Microsoft 365 Business Plans Compared: Every SKU, Price and Limit as of October 2026

By The Uptime Report Team · Last reviewed: October 2026

Microsoft 365 business plans cost $7.00 (Business Basic), $14.00 (Business Standard) or $22.00 (Business Premium) per user per month on annual commitment in the US as of October 2026, for up to 300 users; monthly billing costs 20% more.

What are the Microsoft 365 business plans and what does each cost?

Microsoft sells 11 Microsoft 365 business plans in the US as of October 2026: Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium, each with and without Teams, two Copilot bundles with and without Teams, and Apps for business. Annual-commitment list prices run from $5.40 to $32.00 per user per month on Microsoft’s plans and pricing page.

The monthly-commitment price is 1.2 times the annual price on every SKU in the table: $22.00 x 1.2 = $26.40 for Business Premium and $7.00 x 1.2 = $8.40 for Business Basic. Microsoft does not print a percentage; the 20% follows from its listed prices, with the no-Teams Standard and Premium prices rounded to the cent ($10.79 x 1.2 = $12.948, listed as $12.95; $18.79 x 1.2 = $22.548, listed as $22.55).

The four Copilot bundles ($20.30 to $32.00) also carry “usage-based billing for select advanced AI features”, so their seat price is a floor, not a ceiling, according to Microsoft’s Business Standard with Copilot page.

What does each Microsoft 365 business plan include?

Business Basic gives web and mobile Office apps, a 100 GB Exchange mailbox, 1 TB of OneDrive storage and Teams. Business Standard adds desktop apps on up to 5 PCs or Macs per user. Business Premium adds Intune Plan 1, Entra ID P1, Defender for Business, Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 and a 1.5 TB archive. Apps for business is desktop apps plus OneDrive, with no Exchange email or Teams listed.

The 1.5 TB Business Premium archive starts at 100 GB and grows only when auto-expanding archiving is turned on, per Microsoft Learn’s Exchange Online limits (updated October 19, 2026). Archive capacity is mailbox storage, a separate question from backup, which our guide to Microsoft 365 backup covers.

Mailbox numbers matter for migrations: a Business Basic user whose mailbox reaches 99 GB can no longer send mail, and at 100 GB Exchange Online rejects incoming mail, per the same Exchange Online limits page. Microsoft’s small-business plan comparison PDF (dated October 1, 2026) shows the same 100 GB as a 50 GB Exchange Plan 1 mailbox plus a 50 GB addition on all three Business suites.

Which plan fits email-only or frontline staff?

Business Basic is not the cheapest seat for every user. Exchange Online Plan 1 gives a custom-domain 50 GB mailbox for $4.00 per user per month, Microsoft 365 F1 gives Teams and read-only Office for $3.00 with no mailbox, and Microsoft 365 F3 gives a 2 GB mailbox, web Office apps, Intune Plan 1 and Entra ID P1 for $10.00, per Microsoft’s October 2026 US pages.

A frontline seat beats Business Basic in two cases. A worker who needs Teams and SharePoint but no mailbox costs $4.00 less per month on F1 ($3.00) than on Basic ($7.00). A worker on a shared tablet or kiosk that Intune should control costs $3.00 more on F3 ($10.00), which buys Intune Plan 1 and Entra ID P1 that Basic lacks. Basic stays ahead whenever the user needs more than the 2 GB mailbox or 2 GB of OneDrive that F3 provides.

Microsoft’s frontline plans page defines frontline workers as “employees whose primary function is to work directly with customers or the public” or who are “directly involved in the manufacturing and distribution of products or services”, and it sells F1 and F3 through Contact Sales rather than the online checkout used for Business plans. For office staff who only need mail, Exchange Online Plan 1 at $4.00, the cheapest plan on Microsoft’s Exchange Online business pricing page, gives a 50 GB mailbox in Microsoft 365 email, half the 100 GB that Business Basic gives.

How much did Microsoft 365 business prices rise in July 2026?

On July 1, 2026 Microsoft raised Business Basic from $6.00 to $7.00, Business Standard from $12.50 to $14.00 and Apps for business from $8.25 to $10.00 per user per month, while Business Premium stayed at $22.00. Existing customers move to the new price at their first renewal after July 1, 2026, per the Microsoft Licensing pricing FAQ.

The no-Teams versions rose by the same dollar amounts as their Teams versions ($1.00 on Basic, $1.50 on Standard), which matches Microsoft’s note that suites without Teams get “an equivalent dollar value increase” in its December 4, 2025 pricing announcement. The gap between Business Standard and Business Premium shrank from $9.50 to $8.00 per user per month. The dates that matter for renewals and quotes:

The increase came with new features, listed in the Microsoft Licensing packaging table:

• +50GB email on Business Basic, Standard and Premium, which is where the 100 GB mailbox comes from.
• URL time-of-click protection on Business Basic and Business Standard (Business Premium already includes Defender for Office 365 Plan 1).
• Copilot Chat enhancements and Copilot Chat Analytics on all three Business suites.

What do Microsoft 365 business plans cost for a 25-person business?

For 25 users on annual commitment, Microsoft’s October 2026 list prices give $2,100 a year on Business Basic, $4,200 on Business Standard and $6,600 on Business Premium (price x 25 seats x 12 months). Paying month to month adds 20%: $2,520, $5,040 and $7,920. Those totals exclude sales tax and partner discounts, and most firms should not put all 25 people on one plan.

How much does mixing plans save?

Microsoft lets one tenant mix plans as long as the Business family stays at or below 300 seats. Twenty Business Premium seats plus five Business Basic seats cost (20 x $22.00 + 5 x $7.00) x 12 = $5,700 a year, $900 less than 25 Premium seats. The Microsoft Learn Business Premium FAQ warns that Premium’s security and management benefits apply only to users licensed for Business Premium.

Every Premium seat added costs $180 a year against Basic, $144 against F3 and $96 against Standard ($15.00, $12.00 and $8.00 a month times 12). If the five field workers meet Microsoft’s frontline definition, F3 instead of Basic raises the total from $5,700 to $5,880, a $180 premium that buys Intune Plan 1 and Entra ID P1 for their shared devices.

Is Business Premium worth $8.00 more than Business Standard?

Business Premium costs $8.00 more per user per month than Business Standard ($22.00 vs $14.00) and includes four security products that cost $20.00 per user per month when bought separately for Standard users: Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 ($2.00), Defender for Business ($3.00), Entra ID P1 ($7.00) and Intune Plan 1 ($8.00), all at Microsoft’s October 2026 US list prices.

The break-even rule is short. Once a Standard user needs Intune Plan 1 alone ($8.00), or Entra ID P1 plus either Defender product ($9.00 or $10.00), Business Premium costs the same or less than Standard plus parts. Entra ID P1 alone ($7.00) or the two Defender products together ($5.00) stay below the $8.00 gap.

Conditional Access requires Entra ID P1 licenses, and Microsoft Learn’s Entra licensing page states that Entra ID P1 is included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium. The Conditional Access and device-compliance baselines in our Microsoft 365 security guide therefore need Business Premium, or Entra ID P1 and Intune Plan 1 bought on top of Standard.

What does the plan choice mean for an MSP?

For an MSP, the plan choice decides how much of a client shows up in Microsoft 365 Lighthouse, and Business Premium is the Business plan that meets every license requirement. Microsoft Learn’s Lighthouse requirements page (updated April 28, 2026) says user-management reports need Entra ID P1, “included with Microsoft 365 Business Premium”, and device and threat pages need every device enrolled in Intune. A tenant must also meet four baseline rules:

1. GDAP or DAP delegated access for the partner, with the partner enrolled in the CSP program.
2. At least one Enterprise, Business, Frontline or Education subscription of Microsoft 365, Office 365, Exchange Online, Windows 365 Business or Defender for Business.
3. No more than 2,500 licensed users.
4. The same geographic region (Americas, European Union, or Asia plus Australia) as the partner.

A tenant above 2,500 licensed users, or one that misses any other requirement, gets only GDAP setup, user search, user details, tenant tagging and service health. Write these points into the client agreement and quote:

1. Price each seat by plan and term, for example Business Premium at $22.00 annual or $26.40 monthly at Microsoft list; Partner Center defines new-commerce pricing per customer market, so partner prices differ.
2. Match the contract term to the license term: new-commerce subscriptions “can only be canceled in the first seven days of their term”, so a client who leaves in month four cannot hand back annual seats.
3. State how Microsoft price changes pass through: the July 2026 increase reached existing customers at their first renewal after July 1, 2026, adding $1.50 per Business Standard seat per month.
4. Set a seat standard, such as Premium for every user with a company laptop and Basic, or F3 for eligible frontline staff, for the rest: $5,700 or $5,880 a year for 20 plus 5 seats, against $6,600 for 25 Premium seats.
5. Require a data export before any cancellation, because Microsoft Learn says data left behind might be deleted after 30 days.

Should you buy a no-Teams or a with-Copilot version?

Buy a no-Teams version only if your staff meet and chat in another tool: it saves $1.60 per user per month on Business Basic and $3.21 on Business Standard and Premium, or $480 to $963 a year for 25 seats. Buy a with-Copilot plan only if you want Copilot inside Word, Excel and Outlook, and buy it as a bundle rather than an add-on.

Dropping Teams removes more than meetings. Microsoft’s compare table marks Teams chat, calls and meetings, webinar hosting and Dataverse for Teams as “Included in the version with Teams”, and lists “Teams license required” against Copilot in Teams. The Microsoft Licensing FAQ confirms customers keep the choice of suites with or without Teams after July 2026.

Business Standard with Copilot ($23.50) and Business Premium with Copilot ($32.00) cost $11.50 and $11.00 less per user per month than the base plan plus the $21.00 Copilot Business add-on, per Microsoft’s plans and pricing page. The add-on route, the $18.00 first-year offer and usage-based charges are worked through in our guide to the Microsoft 365 Copilot license.

Annual or monthly commitment: which billing should you pick?

Pick annual commitment for seats you will keep for 12 months and monthly commitment only for seats that come and go: monthly costs 20% more, but monthly-commitment seats can be stopped at the end of any month without penalty. An annual subscription paid upfront gets no refund if cancelled early once Microsoft’s 7-day prorated refund window has passed, per Microsoft’s business plans FAQ (October 2026).

Microsoft offers three commitment terms on its business plans FAQ, from most to least flexible:

1. Monthly commitment, monthly payment: stop at the end of any month with no penalty; pays the 20% higher monthly price.
2. Annual commitment, monthly payment: one-year term billed each month; early cancellation may incur penalties.
3. Annual commitment, annual payment: one-year term paid upfront; no refund for early cancellation after the 7-day window.

Service credits are the sole remedy under Microsoft’s SLA, and under the Exchange Online table, in a 30-day month, a 45-minute outage and a 7-hour outage both earn a 25% credit, as our analysis of 99.9% uptime and SLA credits shows. If you plan to leave, export data before you cancel, because Microsoft Learn says data left behind might be deleted after 30 days; the steps are in our guide to cancel Microsoft 365 Business.

Which Microsoft 365 business plan should you choose?

Choose by the first requirement you cannot drop. More than 300 users rules out every Business plan. Email-only staff fit Exchange Online Plan 1, and frontline staff on shared devices fit F1 or F3. Managed devices, Conditional Access or Office on a Remote Desktop host point to Business Premium. Browser-only staff fit Business Basic, and everyone else fits Business Standard or Apps for business.

What do other Microsoft 365 plan guides get wrong?

Several guides ranking for this search in October 2026 still carry pre-July 2026 prices, describe no-Teams plans as EU-only, list 50 GB mailboxes or Publisher, or estimate monthly prices instead of quoting them. Microsoft’s own October 2026 pages contradict each claim, and one Microsoft marketing page understates Microsoft’s own SLA.

How we compiled this

We compiled this comparison from 29 primary documents, accessed between October 20 and October 26, 2026: Microsoft’s US plan pages for all 11 Microsoft 365 business SKUs (seven pages), the Exchange Online, frontline and enterprise pricing pages, four standalone security price pages, the Microsoft Licensing pricing-update table and FAQ, Microsoft’s December 2025 pricing announcement, nine Microsoft Learn pages, Microsoft’s small-business plan comparison PDF, the October 2026 Online Services SLA and Microsoft’s Publisher retirement notice. Prices are US list prices before tax; partner (CSP) prices, negotiated discounts and non-US prices are excluded. We did not buy or test any plan.

Frequently asked questions

Can I buy Microsoft 365 business plans through an MSP or CSP, and is it cheaper?

Yes. Microsoft Learn says Business Premium can be bought through a Microsoft Partner or directly from Microsoft. Partner prices are not public: Partner Center defines new-commerce pricing per customer market, so ask for the per-seat price on annual and monthly terms and compare it with Microsoft’s list ($22.00 and $26.40 for Business Premium). New-commerce subscriptions can only be cancelled in their first seven days.

Which Microsoft 365 plan do I need for email only?

Exchange Online Plan 1 at $4.00 per user per month is the cheapest plan on Microsoft’s Exchange Online business pricing page: a 50 GB custom-domain mailbox plus a 50 GB archive, with no Office apps or Teams listed, per Microsoft’s Exchange Online page. Business Basic costs $3.00 more and adds a 100 GB mailbox, web Office apps, Teams and 1 TB of OneDrive. Plan 2 ($8.00) gives 100 GB plus a 1.5 TB archive.

Is there a free version of Microsoft 365 for business?

Not for commercial customers. Microsoft offers a one-month free trial of its Business plans, which needs a credit card and converts to a paid subscription unless cancelled. Its July 2026 nonprofit price table lists Business Basic as free for eligible nonprofits, with Business Standard at $3.50 and Business Premium at $5.50 per user per month, tied to commercial prices by a 60 to 75% discount.

What is the difference between Microsoft 365 Business Premium and E3?

Microsoft 365 E3 ($39.00) has no user limit, while Business Premium ($22.00) stops at 300 seats across the Business family. Microsoft’s enterprise plans page lists E3 with Entra ID P1, Defender for Endpoint Plan 1, Defender for Office 365 Plan 1, Windows 11 Enterprise E3 and 1 to 5+ TB of OneDrive. Business Premium instead has Defender for Business, a Windows 11 Pro upgrade and 1 TB of OneDrive.

Do Microsoft 365 business plans include phone calling?

Not phone-network calls. Teams in the Business plans covers chat, audio and video meetings; making and receiving landline-style calls needs Microsoft Teams Phone Standard, listed at $10.00 per user per month as an add-on that requires an eligible Microsoft 365 plan or Teams license. A dial-in number for meetings through Teams Audio Conferencing is listed as a no-cost add-on on Microsoft’s plans and pricing page.

Can I switch from Business Standard to Business Premium in the middle of a term?

Yes. Microsoft’s FAQ says you can move a subscription to a different plan as your needs change, and the Microsoft Learn Business Premium FAQ says switching to Business Premium might increase or decrease the monthly charges. Moving 25 Business Standard seats to Business Premium adds $8.00 per user per month at list price, or $2,400 a year; the no-Teams versions differ by the same $8.00.

Sources

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