Managed IT · Microsoft 365
Basic and Standard went up on July 1. For a 30-person firm that’s about $492 a year, and an hour spent on unused licenses usually finds more than that.
Basic $7, Standard $14, Premium unchanged
Hits you at your next renewal
Audit licenses before you renew
30 minutes of data collection, your report the next day, yours to keep with no obligation. Or pick a time on the calendar below. Or call 954-539-5678.
Microsoft raised the price of its two cheapest business plans on July 1, 2026. According to Microsoft’s licensing announcement, Business Basic (with Teams) went from $6 to $7 per user per month and Business Standard (with Teams) from $12.50 to $14, at US list prices. Business Premium isn’t on Microsoft’s list of affected plans and stays at $22. The versions without Teams went up by similar dollar amounts, and the enterprise plans (Office 365 E3, Microsoft 365 E3 and E5) went up too.
If you were already a customer, you didn’t pay the new price on July 1. Microsoft keeps existing customers on their current price until renewal, so the increase arrives at your first renewal after that date. If yours fell between July and now, you’re already paying it (check an invoice). If it’s still ahead of you, you have time to tidy up first.
Worked example. Take a 30-person professional services firm: 22 people on Business Standard (they need the desktop Office apps) and 8 on Business Basic (field staff who live in email and Teams on their phones).
To be honest, $492 won’t sink anyone. What annoys me is that most firms this size are already paying for licenses nobody uses, and the increase makes that waste a little more expensive. In the same firm, three licenses for people who left last year (still on Standard because nobody removed them) cost 3 × $14 × 12 = $504 a year at the new price. That alone covers the increase.
Microsoft did add something for the money. Basic and Standard get an extra 50 GB of mailbox storage, URL time-of-click protection in email, and more from Copilot Chat, rolling out over the summer. Useful, though I doubt anyone would have paid extra for them on purpose.
I think every business should review its Microsoft licenses once a year, before renewal, the way you’d read a phone bill. Hardly anyone does, because the bill is small per seat and nobody owns the job. A price increase gives you a reason to put it on the calendar. Here’s the audit I’d give a client, and it takes about an hour for a 30-person tenant.
If you’d like someone to do this with you, our free Technology Health Assessment includes technology spending: 30 minutes of data collection and a plain-language report the next day, yours to keep. Book a time here.
Because Premium didn’t move, the gap between Standard and Premium shrank from $9.50 to $8 per user per month. For many firms that changes the sum. Premium adds Intune device management, Defender for Business, Entra ID P1 and conditional access, the controls cyber-insurance questionnaires and larger clients often ask about. If you currently pay for a separate device-management or endpoint tool, add up what it costs per person. In some cases Premium is now close to a wash, and you get one fewer vendor.
That isn’t true for everyone, and I wouldn’t move the whole company on reflex. A sensible pattern is Premium for anyone who handles money or sensitive client data and Standard or Basic for the rest. Our comparison of Business Standard and Premium goes through who needs what.
I wouldn’t move everyone to month-to-month terms just to “stay flexible” either, at least not before you’ve seen the numbers. Ask whoever bills you for the monthly and the annual price of the same plan, side by side, and decide with both in front of you. For the 25 people you know will still be here next year, flexibility you never use is money spent on nothing.
I also wouldn’t migrate to Google Workspace over a dollar or two a seat. The move costs real money, and a few weeks of grumbling while people find their files again. If Google genuinely suits your team better, that’s a different conversation.
And please don’t renew blind. The increase is modest. The waste it exposes usually isn’t, and the hour you spend before renewal is the cheapest IT work you’ll do this year. If you’d rather hand that hour to someone else, it’s part of what our managed IT service does every year.
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Choose a slot that suits you. We’ll confirm by email, collect the data with you on the call, and send your report the next day. It’s free, and the report is yours to keep with no obligation.
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The new prices took effect on July 1, 2026. If you were already a customer, Microsoft keeps you on your old price until your next renewal, so the increase lands on whatever date your annual subscription renews after that. Check the renewal date in the Microsoft 365 admin center under Billing.
Not in this round. Microsoft’s July 2026 table lists Business Premium with Teams at $22 per user per month, the same as before, while Basic rose to $7 and Standard to $14. That narrows the gap between Standard and Premium.
Usually not. Microsoft lets a shared mailbox run without a license up to 50 GB, as long as nobody signs into it directly. People often convert a departed employee’s mailbox to a shared one and then forget to remove the license, which is money for nothing.
Not without comparing prices first. Ask whoever bills you for the monthly and annual price of the same plan, side by side. For the core headcount you’re sure of, I’d rather lock in the annual term; a few monthly seats make sense if you hire seasonally.
Rarely on price alone. The migration cost and disruption usually outweigh a dollar or two per seat. Move if Google fits how your team works better, not because of one price change.
