Microsoft will moderately increase the pricing for all commercial plans of Microsoft 365 next year, to compensate for the “increased value” of the popular suite of tools over the last decade.
The Redmond firm announced the price increase in a blog post late last week. The company says the new pricing marks the first time it has substantively increased the price of Office 365 since it launched a decade ago.
Since its launch a decade ago, Office 365 has grown to over 300 million commercial paid seats. Along the way, we have continuously re-invested to meet the changing needs of our customers. Four years ago, we introduced Microsoft 365 to bring together the best of Office, Windows, and Enterprise Mobility and Security (EMS). That same year we added Microsoft Teams as the only integrated solution where you can meet, chat, call, collaborate, and automate business processes—right in the flow of work.
In fact, since introducing Microsoft 365 we have added 24 apps to the suites—Microsoft Teams, Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate, Stream, Planner, Visio, OneDrive, Yammer, and Whiteboard—and have released over 1,400 new features and capabilities in three key areas.
The pricing increases are moderate, with the price hike adding up to $2-$4 hikes:
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic (from $5 to $6 per user)
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium (from $20 to $22)
- Office 365 E1 (from $8 to $10)
- Office 365 E3 (from $20 to $23)
- Office 365 E5 (from $35 to $38)
- Microsoft 365 E3 (from $32 to $36).
All of the changes will go into effect on March 1, 2022.
