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Bad news for Microsoft 365 business users. The office suite is getting a price hike on July 1.
“We’re sharing these updates now to give customers ample time to plan," it says.
Microsoft justifies the increases by pointing to all the features and “innovations” that it's added to the productivity programs. “In the last year, we released more than 1,100 features across Microsoft 365, Security, Copilot, and SharePoint," it says.
(Credit: Microsoft)Depending on the plan, the price hikes can add $1 to $3 more per month, while a few others will remain unchanged. Meanwhile, government customers can also expect a fee hike, which can amount to a 5% to 13% increase.
(Credit: Microsoft)In January, Microsoft announced that it was raising the price of the consumer-focused Microsoft 365 Personal plan to $9.99 per month, up from $6.99. The Microsoft 365 Family plan also went up to $12.99 per month from $9.99. That said, customers could revert to the original pricing by switching to classic plans, which cut out the Copilot integration.
Microsoft 365 has received strong reviews from PCMag. But it faces competition from Google’s Workspace and Zoho Office, as well as free alternative LibreOffice. So, impacted users might flee to other platforms when there are signs that Microsoft’s big bet on AI is struggling to pay off.
Still, Microsoft is banking on a whole host of feature updates and security improvements to help it retain subscribers. The company notes that its AI assistant, Copilot Chat, began offering a unified experience across the various office programs starting in September. In addition, Microsoft has been rolling out extra security protections to Microsoft Defender to help it flag more malware and phishing threats.
“Collectively these features have increased the value of our suites across security, productivity, and management,” the company adds. It has also published a graph to highlight all the benefits Microsoft 365 business users will receive under the various monthly plans.