Microsoft 365 price increase: comparing Business Standard and Business Premium
Business Basic and Business Standard have cost more since 1 July 2026, Business Premium has not. Why the new price only applies from your renewal and how I compare Business Standard and Business Premium using licence costs as of October 2026.
The Microsoft 365 price increase took effect on 1 July 2026: Business Basic costs around 14 per cent more, Business Standard around 12 per cent. Business Premium costs practically the same as before. Your invoice shows the new price only after your next renewal.
A price change is a good moment to review your existing licences. Besides the price, the comparison has to take account of the features you need and the security products you already use. Based on licence costs as of October 2026, Business Premium is €7.27* per user and month more than Business Standard, net, on an annual term with monthly billing. This is how I compare the two.
Microsoft 365 price increase: what changed on 1 July 2026
Microsoft raised the list prices of its business plans worldwide and announced this on 4 December 2025. In US dollars, Business Basic went from 6 to 7 dollars and Business Standard from 12.50 to 14 dollars. Business Premium stayed at 22 dollars. For Germany this results in the following licence costs:
Microsoft justifies the step with features that have been added to the plans or will be added during the year. For Business Basic and Business Standard these are mainly extensions of Copilot Chat and a check of links in emails at the time of the click. The security features that define Business Premium are not among them.
Why the new price only applies from the renewal
Many companies receive their Microsoft 365 invoice every month and therefore assume they have a monthly subscription. In most cases, however, these are annual licences with monthly billing: the term is twelve months, paid in twelve instalments. A true monthly subscription costs around 14 per cent more than such an annual licence with monthly billing.
With the annual term, the price is fixed for those twelve months. Microsoft has confirmed this explicitly for the increase: existing subscriptions continue at the previous price, and the new price applies from the first renewal after 1 July 2026.
What you see on your invoice
Your licences have not been renewed since 1 July 2026. The price stays the same until the anniversary of the order. You do not need to do anything.
The anniversary of the order has been reached and the licences were renewed at the new price. Number and type of licences are the same as before; only the price per licence has changed.
If an invoice shows the old and the new price side by side, the licences were ordered at different times and therefore have different renewal dates.
Which rule applies to you depends on the type of contract:
Price fixed for twelve months. The new price applies from the renewal date. This is the case for most companies.
Also fixed for twelve months and around 5 per cent cheaper than monthly billing. The new price appears on the next annual invoice.
Renews every month. Here the new price has applied since the first renewal in July 2026.
The renewal date is the anniversary of the order and therefore differs from company to company. If you ordered several licence types at different times, you often have several dates.
What does the price increase mean for your invoice?
How large the step is depends on when your current term began. On 1 February 2026, Microsoft lowered its euro prices by 7.4 per cent to align them with the global level. If you renewed before that, you pay the higher 2025 price until the end of the term.
| Start of the current term | Business Standard today | Next renewal |
|---|---|---|
| October 2025 to January 2026 | €12.29* | October 2026 to January 2027 |
| February to June 2026 | €11.34* | February to June 2027 |
| since July 2026 | €12.74* | already at the new price |
Whatever your starting price: after the renewal you pay more for Business Standard than before. The main security addition is link checking at the time of click, not the security features of Business Premium.
The Microsoft 365 price increase as an opportunity
A price increase is annoying at first. It is also a good reason not to let your licences simply run on, but to decide deliberately what your company actually needs. Three reasons speak for taking a close look right now:
With the renewal you fix number and type of licences for twelve months. If you do nothing, you renew the old state at the higher price.
Almost every tenant contains licences that nobody needs any more. Each of them becomes more expensive with the renewal. Tidying up beforehand lowers the invoice.
The additional cost of Business Premium has fallen, its scope has not. For a few euros more you get security features that Business Standard does not offer.
Which licence is right depends on what you need, not on the price. I recommend Business Premium where devices and company data have to be protected, and only there. For those workplaces, however, the price increase makes the switch considerably easier to justify than before.
Business Premium: the additional cost has fallen
Business Premium is exempt from the increase and, thanks to the adjustment in February, even cheaper than a year ago: €20.01* instead of €21.63*. Because the two smaller plans became more expensive at the same time, switching costs less than ever before.
What you get for €7.27 more
Business Premium includes everything in Business Standard. On top come the features that actually secure a company’s accounts, devices and data: who may sign in, from which device, and what happens to the data when a device is lost. None of them is included in Business Basic or Business Standard, although some can be added as separate licences. The table shows what each licence includes. Included does not mean configured: the features only take effect once they have been set up.
| Feature | Basic | Standard | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mailbox, Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Office desktop applications | – | ✓ | ✓ |
| Conditional Access: sign-in only from managed devices (Entra ID P1) | – | – | ✓ |
| Device management for notebooks and smartphones (Intune) | – | – | ✓ |
| Endpoint protection with central detection (Defender for Business) | – | – | ✓ |
| Advanced email protection against phishing and malicious attachments (Defender for Office 365) | – | – | ✓ |
| Sensitivity labels and data loss prevention (Purview) | – | – | ✓ |
Bought separately, these features cost more
The features can also be added to Business Standard one by one. Just three of them together cost more than the entire additional cost of Business Premium:
Conditional Access alone costs almost as much as the entire switch when bought as a separate licence. If you need more than one of these features, Business Premium is the cheaper route.
What this changes in everyday work
The difference does not show in normal operation, but on the days when something goes wrong. Four situations that can occur in any company, each assuming no security products beyond the licence:
The second factor protects as long as it is not intercepted as well. Which device the sign-in comes from cannot be restricted.
Conditional Access only allows sign-ins from devices your company manages. An unknown device is rejected, even with the correct password.
Without device management, it is hard to prove whether the disk was encrypted, and the device cannot be wiped remotely.
Intune enforces encryption on every device and documents it. The notebook is wiped remotely as soon as it is back online.
The account is blocked. What is already on the device stays there.
The company data in Outlook, Teams and OneDrive is removed from the device selectively. Private photos and apps remain untouched.
The antivirus built into Windows works locally. There is no central alert; the incident is often only noticed once damage has been done.
Defender for Business reports the incident centrally, shows how it unfolded and isolates the affected computer from the network before the attack spreads.
The calculation should also include what Business Premium can replace: a separately licensed antivirus, a separate device management product or an additional email filter. Whether that applies to you depends on the products you use today. I work that out with you case by case.
Copilot in the bundle: around €9 extra
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business is available as a bundle with all three plans. As a separate licence, Copilot Business costs €27.30* per user and month; in a bundle it costs considerably less:
With Business Standard and Business Premium, Copilot therefore costs around €9 extra in the bundle. The bundle with Business Basic is more expensive than the one with Business Standard, although it includes less. The reason: Microsoft grants a discount on the bundles with Business Standard and Business Premium, but not on the bundle with Business Basic. There you pay the sum of both licences. If you work with Business Basic and want to introduce Copilot, it is therefore better to change the licence at the same time. Business Premium with Copilot is €7.74* above Business Standard with Copilot. For that you get the same security features as without Copilot, and here they matter even more: Copilot accesses all data a user is allowed to open. Conditional Access and sensitivity labels determine who may sign in and what counts as confidential.
If you already pay for Copilot as a separate licence alongside Business Premium, you pay €47.31* per user and month. The bundle costs €29.12*, which is €18.19* less. The bundles can be booked for individual users; the whole workforce does not have to switch. What Copilot does in daily work and when it is not worth it is covered in the article Copilot Business: only €9.11 more inside the Business Premium bundle.
When switching is not worth it
- When an account only needs a mailbox and Teams. From Business Basic, the additional cost is still €13.61* per user and month. For accounts without a device of their own and without access to confidential data, that is rarely justified.
- When the features are not set up. After the licence change, Conditional Access, Intune and Defender are available but not active. Which features often remain unused is described in the article Business Premium: unused security features.
In many companies a mix is therefore right: Business Premium for all workplaces with their own device and access to company data, Business Basic for the remaining accounts.
How I proceed with my clients
To turn the price increase into a good decision, I prepare the renewal with you. You then know in good time what you have, what you need and what switching to Business Premium costs. The aim is the licence that fits your needs, not the largest one.
We look at your licences together, regardless of the renewal date.
You receive the new price and the calculation for switching to Business Premium.
Number and type of licences are renewed as we agreed beforehand.
The number can still be reduced. After that it is fixed for twelve months.
In the licence audit we clarify together:
- which licences exist in what number and who they are assigned to,
- which licences nobody uses, for example those of former employees,
- when each term ends and at what price it is billed today,
- what the renewal costs at the new price and what switching to Business Premium costs,
- whether Copilot should be introduced and whether a Copilot licence already paid for separately can be replaced by Business Premium with Copilot.
On this basis you quickly get an overview of your licences, and we can plan the coming years: which workplaces need which licence, whether Copilot makes sense for individual people and which security features are set up next. Unused licences that turn up along the way reduce the additional cost of the switch further.
Frequently asked questions
From when do I pay the new price for Microsoft 365?
From the first renewal of your licences after 1 July 2026. For an annual licence that is the anniversary of the order, even if you pay monthly. Only with a monthly subscription has the new price applied since July 2026.
Why does my invoice still show the old price?
Because your annual licences have not been renewed since 1 July 2026. The price is fixed for the whole twelve-month term, even with monthly billing. It only changes on the anniversary of the order.
Why is my Microsoft 365 invoice suddenly higher?
Because your licences have been renewed. The renewal starts a new twelve-month term, to which the price valid since 1 July 2026 applies. Number and type of your licences have not changed as a result.
How large is the Microsoft 365 price increase?
Business Basic costs €6.40* instead of €5.60* per user and month, Business Standard €12.74* instead of €11.34*. That is around 14 and around 12 per cent. Business Premium remained practically unchanged at €20.01*. The prices are net on an annual term with monthly billing.
What does switching from Business Standard to Business Premium cost?
€7.27* per user and month, or €872* a year for ten workplaces. In return you get Conditional Access, device management with Intune, Defender for Business, Defender for Office 365 and Purview. Added separately, just three of these features cost more than the entire additional cost.
Can I switch to Business Premium during the term?
Yes. Switching to a higher licence is possible at any time, for all users or for individual ones. The end of the term stays the same, and from the switch you are billed the Business Premium price valid at that time. Switching back to a smaller licence is only possible at the renewal.
* Licence costs net, for Germany, as of October 2026. Prices may have changed since.
Sources
- Prices: ALSO Cloud Marketplace, NCE licences on an annual term with monthly billing, all amounts net per user and month. The prices published by Microsoft refer to yearly payment in advance and are therefore around 5 per cent lower.
- Separate prices: Microsoft Defender for Business, Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and Microsoft Intune, list prices for Germany with yearly payment in advance, as of October 2026
- Advancing Microsoft 365: New capabilities and pricing update (Microsoft, 4 December 2025) on the announcement of the price increase and the new features
- Microsoft 365 packaging and pricing updates (Microsoft Licensing) with the prices per plan and the note that existing customers stay on the previous price until renewal
- Partner Center announcements, December 2025 (Microsoft Learn) on the new prices applying from the first renewal after 1 July 2026 and on the 7.4 per cent reduction of euro prices on 1 February 2026
- Manage customer subscriptions (Microsoft Learn) on switching to a higher licence during the term
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