Microsoft Planner review: basic plans, premium plans and licenses

What Microsoft Planner is

Microsoft Planner is Microsoft's task and work management app. Microsoft's service description calls it a collaborative task management tool: people assign and manage tasks on a Kanban board, using task cards that hold due dates, status, checklists, labels and file attachments. It runs on the web, inside Microsoft Teams, and as a mobile app for iOS and Android.

Microsoft's Planner FAQ describes the new Planner as one experience that brings together Microsoft To Do, Planner and Microsoft Project. If you last looked at Planner a few years ago, expect a different product.

What changed with Project for the web

Older articles use product names that no longer apply. According to Microsoft's Planner FAQ:

• In April 2024, the Tasks by Planner and To Do app in Teams was renamed Planner, and Project Plan 1 was renamed Planner Plan 1.
• As of September 18, 2024, Project Plan 3 and Project Plan 5 became Planner and Project Plan 3 and Planner and Project Plan 5.
• As of August 2025, Project for the web and the Project and Roadmap apps in Teams were retired. Plans created in Project for the web now open in Planner as premium plans, with no change in licensing.
• Roadmaps did not move across; Planner offers Portfolios in their place.

Microsoft set September 30, 2026 as Project Online's official retirement date, and says that retirement does not affect Project desktop or Planner.

How work is organized

Planner has two kinds of plan. Basic plans are what every user with an eligible Microsoft 365 license can create. Premium plans carry the former Project for the web features and need a paid Planner license.

Your own work sits in My Day and My Tasks, which collect tasks assigned to you across plans. Inside a plan, the views depend on the license:

• Planner in Microsoft 365: Grid, Board, Schedule and Charts views.
• Planner Plan 1: adds Calendar, Timeline (Gantt), People and Goals views, plus backlogs and sprints.
• Planner and Project Plan 3: adds the Assignments view for defining effort per resource.

The pricing page limits checklists to 20 items per task. Premium plans add summary tasks and subtasks, milestones, custom calendars, conditional coloring and up to ten custom task fields in five types: text, date, number, yes/no and choice.

Collaboration inside Microsoft 365

Plans can be managed in Teams alongside their files and chats (a Teams license is required), Planner tasks can appear in your Outlook calendar, and access is controlled through Microsoft 365 Groups. The pricing page lists adding collaborators inside and outside your organization on every tier.

Microsoft's FAQ says Planner in Microsoft 365 users can edit premium plans created by licensed users: they can assign tasks, change dates and add attachments. They cannot open the Timeline, People or Goals views, which need Planner Plan 1.

Automation and integrations

Microsoft lists automation through Power Automate, a separate Microsoft app where flows are built. Every tier, including Planner in Microsoft 365, can use Power Automate cloud flows to connect Planner with first- and third-party services. Business process flows need Planner Plan 1 to use them and Planner and Project Plan 3 to create them.

The service description also lists the Planner API in Microsoft Graph and a SharePoint web part.

AI features need a separate Microsoft 365 Copilot license. With it, the Planner Agent can turn goals into tasks, take on simple routine tasks and generate status reports. Users without it can still work on the same plans.

Reporting and planning limits

Basic plans include the Charts view and export to Excel, but the pricing page lists prebuilt and custom dashboards and reports as view-only without a paid license. Report creation starts at Planner Plan 1.

Scheduling depth is where the tiers split most. Basic users can view task dependencies and custom fields but not create them. Planner Plan 1 adds finish-to-start dependencies, the Timeline (Gantt) view, milestones, goals and effort and duration fields. Baselines, critical path, dependencies with lead and lag, task history and portfolio creation are listed on Planner and Project Plan 3; Plan 1 users can only view portfolios.

The pricing page notes that task history is not available in GCC, GCC High and DoD government tenants.

Plans and what needs a paid tier

We do not publish prices because they change. Check Microsoft's Planner pricing page for current numbers. The split we found on 19 October 2026, using the plan names Microsoft prints:

• Planner in Microsoft 365 (labelled Microsoft Planner, included in Microsoft 365, on the pricing page): tasks with files, checklists and labels, My Day and My Tasks, basic and custom plan templates, Grid, Board, Schedule and Charts views, Teams and Outlook integration and Power Automate cloud flows.
• Planner Plan 1: subtasks, premium templates, backlogs and sprints, task dependencies, Calendar, Timeline (Gantt) and People views, goals, milestones, custom task fields and reports.
• Planner and Project Plan 3: everything in Plan 1, plus task history, the Assignments view, portfolio creation, baselines, critical path, dependencies with lead and lag and the Project desktop app.
• Microsoft 365 Copilot: a separate add-on that brings the Planner Agent to both basic and premium plans.

Basic Planner comes with Microsoft 365. The business plan comparison lists apps to manage tasks, such as Microsoft To Do, Lists and Planner, as included in Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard with Copilot and Business Premium with Copilot. The enterprise comparison lists the same row for Microsoft 365 E3, E5 and E7. Microsoft's FAQ also names Planner and Project Plan 5, which the Planner pricing page does not show.

Who Microsoft Planner fits

Planner fits organizations that already run on Microsoft 365 and want shared task tracking without buying another tool. A team can start with Grid, Board and Charts views at no extra license cost and buy Planner Plan 1 only for the people who build schedules.

It also fits teams coming from Project for the web, since Microsoft has moved those plans into Planner as premium plans.

Who should look elsewhere

• If your team does not use Microsoft 365, most of Planner's advantages (Teams, Outlook and Groups-based access) do not apply.
• If everyone needs Timeline (Gantt), dependencies or reports, budget for Planner Plan 1 per person, or compare tools that include those features on a lower tier.
• If you need native time tracking, Microsoft's Planner pages do not list it.
• If you work in a government cloud tenant, check the Microsoft 365 roadmap first, because some premium features, such as task history, are not available there.

How to trial Microsoft Planner

If you have an eligible Microsoft 365 license, open Planner in Teams or on the web and build a basic plan for a real project. Use the Board and Grid views for a week and check whether the Charts view gives you enough reporting.

To test premium plans, Microsoft's help center says you can create a premium plan from My Plans and either start a free trial or request a license from your admin. The product page describes a one-month trial that needs a credit card. Check whether only plan owners need a license, since other users can still edit premium plans.