Azure Active Directory B2C Microsoft Entra External ID
Legacy names Azure Active Directory B2C, Azure AD External Identities
Customer identity and access management (CIAM) and external partner collaboration platform for securing consumer, citizen, and B2B guest access to applications.
Naming timeline
- Azure Active Directory B2C
Launched as a dedicated consumer identity and access management (CIAM) directory service (Microsoft.AzureActiveDirectory/b2cDirectories).
- Azure AD External Identities
Introduced as the umbrella suite and Monthly Active User (MAU) billing model encompassing Azure AD B2B collaboration and Azure AD B2C.
- Microsoft Entra External IDCurrent name
Reached general availability in May 2024 as the unified external identity platform; effective May 1, 2025, legacy Azure AD B2C ended sales to new customers.
What replaced Azure Active Directory B2C?
Azure Active Directory B2C has been superseded by Microsoft Entra External ID, with the latest change in May 2024 (Next-Gen CIAM GA & B2C End of Sale (May 2025)). Earlier names covered by this entry also include Azure AD External Identities. Customer identity and access management (CIAM) and external partner collaboration platform for securing consumer, citizen, and B2B guest access to applications. The underlying legacy API or CLI surface is deprecated, so a technical migration is required.
Also known as
- Azure AD B2C
- Entra External ID for Customers (CIAM)
- Entra B2B Collaboration
Technical identifiers
Legacy identifiers deprecated. The underlying API or CLI surface for the legacy name is officially deprecated, so this change requires a technical migration rather than a label update.
| ARM Resource Providers (Microsoft.*) | Microsoft.AzureActiveDirectory/ciamDirectories graph.microsoft.com (authenticationEventsFlows / userFlows) *.ciamlogin.com Microsoft.AzureActiveDirectory/b2cDirectories (legacy B2C) |
|---|---|
| Azure CLI (az) / PowerShell | az ad app Microsoft.Graph.Identity.SignIns PowerShell |
| Entra ID / Azure RBAC Roles | External ID User Flow Administrator External ID User Flow Attribute Administrator B2C IEF Keyset Administrator (legacy B2C) |
| Terraform Resources (azurerm_*) | azuread_application azurerm_aadb2c_directory (legacy B2C) |
Effective May 1, 2025, Azure AD B2C (Microsoft.AzureActiveDirectory/b2cDirectories) is closed to new customers in favor of Microsoft Entra External ID external tenants (ciamDirectories and *.ciamlogin.com), while existing B2C tenants remain supported through at least May 2030.
Notes & disambiguation
- Announced in public preview at Microsoft Build in May 2023 and generally available in May 2024, Microsoft Entra External ID is Microsoft's next-generation CIAM and B2B external identity platform built natively on the Microsoft Entra tenant architecture (Microsoft.AzureActiveDirectory/ciamDirectories).
- Unlike a simple label rename, Azure Active Directory B2C (Azure AD B2C) kept its legacy name for existing deployments, but effective May 1, 2025, Azure AD B2C was closed to new customer purchases in favor of Microsoft Entra External ID (while existing Azure AD B2C customers remain supported through at least May 2030).
- New customer-facing CIAM deployments should provision an external tenant in Microsoft Entra External ID using Microsoft Graph authentication flows and ciamlogin.com endpoints rather than legacy Azure AD B2C b2cDirectories and Identity Experience Framework (IEF) custom policies.
Sources & official documentation
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