Microsoft is significantly increasing the price of its Office suite for individual and family subscriptions, arguing that users will be willing to spend money to access new artificial intelligence tools in the programs.
Microsoft is significantly increasing the price of its Office suite for individual and family subscriptions, arguing that users will be willing to spend money to access new artificial intelligence tools in the programs.
A Microsoft 365 family subscription, which offers access to Word, Excel and other programs for six people, will now cost $130 per year, a 30% increase, Bloomberg reports.
The version for individuals will increase in price by 43% to $100: the price changes take effect for new subscribers now, and will be offered to existing subscribers when their packages are renewed.
«This fee increase is an attempt to generate more revenue from the company’s existing customer base and help justify the tens of billions of dollars it spends on developing and operating expensive AI services. The Redmond, Washington-based company, which is partnering with startup OpenAI, is filling its product line with AI tools capable of analyzing documents and generating text and images,» Bloomberg comments on this decision.
Microsoft noted that this was the first price increase for the Office 365 software suite (Microsoft 365) in 12 years.
«These changes bring the transformative power of artificial intelligence to the personal productivity tools that millions of people use every day,» said Brian Ronier, vice president of the company.
Ronier added that the company has made «countless improvements» to the core Office applications and introduced services such as antivirus protection and image and video editing tools.
Microsoft previously tested price increases in Australia, Singapore, and other Southeast Asian markets.
At the same time, it was recently confirmed that Microsoft has continued to provide free services in Ukraine until the end of 2025 for Ukrainian state institutions and authorities, meaning they will not be affected by this company’s decision.
Nothing is said about individual users in Ukraine separately, but according to experts and analysts, as well as research results, Ukrainians remain in the top countries in terms of using pirated software, so unlicensed users will definitely not be affected by the tariff policy update.
It even goes so far as to say that the comparative table for the draft law on mobilization was probably created in unlicensed Microsoft Office, hacked using Russian pirated software.
