The dated price, storage and billing changes this ledger tracks: the data

The dated price, storage and billing changes this ledger tracks: the data

Microsoft raised commercial Microsoft 365 list prices by 5 to 43 percent across the SKUs it touched on July 1, 2026, moved its Family and Premium consumer plans from up to 6 TB of OneDrive storage to a 2 TB shared pool for new subscriptions on October 8, and switches new Copilot Business licenses sold through its partner channel to usage-based billing by default on December 1 in supported markets. Each of those three changes lives on a different Microsoft page: the price table on a licensing news post, the storage cut in a support update, the billing switch in a partner announcement. The February pricing update that set those July 1 prices excludes standalone Teams and Copilot SKUs, which this update does not touch 1.

The July 1 rise, SKU by SKU

Microsoft announced the commercial update on December 4, 2025, published SKU-level detail on February 16, 2026, and set the new US list prices for July 1, with existing customers held at old prices until renewal 1. The steepest moves hit the cheapest seats:

• Frontline: Microsoft 365 F1 rose from $2.25 to $3.00 per user per month (33 percent) and F3 from $8.00 to $10.00 (25 percent) 1.
• Small business: Business Basic rose from $6.00 to $7.00 (16 percent) and Business Standard from $12.50 to $14.00 (12 percent); Apps for Business rose 21 percent, from $8.25 to $10.00 1.
• Enterprise: Office 365 E3 rose from $23.00 to $26.00 (13 percent), Microsoft 365 E3 from $36.00 to $39.00 (8 percent), and Microsoft 365 E5 from $57.00 to $60.00 (5 percent) 1.
• Teams-free variants rose harder: Business Basic without Teams up 23 percent, Business Standard without Teams up 16 percent, Office 365 E3 without Teams up 21 percent, Frontline F1 without Teams up 43 percent 1.
• Two rows held among the suites with Teams: Business Premium at $22.00 and Office 365 E1 at $10.00 1.

Price and AI additions moved independently inside the same update: every suite in the update, from E5 down to the $3 Frontline F1 and the $7 Business Basic, picked up Copilot Chat enhancements and Copilot Chat Analytics in the accompanying packaging wave rolling out June through August 1, 2026, including the two suites whose prices did not move 1.

The Copilot tax computes to $9.50 a seat, until the meters switch on

Subtract the plain suite from the Copilot-bundled suite on Microsoft's own business pricing page and the embedded cost of the AI layer appears. Business Standard with Copilot lists at $23.50 per user per month on an annual commitment, against $14.00 for plain Business Standard after July 1, so Copilot inside the bundle costs $9.50 a seat. Business Premium with Copilot at $32.00 against $22.00 plain puts it at $10.00 21. Buying Copilot as the standalone add-on instead lists at $21.00, shown discounted to $18.00 2.

The fine print under that $18 matters more than the number: the offer runs July 1 to December 31, 2026, applies to the first year only, requires an annual commitment, and is open only to existing Microsoft 365 business customers 2. On December 1, 2026, new Copilot Business licenses, added seats, and upgrades purchased through the Cloud Solution Provider partner program arrive with usage-based billing enabled by default in supported markets, a date Microsoft pushed back from November 2 34. The rollout initially excludes 11 countries (Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Italy, Korea, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain), Italy among them, where the antitrust price probe this ledger tracks opened in June 45. The default meter cap is 4,000 Copilot Credits, about $40 per user per month, adjustable and settable to zero 3. A seat that costs $9.50 embedded today becomes, under the license-plus-consumption model Microsoft has described, a license of $18 to $32 plus a meter that can bill about $40 more by default 3. Paying monthly instead of yearly costs 20 percent more on the bundled SKUs, $28.20 against $23.50 and $38.40 against $32.00 2.

Storage per dollar fell by two-thirds on Family

On October 8, 2026, Microsoft replaced per-person OneDrive allocations with shared pools for new and upgraded subscriptions: Family and Premium go from 1 TB per member, up to 6 TB combined, to 2 TB shared, with existing subscribers generally converting at their first renewal on or after May 2, 2027, and earlier where an eligible plan change occurs, since upgrading before that date moves the subscription onto the shared model. Pro carries 5 TB shared, Personal keeps its 1 TB, and buy-ups extend capacity to 10 TB 67. Per dollar of monthly subscription price 8:

• Family at $12.99 a month: 0.46 TB per dollar before the cut, 0.15 after, a two-thirds collapse 7.
• Premium at $19.99 a month: 0.30 TB per dollar before, 0.10 after 7.
• Personal at $9.99 stays at 0.10 TB per dollar, and Pro at $99.99 a month sits at 0.05 8.

The cut lands on plans that had already risen: Family went from $99.99 to $129.99 a year in Microsoft's 2025 price increase, before this 2026 reduction in what the plan carries 7.

Four regulatory actions across three countries

• Italy's antitrust authority opened an investigation on June 26, 2026 into the Microsoft 365 price rise tied to AI integration, and is also examining whether Microsoft's conduct was an aggressive practice 59.
• The UK's Competition and Markets Authority opened a consumer protection investigation on July 29, 2026 into whether customers were misled when Copilot was added to Personal and Family plans: from January 2025, existing customers were automatically rolled onto higher-priced plans at renewal, and the feature-light Classic escape hatch cost £25 a year less, £59.99 against £84.99 for Personal and £79.99 against £104.99 for Family 9. A consumer-law breach can cost up to 10 percent of global turnover 9.
• Australia's Competition and Consumer Commission has commenced Federal Court proceedings alleging Microsoft misled Australian customers over subscription options and price increases after Copilot was integrated into Microsoft 365 plans 9.
• Separately, the CMA's Strategic Market Status investigation into Microsoft's business software, reported launched in May 2026, examines bundling, default settings, and whether customers can choose AI tools other than Copilot; on October 16, 2026, the CMA proposed designating Microsoft with strategic market status, with a decision due by February 2027 1011.

Google ran the same play in reverse

In the same window, Google announced on June 8, 2026 that AI Plus drops from $7.99 to $4.99 a month at each subscriber's next plan renewal, with the storage increase to 400 GB rolling out over the following days 12, then told AI Plus subscribers that from November 13, 2026 the tier keeps only Flash-Lite and Flash, with Pro models reserved for the $19.99 AI Pro plan 13. Entry prices cut, frontier access pulled up a tier, meters attached at the top: the same subscription erosion Microsoft executes through list prices, storage, and billing defaults, run with the sign flipped. Our reset-window trackers carry the parallel OpenAI moves 1415, and the Anthropic parallel sits in the AI Subscription Erosion Tracker 16.

The dates this ledger watches next: December 1, meters on by default in supported markets; December 31, the $18 add-on offer expires; May 2, 2027, existing Family and Premium plans generally convert to the 2 TB pool at first renewal; February 2027, the CMA's designation decision. The page is maintained as changes land.