Viva Glint

Privacy in Viva Glint is a set of admin settings. They fix the smallest group, whether Copilot runs and whether raw answers can be exported. Two limits sit outside the settings. Microsoft releases an email address when the organisation attests to Extreme Circumstances. A cycle keeps the export setting it launched with. Microsoft’s own pages also differ on the Pulse licence and on cancelling.

By Ashish Manchanda Published 28 Oct 2026 Last updated 28 Oct 2026

Viva Glint starts at 50 licences and needs Microsoft 365

In one line

Viva Glint is Microsoft’s survey for a whole organisation. Viva Pulse is a quick survey that managers run for their own teams.

Buy it if

You want one company-wide survey and settings that decide who sees which results. You can meet a 50-licence minimum. You hold a Microsoft 365 or Office 365 plan that Viva accepts.

Do not buy it if

You want to promise staff that no one can ever learn who answered. If the organisation attests that Extreme Circumstances exist, Microsoft provides the survey taker’s email address. Extreme Circumstances are cases where naming the survey taker is necessary. They cover illegal activity, suspected fraud, potential threats to a person’s safety and legal compliance.

Set first

Switch raw export on before the first survey. A survey cycle that launched with export off stays that way.

Price

Viva Glint costs $2.00 per user per month, paid yearly, with an annual commitment that auto renews. Microsoft’s pages differ on which licence includes Viva Pulse. The price section gives all three.

One survey for the whole organisation, and a quick one for managers

An admin sets up Viva Glint by choosing what to run and how often. The four programme types are recurring or special topic, employee lifecycle, ad hoc and always-on. Templates cover engagement, onboarding, exit, manager effectiveness, diversity and inclusion, and 360 feedback. Microsoft recommends quarterly cycles for the engagement template. The question library holds hundreds of questions, and most standard ones map to benchmarks.

Staff can answer in three main ways. They can sign in with their Microsoft work account, which Microsoft recommends as the most secure method. They can use a personal link in an email. That link needs no sign-in, so if a staff member forwards the email, anyone can complete the survey. Or they can use an attribute-based link, which suits people without a work email. Teams carries invitations, reminders and results notifications. People need their own Teams licence to receive them.

HR has to supply the employee data before the first survey. Customers with Organizational Data in Microsoft 365 turned on can import it by connector or CSV upload. Connectors cover Workday and SAP SuccessFactors. A secure file transfer can keep an HR system in sync. Each record needs an email address, first name, last name, status and employee ID. Results can also be combined with Viva Insights data on how people work. That needs premium Viva Insights licences too.

After a survey, managers get a report for their team, guided conversations and suggested actions. They can pick Focus Areas to work on. Nudges prompt managers, never more than one a week. A manager who repeatedly ignores them is unsubscribed automatically.

Copilot in Viva Glint summarises comments. One summary covers up to 8,000 comments and groups them into up to 10 themes. Summaries are available for recurring and ad hoc programmes. They are not available for lifecycle, always-on or 360 programmes. Alerts point to groups with low scores, big changes or higher attrition risk. A group needs at least 20 respondents by default to qualify. Only admins see alerts.

Viva Pulse is for managers and project leads. An author picks research-backed questions, sends the Pulse to a team and sees a report once it closes. A Pulse holds 1 to 25 questions. By default it closes after 7 days, and the author can choose 1 to 27 days. Microsoft recommends resending it every 4 to 6 weeks to track change. It runs in Teams or a browser. After a company survey, Pulse can recommend follow-up questions from the top strengths and opportunities.

Our guide to employee engagement software covers how the rest of this market handles the same choices.

Admins control the results, and staff without email can answer

Admins set who sees results

They choose which roles see data and the minimum responses for each programme. By default scores show for groups of five and comments for groups of 10. Survey takers are told these thresholds. Microsoft gives an example. A manager with seven responses sees the score but not the comments. With 20 responses, the manager sees both.

Benchmarks come from over 1,300 customers

Microsoft builds them from customers that employ over 10 million people. Global and industry sets cover areas such as finance, healthcare and retail. Joining is a choice. The external benchmark option is Off by default in the edit pane. Customised questions do not map to external benchmarks by default. A note on Microsoft’s benchmark page puts new benchmark creation on hold until every LinkedIn Glint customer moves across. A 2025 global set was released in March 2026.

Staff without email can answer

They enter at least two pieces of employee information on a mobile or public device. Admins can turn the link into a QR code for frontline workers. Employees without company email or computer access get survey access onsite. Attribute-based access does not support 360 feedback programmes.

The settings that protect staff also set the limits

Most of where Viva Glint stops sits in settings. What staff are promised, what leaves with you and what the AI reads all depend on choices an admin makes.

The smallest group can go to one

That setting is available for lifecycle and always-on surveys. For recurring and ad hoc programmes, the lowest setting is three. Admins can also make lifecycle and always-on surveys identifiable. In an identifiable survey, the threshold is fewer than three responses and the common example is an exit survey. A threshold cannot change for a programme or cycle that has already launched.

Viva Pulse sets its own minimums

An admin sets the minimum recipients to send a Pulse between 3 and 25. The minimum responses to see feedback can go as low as 1. Microsoft’s guide to creating a Pulse tells authors to pick at least 5 people. If the minimum is not met, the author cannot view scores or responses, and any responses received are deleted.

Extreme Circumstances can release an identity

The organisation sends Microsoft an attestation form. Microsoft then provides the survey taker’s email address in reply to the support ticket. This holds even when raw export is off. Extreme Circumstances are cases where naming a survey taker is necessary. They cover illegal activities, suspected fraud, potential threats to the safety of a person and compliance with the law. The organisation alone decides whether they exist. Microsoft does not independently evaluate requests.

Raw answers leave only if export was on

Export is on by default for each new programme. Admins can opt out. A closed cycle keeps the setting it launched with. Switching export on later does not change it. If export is off when the organisation leaves, it cannot take raw responses with it. Microsoft cannot facilitate a transfer to another survey platform.

Copilot is on unless an admin turns it off

Copilot in Viva Glint is enabled by default. Admins manage it in Viva Feature Access Management, for everyone or for chosen groups. A change can take up to 24 hours. Copilot Highlights has no separate switch. Comment topics also use a large language model while Copilot is on. Microsoft does not use the responses, prompts or respondent attributes that Copilot processes to train foundation models. Data sits in West US, the EU or Australia. For EU customers, the model runs inside the EU Data Boundary. For others, calls go to the closest available data centres in the region. They may go to other regions when use is high.

Non-English comments are translated before topics

Viva Glint translates them to English, then assigns the topic. The comment language must be chosen in General Settings before comments are submitted. Sensitive-comment flagging does not currently support non-English comments. Copilot may not support every language Viva Glint supports. Microsoft Learn gives 60 or more languages for surveys and reports. The product page FAQ gives over 70 translations of standard content.

$2.00 per user per month, and two answers on cancelling

The Viva Glint price is simple. The questions sit in the licence rules, the Pulse licence and the cancelling terms. Viva Glint costs $2.00 per user per month, paid yearly. The commitment is annual and auto renews. Viva Glint has a 50-seat licence minimum. Viva needs a licence for one of a set of Microsoft 365 or Office 365 plans. To add Viva to an existing Microsoft 365 enterprise subscription, contact your Microsoft representative.

A trial lasts 90 days with up to 50 licences. The Microsoft account team submits the request for approval, and trials are not publicly listed. Microsoft designs trials for late-stage buyers, such as migration tests or executive demonstrations. They are not for general product testing.

Viva Pulse comes in other plans. The plan with Viva Pulse and Viva Insights starts at $6.00 per user per month, paid yearly. Viva Suite is $12.00 per user per month, paid yearly. Microsoft’s own pages differ on who needs which. The product page FAQ puts Viva Pulse only in the $6.00 plan and Viva Suite. Microsoft Learn gives Viva Glint licence holders access to Viva Pulse. The plans and pricing page asks for a Viva Suite licence to create or edit a Pulse. Responding needs none. Creating and sending a Pulse also needs a Microsoft Forms licence.

In the UK, public bodies buy through G-Cloud 15, the government’s buying framework. Insight offers Viva Glint there at £1.53 a month, excluding VAT. Microsoft Partners sell deployment, adoption and People Science advisory services. The organisation contracts with the partner directly, without Microsoft.

The customer may cancel at any time in the Microsoft 365 admin centre. Its product page footnote gives one outcome. All associated data will be deleted when a subscription is cancelled. The footnote adds that certain subscriptions may incur a cancellation fee and that cancellation policies may vary. Microsoft’s Data Protection Addendum gives a different period. It keeps customer data for 90 days after expiry or termination so the customer can extract it. Microsoft then disables the account and deletes the data within a further 90 days. The addendum excepts free trials and LinkedIn services.

While the subscription is active, Viva Glint holds data until an admin deletes it. Admins can set a retention period of 6 to 1,000 months. When a retention period is met, the data is permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.

You could also run survey steps with agents built on your own systems. We have mapped what that looks like. The HR Agent Map

Eight questions for Microsoft

Which licence does a manager need to create a Pulse, and what does it cost per user? Good answer: One named licence in the order form, with a price for each person.
Can you start us below the 50-licence minimum? Good answer: A start size in writing, or a clear statement of the minimum.
Which raw export setting will each programme launch with, and who can change it? Good answer: Export on for every programme, and a named admin who owns the setting.
What record does Microsoft keep of an Extreme Circumstances request? Good answer: A dated record we can see, with who asked and who approved.
How long do we keep access to our data after cancelling? Good answer: One period in writing, with time to export every cycle.
Where will Copilot process our comments, and can it stay in our region? Good answer: A named region for storage and for the AI, with no routing elsewhere.
How is a comment in a language other than English analysed, and which languages work? Good answer: A list of languages, with the analysis done in each.
Which benchmark sets are current for our industry and country? Good answer: A named set with its date, and a date for the next refresh.

Alternatives to Viva Glint, including buying nothing

If Viva Glint stops short for you, look at Effectory, Medallia and Windmill. Buying nothing is a fourth route.

Look at Effectory if you want a smallest group that no one sets below five. Viva Glint lets admins set it to three, or to one for lifecycle and always-on surveys. Effectory reports group scores only for groups of five or more participants. Each group also needs a minimum number of respondents, never below five, which the customer may raise. A group under that minimum with at least three respondents gets limited insights without scores.

Look at Medallia if comments arrive in many languages. Viva Glint translates non-English comments to English before it assigns topics. Medallia Text Analytics analyses themes, sentiment, empathy and nuanced emotions across dozens of languages and dialects. Ask each vendor which languages work for your comments.

Look at Windmill if a 50-seat minimum is too high a start. Windmill’s standard plan includes 10 free seats, though some plans include a different number. It bills monthly, by the seats set up. Inviting an employee counts as a seat even if they have not logged in. Windmill sends each pulse in a Slack message. On 29 September 2026 Windmill announced an expansion of Pulse to support full engagement surveys. Ask what a full survey covers today.

Buying nothing means no one summarises your comments for you. One Copilot summary in Viva Glint covers up to 8,000 comments. It also means no export setting to get right and no licence minimum. The guide for HR system owners covers the survey that may come with an HR system.

More in this guide

The Employee engagement guide
Compare the 40 researched products how each asks staff, who sees the answers, what it costs and the contract terms.
Mid-market companies which engagement products suit 200 to 2,000 people, what they cost and what to ask.
Enterprise companies which engagement products suit 2,000 people or more, what they cost, how contracts run and what to ask.
Companies whose HR or performance system already runs surveys what the survey part of an HR or performance system covers, what it costs and what else exists.