How Much Does It Cost to Set Up Microsoft Intune?

Short answer: most small business Intune deployments run somewhere between a single flat fee for a small single-office fleet (roughly 15 devices or fewer) up to a larger fixed quote for a 50+ device, multi-location environment with more complex compliance needs. The real driver isn't Intune's cost — Intune itself is usually already included in your Microsoft 365 licensing — it's the labor to configure it correctly across every platform you use.

What "setting up Intune" actually involves

Intune shows up as a checkbox that's already been paid for and rarely gets used properly. A real deployment covers a lot more ground than flipping it on:

Tenant and enrollment configuration — deciding how Windows, iOS, Android, and macOS devices join and register.
Compliance and configuration profiles — the actual rules devices have to meet to be considered "managed."
Conditional Access integration — tying device compliance to what a user can actually access.
Windows Autopilot — zero-touch provisioning so new laptops arrive pre-configured instead of set up by hand.
Mobile application management — controlling corporate data on phones without necessarily managing the whole personal device.
Documentation and admin training — so the configuration doesn't live only in one person's head.

Skipping any of these is usually how organizations end up with Intune "turned on" but not actually managing anything consistently — which is the situation most small businesses are already in before they call anyone.

What drives the cost

Three things determine what a deployment actually costs, in roughly this order of impact:

Device count. The clearest, most honest cost driver. A 12-device single office is a fundamentally smaller project than a 60-device operation across two locations.
Platform mix. Windows-only is simpler than Windows plus a mix of company-owned and personal iOS/Android devices, which need separate compliance and app-management rules.
Existing mess. Devices that are already partially, inconsistently enrolled usually need cleanup before new policy can be applied cleanly — that's assessment work that has to happen before a quote can be firm.

Because of this, "how much does Intune cost" doesn't really have a single number attached to it industry-wide — which is exactly why a real quote should come after a short conversation about your specific environment, not off a generic price list.

Typical scope, by size

As a general shape (see the full service tiers for detail):

Single office, up to ~15 devices — tenant setup, enrollment, baseline compliance across all platforms, documentation.
Growing team, up to ~50 devices — everything above, plus Windows Autopilot, Conditional Access, mobile app management, and admin training.
Full fleet, 50+ devices — everything above, plus advanced Conditional Access design, multi-location profiles, and a full operations guide.

Intune setup checklist for Windows, iOS, Android & macOS

Whether you hire this out or attempt it internally, this is roughly what "done" looks like:

Intune tenant and MDM authority configured
Windows Autopilot profile created and tested on at least one device
Compliance policies defined for each platform (Windows, iOS, Android, macOS)
Conditional Access rules tied to device compliance
Company Portal branded and enrollment instructions written for end users
Mobile application management configured for BYOD devices
Dynamic device groups set up for automatic policy targeting
A written operations guide covering how to maintain everything above

Do I need Microsoft 365 Business Premium for this?

Intune is included with Microsoft 365 Business Premium, E3, E5, F1/F3, and standalone EMS E3/E5 — so if you're already on one of those plans, you likely have everything you need licensing-wise and just haven't configured it. If you're on a lower tier like E1, that's a licensing conversation worth having up front, since it changes both the cost and the sequence of the project. (In one real deployment we handled, a client moved from E1 to Business Premium as the first step of the engagement, specifically to unlock Intune, Windows Autopilot, and Conditional Access — see the case study.)

Hiring someone vs. doing it yourself

Intune's admin console is genuinely usable — this isn't a tool that requires a specialist to click the buttons. What a specialist actually buys you is not repeating the industry's most common mistake: enrolling devices before compliance and Conditional Access policy are correctly designed, which usually means re-doing the enrollment later. Getting the design right the first time is where the real value is, not the clicking.