Microsoft License Selector

Windows Server 2025 counted the way Microsoft counts it: every physical core licensed, with a floor of 8 per processor and 16 per server. Standard covers two VMs per full set of core licences and stacks for more, Datacenter covers unlimited VMs, and Auto picks whichever comes out cheaper.

Essentials is offered only where it is actually allowed — one processor, no more than 10 cores, and within 25 users or 50 devices — and then no CALs are added, because it does not use them.

SQL Server 2025 both ways round: Per Core with its four-core minimum per processor or per VM, or Server + CAL where Standard permits it, with Auto pricing both and keeping the cheaper. Enterprise with Software Assurance across every host core is recognised as unlimited virtualisation.

The Software Assurance rules that change the bill are applied rather than glossed over: per-VM Per Core licensing requires SA, SA covers one passive HA replica and one passive DR replica, and Standard stops at 4 sockets or 32 cores.

VDI and published apps are licensed per deployment and per broker — Microsoft RDS, Citrix or Omnissa Horizon. Sessions hosted on Windows Server need a Windows Server CAL and an RDS CAL for every user or device, whichever product publishes them; Windows client desktops need Windows Enterprise E3/E5, Windows VDA or Microsoft 365 F3/E3/E5 instead.

Windows VDA is added per device for endpoints with no qualifying Windows licence, and Windows Enterprise multi-session is allowed only where it may legally run — through Azure Virtual Desktop.

Session hosts are sized with each vendor’s own published method rather than one average: Microsoft’s users per vCPU by workload profile planned to 70% of maximum, Citrix’s users per physical core with its density adjustment and an N+1 host, and Omnissa’s eight desktops per core with its 60-session cap. Each deployment also lists the control-plane servers that vendor’s limits require.

Microsoft 365 is priced per user group from what the group actually needs — email, Teams, desktop Office, Intune, Windows Enterprise, advanced security, compliance, Teams Phone, Power BI, Copilot. Every valid combination of base plan and add-ons is costed and the cheapest wins, or you force a plan for a group and see what that choice costs.

The eligibility rules behind those plans are enforced: Business plans only up to 300 users, F1 and F3 only for frontline workers, Teams Enterprise added because the Enterprise suites are sold without it, E5 Security requiring M365 E3 or Business Premium, and E5 Compliance requiring M365 E3.

Everything else sits in one place beside the suites: Visio, Project, Power BI Premium Per User, Power Apps, Power Automate, Windows 365, Entra ID P2, Intune Suite and Dynamics 365.

Every line shows quantity, one-time cost, monthly cost, annual Software Assurance and first-year total with its reasoning written out — and a warning wherever an input breaks a rule, so a design that cannot be licensed does not quietly get priced.

Prices are indicative USD list prices you are meant to replace: put your agreement prices on the Prices tab, save them with the scenario, and check the result against the current Microsoft Product Terms with your licensing partner before you buy. The rules here are a simplification, not the contract.