Why is there a price increase in Office 365 annual subscription? Am I getting some new stuff? I'm in Malaysia.

Prices have gone up here in Australia as well from AU$109 per year to AU$159 per year for Personal as well as a similar rise for the Family version.

All I can see that is different is the mention of Co-Pilot and supposed 'AI', plus it looks like Publisher has been dropped in favour of Designer. So effectively they've taken away something to give us something else but this doesn't justify a price increase of around 30%.

Why remove Publisher? Granted I don't use it but I know a lot of people who love it and will have no use for the new Designer. If you're going to jack up your prices this significantly you could at least increase what people get.

The arrogance of Microsoft is astounding.

Agree absolutely. I only just noticed the price increase by chance – there has been no notification from Microsoft whatsoever, and of course there is no way to contact anyone. We're on a family subscription on the Australian price rise is to $179 from $139, so not as steep as your personal plan, but way more than inflation.

I have no interest in Microsoft's crappy AI and don't use Publisher so won't use Designer either. I just want the basic apps (essentially just Word and Excel – don't even use Outlook).

Surely they could offer a basic or classic version without these bells and whistles and keep the price down.

Clearly they are losing so much money with their investment in openAI that they are punishing every single one of their users. I just got a notification that my price will increase by around 30% with less than 3 weeks notice - I cannot simply adjust my entire family account in that time.

Rest assured, this is a nail in Microsoft's coffin - this kind of gouging to cover their investment in products their customers don't want is borderline criminal - all while offering some of the worst UX available to man.

Shape up Microsoft.

I ended up cancelling my MS subscription and getting a refund. I only had it a few days and realised that I can get exactly the same user experience on another platform for $40AUD per year. MS subscription offered me nothing extra that I couldn't already get elsewhere. Very disappointed.

It has gone up in Australia too. From $11.00 a month to $16. Again totally outside of inflation and a disgusting price gouge when people are already suffering with the cost of living. How they can justify it I have no idea. I will be unsubscribing before my next billing cycle and moving solely over to my included Apple equivalent programs.

I just hope Microsoft can survive, they must be really hurting financially to increase their prices so much...pffft