Microsoft adds “AI” to Microsoft 365 and raises prices to pay for it

Up until now, if you were subscribed to Office 365 – I think it’s called Microsoft 365 now – and you wanted the various “AI” Copilot features, you needed to pay $20 extra. Well, that’s changing, as Microsoft is now adding these features to Microsoft 365 by default, while raising the prices for every subscriber by $3 per month. It seems not enough people were interested in paying $20 per month extra for “AI” features in Office, so Microsoft has to force everyone to pay up. It’s important to note, though, that your usage of the features is limited by how many “AI credits” you have, to really nail that slot machine user experience, and you’re only getting a limited number of those per month.

Luckily, existing Microsoft 365 subscribers can opt out of these new features and thus avoid the price increase, which is a genuinely welcome move by Microsoft. New subscribers, however, will not be able to opt out.

Finally, we understand that our customers have a variety of needs and budgets, so we’re committed to providing options. Existing subscribers with recurring billing enabled with Microsoft can switch to plans without Copilot or AI credits like our Basic plan, or, for a limited time, to new Personal Classic or Family Classic plans. These plans will continue to be maintained as they exist today, but for certain new innovations and features you’ll need a Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscription.
↫ Bryan Rognier at the Microsoft blog

Microsoft wants to spread the immense cost of running datacentres for “AI” to everyone, whether you want to use these features or not. When not enough people want to opt into “AI” and pay extra, the only other option is to just make everyone pay, whether they want to or not. Still, the opt-out for existing subscribers is nice, and if you are one and don’t want to pay $35 per year extra, don’t forget to opt out.