Subscription increase

I received a notice from Microsoft today “Starting on 02/03/2025, the price for your Microsoft 365 Family subscription will change from AUD 139.00/year to AUD 179.00/year.”  That rounds to a 29% increase! The reason from Microsoft being “to access powerful AI features in the apps”.  This seems like Microsoft are saying, given people can’t justify buying copilot separately we’re going to charge you for it anyway given the amount we have invested in it.

Shouldn’t the base subscription be sufficient for research and development and subsequent new functionality? I feel like we’re being held over a barrel here.

I just received the email - mine is increasing from $109.99 to $159.99 - for what?? $50 more is ridiculous! Anything MS can do, so can google. They’ll lose heaps of customers over this. Myself included. What am I going to use bloody AI for?

I agree and would be happy to support

Yes I agree, that “price gouging” has become rampant through many industries. I have been a loyal customer of Microsoft for over thirty years now & I do not believe they are ready to listen to their customers. Unfortunately the ACCC is seen by many as a toothless tiger when it comes to taking action.

Dear Tony Marsh,

Hello! Welcome to the Microsoft Community. I'm glad to be able to assist you. If I misunderstand your question, please let me know promptly.

I understand that you received a strange email telling you that your Microsoft 365 Personal subscription will increase by 45.87%. I understand that this message may be confusing to you, and I will try to explain it to you.

First of all, thank you for your love and support for Microsoft products! Please do not trust any messages about payments and funds easily for the time being, and do not make any payments to this address. Please check the address of this email, is it an official Microsoft address?

About current Microsoft 365 Personal subscription prices, please check the official Microsoft price on the following page:

Compare All Microsoft 365 Plans (Formerly Office 365) - Microsoft Store

I have summarized the main content of the above article for you. For the personal version of Microsoft365, it is $69.99/year or $6.99/month. For the home version of Microsoft365, it is $99.99/year or $9.99/month. This is the official price, which means that if you want to renew, you will pay this price.

The new Microsoft 365 with Copilot (AI) is coming soon, but it is currently only available in some specific regions. If you receive a price increase message, it may be that you are in this specific region. At present, the annual subscription price of the personal version has changed from 69.99 $ to 99.99 $, and the family version has changed from 99.99 $ to 129.99 $. This seems to be more in line with the price increase message you received.

I understand that you may not have a need for Copilot at present. If so, you can consider subscribing to the Microsoft 365 Basic version. Its price has not changed. Relatively speaking, it provides fewer services. It provides Outlook, OneDrive and 100GB of cloud storage space. If you want to know more about this, please call our online support team. At the same time, if you have additional payments due to this subscription, you can ask the support staff whether you can get it back after changing the version.

Contact Microsoft Support.

1. Visit this website: https://support.microsoft.com/home/contact
2. Type in your problems in the search box there. For instance, subscription/Tax invoices/refund, etc.
3. Now click Get help, and Select Contact Support below.
4. Go to the Products and services tab, and choose either Microsoft 365 and Office category or Other Products
5. On the Category tab, choose Manage My Subscription or other alternatives.
6. Go to Confirm.
7. You can now choose the option of Chat with a support agent on your web browser.

**Please Note:**The Chat support team only works at certain times, so if the last window says you are not available, try to open it again the next day. If you prefer phone support, you can leave a phone number. That way, they can call you and help you.

I hope the above information is helpful, if you have any questions, please feel free to let me know.

Best Wishes

Pyke.D | Microsoft Community Support Specialist