Does Microsoft Teams Work in China?

Work and school accounts

Teams for work or school isn’t blocked in mainland China. The National University of Singapore says Microsoft 365 accounts hosted outside China can be reached from inside China, and PTS Consulting, an IT services firm, says they connect without a VPN.

Speed is the problem. Microsoft says China’s links to the global internet are congested, which causes packet loss and delays for all traffic in and out of the country. Video calls and large file transfers suffer most. Users on home, hotel or café connections, away from a company network, can see poor performance.

Microsoft has worked with telecom providers on a better route for Teams calls and meetings from China. Chat and files don’t use it, and neither does attending a large broadcast meeting (Live Events), so those can still be slow.

For work email, see Outlook in China.

With or without a VPN

You don’t need a VPN or a roaming eSIM to connect. For better speed, Microsoft advises companies to send Microsoft 365 traffic through the company VPN, so it crosses the border on the company’s own network. Ask your IT team whether they want you to use it in China, and report problems to them. Microsoft notes that not every problem comes from the border.

You may still want a roaming eSIM or a VPN for apps that are blocked in China. See eSIM or VPN for China.

Personal accounts (Teams Free)

Microsoft has ended Teams for personal use, also called Teams Free, in China. The change only affects accounts you sign in to with a personal Microsoft account.

• Mobile: no longer available in China. Microsoft’s notice gives no date. TMTPost reported that the mobile apps stopped in May 2026.
• Desktop and web: unavailable from August 17, 2026, according to Microsoft. Earlier reports, including TMTPost’s, gave July 28.

Teams for personal use still works outside China. Microsoft doesn’t say how it decides you’re in China. We couldn’t confirm whether a VPN or a roaming eSIM changes that, so plan for personal Teams not to work on your trip.

Microsoft says these still work in China:

• Joining a work or school team as a guest with your personal account, on the web or in the mobile app.
• Joining work or school meetings anonymously, without signing in.
• Skype Dial Pad, if you have an active subscription, Skype number or Skype Credits.

Before you go, export your chats and media and set up another app for personal chats, such as WeChat.

The China edition run by 21Vianet

Microsoft Teams operated by 21Vianet is a separate version of Teams for China. It runs in China, apart from the global service, and 21Vianet operates and sells it using technology licensed from Microsoft. It’s meant for organizations with operations in China. PTS Consulting says it doesn’t need a VPN because it’s hosted in China.

It lacks some features of global Teams, including phone calling (Voice), dial-in audio conferencing, webinars and Live Events.

If people you work with in China use this version, you can still meet. Meetings, chats and calls work between the two versions once IT admins at both organizations set up a cross-cloud connection. Without that, Microsoft lists two other ways to join their meetings: as a guest in their organization, or anonymously.

Other meeting apps

See our pages on Zoom and Google Meet.