If your business runs on Microsoft 365, your bill is about to go up. From 1 July 2026, Microsoft is lifting the list price on most of its business and enterprise plans, as set out in Microsoft’s own licensing update. Business Basic rises 16% (from US$6 to US$7 per user, per month) and Business Standard climbs 12% (US$12.50 to US$14), while Business Premium holds at US$22. Those are the global list figures — your actual Australian dollar price varies, but the percentage rises carry across.

Why it matters

For a 20-person team on Business Standard, a 12% lift is roughly a few hundred dollars a year. Not catastrophic, but it lands right as the new financial year starts and most other costs are climbing too. There’s a timing wrinkle worth knowing: existing customers stay on their current price until the first renewal after 1 July, so when it actually bites depends on your renewal date. Microsoft is sweetening the deal slightly — Business Basic and Standard pick up an extra 50GB of mailbox storage, URL time-of-click phishing protection and Copilot Chat — rolling out between June and August.

What to do before your renewal

Don’t just let the renewal tick over. Check which plans your staff are actually on and whether every licence is being used — it’s common to find seats still assigned to people who’ve left, or Premium licences where Standard would do the job. If you pay monthly, moving eligible users to an annual commitment usually beats the monthly rate. And if security is the only reason you’d jump to Business Premium, weigh that against the cost of buying those protections as add-ons. A quick licence review before your renewal date is the cheapest way to take the sting out of this.

If you’d rather not pick through SKUs and renewal dates yourself, our Microsoft 365 managed services team can audit your licensing and make sure you’re only paying for what you use.