

• Before January 30, 2026, link a valid Azure subscription to your tenant:
• Navigate to Entra ID → ID Governance → Dashboard
• In the Guest Access Governance panel, select Get Started
• Choose a subscription and resource group, then select Turn on 
• Confirm your account has at least the Contributor role to enable subscription linking.
• Review any guest-scoped workflows, reviews, or entitlement policies that may require updates after subscription linking.
• Communicate this change to support teams or internal governance admins.
• Update internal documentation regarding:
• Guest governance prerequisites
• Subscription dependency
• Billing behavior for governance actions

Learn more: Microsoft Entra ID Governance licensing for guest users | Microsoft Learn

Compliance considerations:

Question	Explanation
Does the change alter how existing customer data is processed, stored, or accessed?	Guest-governance actions require a linked Azure subscription; creating or updating guest-scoped governance actions is blocked without subscription linkage.
Does the change modify admin controls?	Admins must link an Azure subscription to enable guest governance billing and can turn guest governance on or off in the Entra ID Governance dashboard.
Does the change allow a user or admin to enable or disable the feature?	Guest governance features can be enabled or disabled through the Guest Governance panel in the Entra ID Governance dashboard.