Mitigating Microsoft 365 Price Increases: Practical Strategies for Your Organisation

I’ve seen the emails land in inboxes. The headline is simple, the impact is not. This guide tells you what the notices look like, where costs hit first, how to diagnose the real effect on your billing, and the concrete steps to push back or cut spend. Short, actionable items. No fluff.

What you see

Microsoft 365 price increase notifications

You will get a vendor email and a Microsoft notice. Typical lines look like this: “Microsoft plans broad subscription price increases starting July 1. Office 365 E3, up $3 to $26 per user each month. Microsoft 365 E3, up $3 to $39 per user each month.” Those specific deltas appear in many vendor summaries. Treat the notice as a trigger, not the final bill.

Changes in subscription plans

Microsoft often adds features when it changes price. Expect items such as expanded Copilot Chat, Microsoft Defender for Office in some tiers, or new Intune capabilities bundled into E3/E5. The line items on your invoice will stay similar, but the SKU price will increase and some capabilities that used to be add-ons move into base plans.

Customer reactions and concerns

Common reactions are surprise, irritation and a rush to freeze renewals. People ask three things: can I delay the hike, can I keep current pricing by renewing early, and should I move off Microsoft 365 entirely. Those are valid. The right answer depends on your contract, seat counts and feature use.

Where it happens

Key areas of impact

Licensing spend rises per-seat. Expect the biggest hits in mid-to-high tier E and Business plans where new security and AI features are being bundled. Security licences and E5-level features are often the most expensive.

Affected subscription types

Business Basic and Standard see smaller absolute increases. E3 and E5 show larger per-user deltas. Frontline plans move too, though the per-user sums are smaller. Government plans frequently get a different percent change, often listed separately in notices.

Regions experiencing the most changes

Microsoft usually posts regional tables. If your tenancy is in the UK or EU expect changes aligned to local pricing policy and currency adjustments. Check the tenant billing region in the Microsoft 365 admin centre before assuming a UK notice applies unchanged to your account.

Find the cause

Understanding Microsoft’s pricing strategy

Microsoft adds functionality into existing SKUs and prices according to perceived enterprise value. That means your bill rises if you already use the newly bundled features. The other driver is macro pricing pressure; Microsoft has publicly linked some rises to added capabilities rather than blanket inflation.

Market trends influencing price adjustments

Vendors are consolidating security and AI features into platform tiers. That creates a squeeze where single-vendor suites gain cost per seat but reduce the need for multiple point products. That trade-off is central to why the numbers change.

Customer feedback and value perception

If most of the new items are unused in your tenancy, your perceived value drops. If they match current projects, the price may be acceptable. Run a quick usage audit to measure real consumption before accepting a renewal.

Important diagnostic commands and what to expect

• Connect to Microsoft Graph (modern):
  • Command: Connect-MgGraph -Scopes “User.Read.All”,”Directory.Read.All”
  • Then: Get-MgSubscribedSku
  • Expected output: a list of SkuPartNumber values and ConsumedUnits per SKU.
• Legacy option:
  • Command: Connect-MsolService; Get-MsolAccountSku
  • Expected output: SkuPartNumber and ActiveUnits or ConsumedUnits.

Interpretation: look for SKUs with high ConsumedUnits and low feature usage. If you see a SKU like ENTERPRISEPACK with ConsumedUnits equal to licensed users, check which users actually use E3 features.

If a notice references specific SKUs, match the SkuPartNumber lines exactly. Capture the output as CSV for negotiation: Get-MgSubscribedSku | Export-Csv -Path .\skus.csv

Fix

Strategies for negotiating renewals

Negotiate early. Ask for price protection or phased increases. Use exact licence counts from your CSV. Your script outputs are your bargaining chips. Present these items:

• Current SkuPartNumber and ConsumedUnits.
• Feature telemetry showing low usage of newly bundled items.
• A proposal: staggered increase, fixed term discount, or downgrade path.

Scripted evidence example (exact lines to show a reseller):

• From Get-MgSubscribedSku export: “SkuPartNumber: MICROSOFT365E3, ConsumedUnits: 132″
• From usage reports: “ActiveMailboxCount: 87” for heavy feature usage.

Evaluating Microsoft 365 alternatives

Compare total cost of ownership, not sticker price. Google Workspace is an option for core mail and docs. For advanced security and device management you will likely need additional tools. Price comparison checklist:

• Per-user licence cost.
• Security stack cost.
• Migration effort and downtime.
• Integration with existing identity (Azure AD).

Do the sums. If the migration cost plus extra tools exceeds a multiyear licence differential, switching is not worth it.

Implementing cost-saving measures

Right-size seats. Remove dormant accounts. Reassign licences where full suites are not needed. Practical steps:

• Run an inactive user report: use Azure AD sign-in logs to find users with no sign-in in 90 days.
• Move occasional users to Business Basic rather than E3.
• Combine licences with shared mailboxes where appropriate.

Sample command to find inactive users:

• Command: Search-UnifiedAuditLog -StartDate (Get-Date).AddDays(-90) -EndDate (Get-Date) -RecordType MailboxLogin
• Expected: list of users with zero mailbox activity; use that to reclaim licences.

If your tenant has many device-only users, use Frontline or dedicated device licences rather than full E3 seats.

Check it’s fixed

Monitoring subscription costs post-renewal

Schedule a monthly licence cost report. Automate with Get-MgSubscribedSku and export to your finance feed. Watch RenewDate and EffectivePrice if available. Expect the first invoice after renewal to reflect the negotiated terms or the new list price.

Assessing user satisfaction with new plans

Survey affected users after changes. Ask if any functionality was lost. Track support tickets for authentication, mail and Teams issues. If tickets spike, rollback some changes or reassign licences quickly.

Long-term strategies for managing subscriptions

Make licence hygiene part of routine ops. I use quarterly licence audits, a simple CSV export and a one-page report for procurement. Keep licence usage telemetry for at least one year so you can prove low usage when negotiating. Build a renewal playbook:

• Pull exact SKU counts 90, 60 and 30 days before renewal.
• Map top 20 users by licence cost and feature consumption.
• Prepare downgrade and migration plans ahead of negotiation.

Takeaways
Read the notices. Pull exact SKU and usage data. Use those facts to push for early renewal terms, right-size licences or migrate selective workloads. Keep automation in place so the next hike lands on a plan you chose, not one you inherited.