Up to 40 percent more expensive: Microsoft plans hefty price increases

Customers must prepare for price increases for various Microsoft products. Microsoft has now announced the increases in dollar prices – but it is quite likely that they will also affect euro prices. The increases are particularly drastic for the 365 tool Power BI.

Microsoft announced the price changes for Teams Phone and Copilot on Tuesday. For Teams Phone, a cloud-based service that allows Microsoft Teams to be used as a telephone system in the company, the cost of the standard subscription will rise from eight to ten US dollars per user per month –, an increase of 20 percent. Microsoft justifies the increase with the added value provided, which consists of enabling "flexible, intelligent and reliable" calls in Teams. The prices for customers with special conditions, on the one hand those who use Teams Phone for their own customer support and on the other hand customers with a Teams Calling Plan Bundle, will also change, to five dollars per month and user and to 22 dollars per month and user respectively. For Microsoft 365 E5 or Office 365 E5 customers, nothing will change initially. The increases will take effect from April 1, 2025.

Microsoft Power BI significantly more expensive

The costs for the Pro and Premium per User licenses (PPU licenses) for the business intelligence tool Microsoft Power BI will increase. From April 2025, Pro licenses will cost 14 instead of USD per month and PPU licenses will cost 24 instead of USD per month and per user. This corresponds to an increase of 40 percent for Pro licenses. The new prices will apply to all new and existing customers worldwide.

For various other products, Microsoft intends to switch from annual to monthly payments as standard – in conjunction with a price increase of five percent. Microsoft justifies the changeover as a response to customer feedback –, according to which monthly billing is often more beneficial to customers' cash flow. Whether customers would also say this in view of the associated price increase is of course not specified. However, those who want to do without the higher prices can switch back to the annual billing model if they wish. The product categories affected are

• Microsoft 365
• Office 365
• Enterprise Mobility + Security
• Windows 365
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Services
• Microsoft Power Platform
• Various online services

The monthly billing option is also coming for Copilot. For Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales and Microsoft 365 Copilot for Service, payment will be possible on a monthly basis with a five percent price increase. Here, too, those who remain on the annual billing model will not be affected by the price increase.

(nen)