Microsoft has announced wide-ranging price changes across its online services, which could mean some customers paying up to 12% more for some products.
However, the US government, along with worldwide education customers, will see no change. And there are “no changes to on-premises software pricing.”
The “pricing consistency update” for online services under volume licensing programs kicks in as of November 1.
It means Microsoft will charge “a single consistent price across price levels A-D” for online services, under its Enterprise Agreement and Microsoft Products and Services Agreements.
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A-D refers to the user or device count at a customer, with D referring to customers with 15,000 plus, who reportedly had a typical discount of 12%. Level A – 500 to 2399 users – attracted a 3% discount, according to John Gorton of Bytes Software Services.
Microsoft said in its announcement “This update builds on the consistent pricing model already in place for services like Azure and reflects our ongoing commitment to greater transparency and alignment across all purchasing channels.”
Posting on LinkedIn, Tony Mackelworth, head of solutions at UK consultancy Codestone, wrote, “This represents a fundamental shift from rewarding scale to rewarding strategic alignment with Microsoft, and consumption growth.”
He said the move would nudge “many toward the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) model, where partners offer flexibility, support, and now even three‑year commit options.”
At the top end, he added, “discounts won’t disappear, they’ve just become non‑automatic.”
Back in May, Microsoft announced price increases across its Dynamics 365 Business Central suite, which it said were the first in five years.
These saw increases of as much as 14%, albeit with increased bundled storage, with the increases kicking in from October 1. At the time, it flagged the addition of hundreds of features and multiple updates since the last price boost.
