Microsoft 365 prices for Australian businesses have moved four times since 2020: the first global rise in March 2022, a 9% Australian-dollar alignment in September 2023, a 5% monthly-billing premium from April 2025, and the broadest suite repricing yet on 1 July 2026, which left Business Premium untouched.
Nobody maintains this dataset in one place. Microsoft announces each change separately, retires old announcement pages, and single-event blog posts go stale within a year. This timeline is compiled from Microsoft's own announcements, names its source for every event, and is re-checked against Microsoft's Australian pricing pages.
2020 to early 2022: the long flat stretch
No commercial Microsoft 365 price rise landed between 2020 and the end of February 2022. The list prices Australian businesses paid through that period traced back, via currency conversion, to rates that had held broadly steady since the products launched.
"This is the first substantive pricing update since we launched Office 365 a decade ago."
1 March 2022: the first rise in a decade
Six commercial plans went up on 1 March 2022, per Microsoft's 19 August 2021 announcement. The changes to the USD list, per user per month, were:
- US$5 to US$6 for Microsoft 365 Business Basic, a 20% rise
- US$20 to US$22 for Microsoft 365 Business Premium, a 10% rise
- US$8 to US$10 for Office 365 E1, a 25% rise
- US$20 to US$23 for Office 365 E3, a 15% rise
- US$35 to US$38 for Office 365 E5, a 9% rise
- US$32 to US$36 for Microsoft 365 E3, a 12.5% rise
Every commercial customer was in scope, with the new prices applying at purchase or renewal. Education and consumer plans were explicitly excluded. Microsoft applied the change globally with local market adjustments, so Australian-dollar lists moved to match.
1 September 2023: the 9% Australian-dollar alignment
Australian-dollar prices for Microsoft cloud services rose 9% on 1 September 2023. The USD list did not change; the AUD list was lifted to realign with it after the Australian dollar weakened. Microsoft's original channel notice is no longer published on its site, so the 9% figure is attributed to partner reporting at the time, including notices from Data#3 and Brennan IT.
This event mattered because it separated two mechanisms Australian businesses now need to track: product repricing, where Microsoft changes the USD list, and currency alignment, where the AUD list moves against a static USD list. Either one raises the invoice.
1 April 2025: the 5% monthly-billing premium
A 5% premium began applying on 1 April 2025 to subscriptions on an annual commitment that are paid monthly, per Microsoft's Partner Center announcements. The premium applied to new and renewing subscriptions, and partner notices at the time confirmed it was standardised across Microsoft's purchasing channels, including buying online, CSP and enterprise agreements under MCA-E.
Nothing changed for businesses paying their annual commitment upfront. The practical effect was to put an explicit 5% price on cash-flow flexibility: same licence, same 12-month lock-in, 5% more for spreading the payments.
1 July 2026: the broadest repricing yet
On 4 December 2025, Microsoft announced price and packaging changes across eight commercial suites, effective 1 July 2026, per its licensing news post and Microsoft 365 blog post of that date. It is the widest set of Microsoft 365 list changes since commercial launch, touching more plans at once than the 2022 rise.
What changed on the USD list
- US$2.25 to US$3.00 for Microsoft 365 F1, up 33% — the largest rise in the round
- US$8 to US$10 for Microsoft 365 F3, up 25%
- US$6 to US$7 for Microsoft 365 Business Basic, up 16%
- US$12.50 to US$14 for Microsoft 365 Business Standard, up 12%
- US$23 to US$26 for Office 365 E3, up 13%
- US$38 to US$41 for Office 365 E5, up 8%
- US$36 to US$39 for Microsoft 365 E3, up 8%
- US$57 to US$60 for Microsoft 365 E5, up 5%
- US$22 unchanged for Microsoft 365 Business Premium — the only major suite left alone
- Office 365 E1 unchanged
Standalone Teams and Copilot SKUs were excluded from the update. Nonprofit pricing was adjusted in line with commercial pricing. As in 2022, the changes apply globally with local market adjustments, which is how they reached the Australian-dollar list.
What was added to the suites
The repricing arrived alongside packaging additions rolling out from mid-2026: Microsoft Defender for Office Plan 1 into eligible suites, Intune capabilities including Remote Help, Advanced Analytics and Intune Plan 2, and Copilot Chat enhancements with awareness of inbox and calendar plus access to agents. Microsoft's position is that the price carries new capability, not just a new number.
Current Australian prices, checked July 2026
The figures below were read directly from Microsoft's Australian pricing pages in July 2026. All are per user per month on an annual commitment, paid yearly, and exclude GST. Note one lineup change: Microsoft's Australian small-business page now lists Business Standard and Business Premium as bundles with Copilot rather than as standalone plans.
- AU$10.50 ex GST per user per month is the current price of Microsoft 365 Business Basic in Australia on an annual commitment, checked July 2026.
- AU$35.20 ex GST per user per month is the current price of Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot, the bundle Microsoft now lists in place of plain Business Standard on its Australian pricing page.
- AU$47.90 ex GST per user per month is the current price of Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot on Microsoft's Australian pricing page.
- AU$15.80 ex GST per user per month is the current price of Microsoft 365 Apps for business in Australia.
- AU$58.40 ex GST per user per month is the current price of Microsoft 365 E3 in Australia on an annual commitment.
- AU$89.80 ex GST per user per month is the current price of Microsoft 365 E5 in Australia on an annual commitment.
- AU$15.00 ex GST per user per month is the current price of Office 365 E1 in Australia on an annual commitment.
- AU$38.90 ex GST per user per month is the current price of Office 365 E3 in Australia on an annual commitment.
- AU$61.40 ex GST per user per month is the current price of Office 365 E5 in Australia on an annual commitment.
1.5 is the multiple to remember: across Business Basic and the enterprise suites, the Australian-dollar list currently sits at almost exactly 1.5 times the USD list.
What drives the next change
Two separate mechanisms move Australian Microsoft 365 pricing, and they run on different clocks.
The first is currency alignment. Microsoft has periodically re-set local-currency prices against the USD list: the September 2023 round lifted the Australian dollar list 9%, while the 1 February 2026 round cut five European currencies by between 7% and 13.5% and left the Australian dollar untouched, per Microsoft's Partner Center announcement of 12 December 2025. Alignment can move prices down as well as up.
From July 2026 that mechanism has a fixed calendar. Per Microsoft's Partner Center announcement of 8 July 2026, local-currency updates move to once a year, effective every 1 January, with guidance issued each November. The next window for an Australian-dollar adjustment is 1 January 2027, and Microsoft will signal it in November 2026.
The second mechanism is product repricing, like March 2022 and July 2026, which Microsoft communicates separately and on no fixed schedule. Because existing customers only see new prices at renewal, the July 2026 rise will keep arriving on Australian invoices one agreement anniversary at a time, well into 2027.
This page is updated when Microsoft announces pricing changes — last checked July 2026.