The service formerly known as Office 365 (now Microsoft 365), which provides access to tools like Word, Excel, and Outlook, has been hit with a massive price hike, effective immediately. The hike, targeting both the Personal and Family Microsoft 365 plans, is part of a global restructure that the company blames on the addition of Copilot—Microsoft’s AI “assistant”—and its Designer app, whether you like it or not.
“To reflect the extensive subscription benefits that we’ve added over the past 12 years and enable us to deliver new innovations for years to come, we’re increasing the prices of Microsoft 365 Personal and Family,” Microsoft said in a blog post. “Existing subscribers won’t experience the price increase until their next renewal.”
New Year, new prices
A new monthly subscription for Microsoft 365 Personal now costs R160/m – a R50 increase. The yearly subscription has similarly skyrocketed, now touching the R1,600/year mark. The same goes for the Family plan, which allows six users under one subscription, now costing R200/m or R2,000/year. You can find the new pricing on Microsoft’s local website.
But wait, it does get worse. AI has limitations to its commercial use and Microsoft is no stranger to the notion. Customers under both the Personal and Family banners will receive a monthly allotment of 60 ‘AI credits’ that’ll be useable across Copilot and Designer for AI image generation and editing. “The monthly allotment should be enough for most subscribers,” it said, without much conviction.
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But wait! Microsoft notes that only the owner of a Family subscription will have access to the monthly allotment of AI credits – meaning the five family members under the owner will not receive all the AI features promised, despite the increased price. Microsoft didn’t miss an opportunity to plug Copilot Pro, promising frequent users of its AI assistant unlimited usage (at an additional cost, of course).
It’s not all bad news, though. Microsoft is offering existing subscribers with recurring billing enabled an escape from this AI-fueled price hike. They’ll need to jump ship and subscribe to the new Personal Classic or Family Classic plans at the old prices, without any AI credits to bog them down. According to Microsoft, however, these subscribers can only unlock this deal by attempting to cancel their subscription. That seems… sane.
