Personal subscriptions for one user will rise from £59.99 to £84.99 per year – a £25 increase – for those who pay annually. If you pay monthly, your payment will go up from £5.99 to £8.49 per month, resulting in a £30 price hike over the year.
Family plans for up to six users will go up from £79.99 to £104.99 per year, a £25 rise. Paying for a family plan monthly will see payments jump from £7.99 to £10.49 per month, a £30 rise over the year.
Customers were informed of the price hike earlier in February, with the new prices automatically charged when an annual subscription renews.
The tech giant justified the price hike by explaining that customers would “enjoy” AI-powered features alongside their other subscription benefits. These include Copilot – a tool that can assist with various tasks, such as helping you to write in Word – and graphic design tool Microsoft Designer, which can help you to create images in PowerPoint.
How to avoid the price hike
Customers can make changes to their subscription plan, or turn off recurring billing, by visiting their Microsoft account at least two days before their next billing date.
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Microsoft users can beat the price hikes by logging in to their account and switching their plan to ‘Classic’.
This will revert your subscription to what it was before Copilot and Designer were added – crucially, this will be at the old price. So you’ll still have access to Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint and Word, as well we cloud storage, but you won’t be able to use Copilot or Designer.
It’s best to downgrade as soon as you can, as Microsoft says the option to switch to a Classic plan will only be offered for a “limited time”.
Here’s how to make the switch:
- Sign in to your Microsoft account
- Go to ‘Subscriptions’ and select ‘Manage’
- Select ‘Cancel subscription’. This will give you the option to choose a monthly or annual Classic Personal or Classic Family plan
If your plan doesn’t switch over automatically, it will do so on your next billing date. If you’ve already been charged the new price for Microsoft 365 and you downgrade your plan, you can request a partial refund by contacting Microsoft’s support team.
