| title | Microsoft Defender for IoT billing |
|---|---|
| description | Learn how you're billed for the Microsoft Defender for IoT service. |
| ms.topic | concept-article |
| ms.date | 11/05/2025 |
| ms.custom | enterprise-iot |
Note
This article is relevant for commercial Defender for IoT customers. If you're a government customer, see government customers trial license or contact your Microsoft sales representative for more information.
As you plan your Microsoft Defender for IoT deployment, you typically want to understand the Defender for IoT pricing plans and billing models so you can optimize your costs.
OT monitoring is billed using site-based licenses, where each license applies to an individual site, based on the site size. A site is a physical location, such as a facility, campus, office building, hospital, rig, and so on. Each site can contain any number of network sensors, all of which monitor devices detected in connected networks.
Enterprise IoT monitoring supports 5 devices per Microsoft 365 E5 (ME5) or E5 Security license, or is available as standalone, per-device licenses for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint P2 customers.
To evaluate Defender for IoT, start a free trial as follows:
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For OT networks, use a trial license. Deploy one or more Defender for IoT sensors on your network to monitor traffic, analyze data, generate alerts, learn about network risks and vulnerabilities, and more. An OT trial supports a Large site license. For more information, see Start a Microsoft Defender for IoT trial.
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For Enterprise IoT networks, use a trial, standalone license as an add-on to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. Trial licenses support 100 devices. For more information, see Securing IoT devices in the enterprise and Enable Enterprise IoT security with Defender for Endpoint.
For general information, see licenses and the trial license.
We recommend that you have a sense of how many devices you want to monitor so that you know how many OT sites you need to license, or if you need any standalone licenses for enterprise IoT security.
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OT monitoring: Purchase a license for each site that you're planning to monitor. License fees differ based on the site size, each which covers a different number of devices.
[!NOTE] When the license for one or more of your sites is about to expire, a note is visible at the top of Defender for IoT in the Azure portal, reminding you to renew your licenses. To continue to get security value from Defender for IoT, select the link in the note to renew the relevant licenses in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
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Enterprise IoT monitoring: Five devices are supported for each ME5/E5 Security user license. If you have more devices to monitor, and are a Defender for Endpoint P2 customer, purchase extra, standalone licenses for each device you want to monitor.
[!INCLUDE devices-inventoried]
For more information, see: