Microsoft announced today some important pricing changes regarding Microsoft 365 commercial plans, which will go into effect on March 1, 2022. This will be the first significant pricing update since Microsoft launched Office 365 a decade ago, and the implications could be significant for the over 300 million commercial Office 365 customers.
Jared Spataro, CVP for Microsoft 365 penned a long blog post to justify the price hikes following a decade of innovation that saw Microsoft launch Microsoft 365 four years ago. “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,” Spataro explained.
Here are all the details about all the pricing changes that will go live on March 1, 2022:
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic will go from $5 to $6 per user
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium will go from $20 to $22
- Office 365 E1 will go from $8 to $10
- Office 365 E3 will go from $20 to $23
- Office 365 E5 will go from $35 to $38
- Microsoft 365 E3 will go from $32 to $36
Spataro emphasized today that there will be local market adjustments for certain regions and that there would be no pricing changes for education and consumer subscriptions at this time. To sweeten the pot, the exec also announced that Microsoft Teams will add unlimited dial-in capabilities for meetings across enterprise, business, frontline, and government suites in the coming months (the feature currently requires Microsoft 365 E5 and Office 365 E5).
“We’re committed to building on the value we’ve delivered over the past decade to continuously provide innovation that helps our customers succeed and thrive today and well into the future,” Spataro said. Do you think these upcoming pricing changes are appropriate after Microsoft added so many new apps to Microsoft 365, or do you think the timing for the announcement may be quite odd right in the middle of a global pandemic? Let us know in the comments below.
