Since 1 July 2026, Microsoft 365 has cost businesses more: at list price, Business Basic has gone from 6 to 7 dollars per user per month and Business Standard from 12.50 to 14 dollars, with each customer moving to the new price at their next renewal. The short answer to “what should I do?”: nothing hasty, but use this Microsoft 365 price increase to take stock of all your software subscriptions. Microsoft is rarely the heaviest item; the pile-up is.
Key points
- Microsoft announced the increase on 4 December 2025; it has applied since 1 July 2026.
- Business Basic: from 6 to 7 dollars (+16%). Business Standard: from 12.50 to 14 dollars (+12%). Business Premium is still listed at 22 dollars.
- Existing customers keep their old price until their first renewal after 1 July 2026.
- Prices in francs or euros are subject to “local market adjustments”: only your invoice is authoritative.
- The right reflex is not to leave Microsoft, but to count: which tools, for whom, and how much they are really used.
What is happening: the Microsoft 365 price increase
On 4 December 2025, Microsoft published a post on its Microsoft 365 blog titled “Advancing Microsoft 365: New capabilities and pricing update”. It announced a worldwide price update for several business suites on 1 July 2026, justified by new security, management and AI features. For Business Basic and Business Standard, it mentions in particular time-of-click URL checks in email and Office apps against known malicious websites.
Microsoft's licensing page lists the new list prices, in dollars, per user per month, for the suites that include Teams:
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic: from 6.00 to 7.00 dollars (+16%);
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard: from 12.50 to 14.00 dollars (+12%);
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium: 22.00 dollars, with no increase shown;
- Microsoft 365 Apps for Business (the Office apps only): from 8.25 to 10.00 dollars (+21%);
- Microsoft 365 E3, for large organisations: from 36 to 39 dollars (+8%).
The versions without Teams rise by the same dollar amount. Microsoft's FAQ states that existing customers will see the new price “at their next renewal after July 1, 2026”, that the increase applies globally “with local market adjustments in certain regions”, and that consumer and education pricing does not change as part of this update.
What it means for you
For a 20-person company on Business Standard, the increase is 1.50 dollars per person per month, or 360 dollars a year at list price. Annoying, rarely dramatic. The real issue lies elsewhere: this is only one line among many.
In a small business, subscriptions add up without anyone adding them up: email, a project management tool, a CRM, an e-signature tool, “temporary” cloud storage opened for one project, two video-conferencing tools, an AI subscription taken out by a colleague on their own card. Each was decided on its own, for a good reason, when it was needed. Nobody has the full list. And each increase, taken alone, seems too small to deal with.
This is one of the five pains I describe on my Systems & infrastructure page: tools that do not talk to each other, subscriptions that eat into the margin and rise every year, customer data you cannot export, a vendor who can change its terms overnight, a contractor who leaves with the know-how. A price increase is a chance to look at all five at once, calmly.
What I learned
I went through this with my own ERP. In August 2026, I left my online Odoo Enterprise subscription for Odoo Community installed on my own server. The trigger was pricing: Odoo had started charging for customisations made with its Studio tool, which pushed my database into the most expensive plan. But the real question was broader: what am I paying for, and what do I get out of it?
The first step was not to migrate, but to take inventory. Of the installed modules, 215 had no equivalent in the Community edition. Going through them one by one, I found that I did not use some of them, or that other tools already covered them: I dropped those. For the rest, I looked for proven open-source modules and wrote what existed nowhere. I describe this migration in detail in the article Odoo Community vs Enterprise: migrating to my own server.
Two lessons apply to any subscription. First, the inventory alone is worth the exercise: it shows what is used, what sits idle and what is duplicated. Second, leaving a subscription has a cost that the invoice does not show. On my server, I handle backups, updates and monitoring myself; in September, an automatic update of the container engine stopped the ERP, which did not restart on its own, for eight and a half hours. An online subscription spares you that kind of trouble. That is why I do not recommend open source on principle: for AtonRa Partners, a financial management firm, the comparison between open-source solutions and Microsoft came out in favour of Microsoft, and that is what I installed (see the case study).
What to do in practice
1. List everything you pay for monthly or yearly
Start from the last twelve months of bank and credit card statements, not from the team's memory. For each line: the tool, the vendor, the price, the number of licences, the renewal date, and the person who signed up.
2. Measure actual use
Admin consoles show last sign-ins and assigned licences. A licence unused for three months, a departed employee whose account is still paid for, a tool only one person opens: these are your first savings, without changing anyone's habits.
3. Remove and downsize
Remove unused licences before the renewal date, not after. Check that each person has the plan they need: not everyone needs the installed Office apps.
4. Consolidate duplicates
Two video-conferencing tools, three storage spaces, a customer list copied into four applications: choose one per function. You save money and, above all, gain clarity on where your data lives.
5. Consider an open alternative where it makes sense
For some functions (shared files, knowledge base, automation, ERP), open-source software installed on a server you rent can be cheaper and give you back control of your data. For others, the subscription remains the best choice. Compare over three years, counting operations, not just licences.
Frequently asked questions
Has my invoice already gone up?
Only if your subscription has renewed since 1 July 2026. Otherwise, the increase will come at your next renewal. Check the date in your admin console or with your reseller.
What is the new price in Swiss francs or euros?
Microsoft publishes its reference prices in dollars and announces adjustments by market. The exact price depends on your country, your reseller and your commitment: compare your current invoice with the previous one.
Should I leave Microsoft 365?
Not necessarily. For many small businesses, it is a good tool at a fair price. Take inventory first: it often reveals bigger savings elsewhere, and you will know from facts whether an alternative makes sense.
Going further
If you want this overview without spending your evenings on it, the “Digital dependency review” package, described on the Systems & infrastructure page, covers the inventory of your subscriptions and of where your data sits, the three-year cost, what happens if a vendor doubles its prices, and a prioritised plan. The simplest way is to talk about it in a 20-minute call.
Sources
- Advancing Microsoft 365: New capabilities and pricing update, Nicole Herskowitz, Microsoft 365 blog, Microsoft, 4 December 2025 (updated 18 March 2026).
- Microsoft 365 Pricing and Packaging Updates, Microsoft Licensing, page dated 16 February 2026, accessed 10 November 2026.
- Microsoft 365 Packaging and Pricing Updates Public FAQ, Microsoft Licensing, 24 March 2026, accessed 10 November 2026.
Cover photo: Vitaly Gariev / Unsplash, Unsplash License (see the photo).
Tags: Microsoft 365, software subscriptions, SaaS, IT costs, open source, Systems & infrastructure