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Microsoft 365 Price Increases After Copilot Introduction

Image Source: Tada Images / Shutterstock

Microsoft has increased the prices of its Microsoft 365 subscriptions, but subscribers now have access to the new Copilot feature.

You may already know about the recently introduced premium offering, Microsoft Copilot Pro, which allows subscribers to leverage advanced AI models with expanded usage limits. The company is actively promoting artificial intelligence through the rollout of Copilot.

Bryan Rognier, Vice President of Microsoft 365 Consumer, mentioned in a blog post that the service currently has 84 million consumer subscribers. Users of Microsoft 365 can now benefit from Copilot in various applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and via the Microsoft 365 Copilot app. Additionally, subscribers can now utilize the new Microsoft Designer app, which helps users create and generate images with the aid of AI editing tools that can remove unwanted elements from photos.

The announcement highlights the advantages of integrating AI within Office applications while also introducing a potentially controversial component: AI Credits. The mechanism for AI credits, akin to that found in Notepad’s Rewrite, is now applicable to Office applications. Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plan subscribers will receive monthly AI credits for use within these apps. If users require more than their allocated credits, they will have to upgrade to Copilot Pro for unlimited access to AI features.

With these sophisticated functionalities comes an increase in user costs, which explains the recent price hike.

Increased Prices for Microsoft 365 Personal and Family Plans

Microsoft 365 subscription fees have risen by $3 per month, impacting both the Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans. This price adjustment marks the first increase since the service’s inception in 2013.

Prior to this increase, users could subscribe to Microsoft 365 Personal for $69.99 annually or select the Microsoft 365 Family plan at $99.99 per year, which accommodates up to six users. The price increase is global and has already taken effect.

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Here’s a summary of the new pricing in the U.S., U.K., and Europe: Microsoft 365 Personal is now priced at $99.99/£84.99/€99.00 per year, while the annual Microsoft 365 Family subscription is set at $129.99/£104.99/€129.00. You can check the official website for the pricing specific to your region. Note that active subscribers will not see the price hike reflected until their next renewal.

What about privacy? Is your data secure? Microsoft has reassured users that it will not use your files, responses, or prompts to train its AI models while you use Copilot in Microsoft 365 applications.

The company has also indicated that Office and Microsoft 365 applications will no longer be supported on Windows 10 once the operating system reaches its end of life on October 14, 2025. Consequently, users on Windows 10 will not receive feature or security updates for Office products. Ending support for Windows 10 is one thing, but the lack of continued support for a subscription that users have paid for is rather unusual. It remains uncertain whether this change will impact OneDrive as well.

As a reminder, LibreOffice serves as a free, open-source alternative to Microsoft Office and is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Image Source: Tada Images / Shutterstock

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