Microsoft 365 for private customers: Price shock and happiness with Copilot
Microsoft 365 subscriptions now cost 30 percent more for home users, but Copilot and AI image editing are included. There's a way out for existing customers.
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Microsoft 365 for private customers now also includes the AI chatbot Copilot, and will be around 30 percent more expensive as a result. The single and family subscriptions are affected. The Microsoft 365 Personal subscription will now cost 99 euros per year instead of the previous 69 euros (10 euros instead of 7 euros per month). For the Family version, the price will rise from 99 to 129 euros per year (13 euros instead of 10 euros per month).
AI comes with monthly credit
Users can then use the Copilot AI in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote to help them with text generation, for example, according to the software company. Copilot is an AI chatbot based on the ChatGPT 4 AI model from OpenAI. The Microsoft Designer tool, an AI-supported image editing tool, is also new in the two subscription packages.
However, these subscriptions do not include unlimited AI access: Instead, according to the announcement, there is a monthly quota of AI credit, which is used to bill the AI services accessed. “The monthly quota should be sufficient for most subscribers,” Microsoft estimates. Unused monthly credits cannot be transferred and will expire, according to the support document. If you need more, you need to book the Copilot Pro subscription model, which currently costs 22 euros per month.
Existing customers can switch
Existing subscribers will not be affected by the price increase until the next contract renewal. They also have the option of switching to another model if they do not need AI services or do not want to pay the price increase. For a limited period, they could switch to the Microsoft 365 Single Classic or Microsoft 365 Family Classic models, which offer the old scope of services at the previous price. These subscription models will also be retained, but will be excluded from “certain new innovations and features”, as Microsoft explains.
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To switch, according to the support document, you have to sign in, cancel your current subscription under “Manage” and then “Subscription” and select one of the other models. Microsoft 365 price increases for private users in countries such as Australia and New Zealand were already announced last week, so now local users will also be affected.
(axk)
