Windows Latest spotted that Microsoft has begun sending emails to existing subscribers about the Microsoft 365 price hike due to Copilot, but in a surprising move, the company won’t admit it’s because of Copilot integration.

The subscription fee for Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans has been increased by $3 per month. Microsoft confirmed this in its recent blog post where they covered the inclusion of the AI tool Copilot in Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions.

According to Microsoft, this price hike is the reflection of “the extensive subscription benefits that we’ve added over the past 12 years and enable us to deliver new innovations for years to come.”

In the UK, Microsoft started sending the renewal notice to its users. But here is a catch—the email is written in a way that indicates this price hike is due to inflation and is mandatory for all users.

But that’s not true. Microsoft is basically including the Copilot fee in all its plans. And there is still a way for existing users to switch back to Microsoft’s non-Copilot plan.

In Canada, Windows Latest received an email that informed us about the new subscription fee.

As you can see in the screenshot, there is no mention of the possibility of switching back to the non-Copilot plan. This new pricing applies only to new users, at least for the time being.

However, there’s actually a way to ditch new Microsoft 365 subscription which includes Copilot and keep using the classic/current version.

For this, you have to navigate to your account page and click the Cancel option. This will allow you to switch to the Microsoft 365 Personal Classic plan, also marked as the non-AI plan, as shown in the screenshot below.

It’s also worth noting that “classic” or non-Copilit (less expensive) subscriptions are available only for existing subscribers. This means you’ll not find the classic plans if you purchase Microsoft 365 today.

Comparison of Old and New Microsoft 365 Subscription Fee

Subsequent to this news, Microsoft updated the 365 subscription pricing page with new pricing.

Earlier, the subscription for Microsoft 365 Family used to cost $9.99 a month, whereas the Personal subscription used to cost $6.99 a month. You can check the old 365 plans below.

But after this price bump, the same plans will start costing $12.99 a month and $9.99 a month respectively.

The same applies to the annual subscriptions as well. The annual subscription will now bill at $30 more for both Family and Personal subscriptions.

As you can see, there is no plan with the name Microsoft 365 Personal Classic. And this clearly means that new users have no other option but to pay for the Copilot fee with the Microsoft 365 subscription.

Microsoft’s idea to bring Copilot into its productivity suite is quite understandable. They want to make Copilot an integral part of their ecosystem.

However, Microsoft needs to be very careful with this. Their recent few decisions for Microsoft 365, such as the rebranding to 365 Copilot or this price hike, have not worked in their favor. And just to stay in the AI race, Microsoft may lose some of its loyal users.

To handle this situation in a much better way, Microsoft could have offered a non-Copilot version with a slight price hike. This would have given users the option to either go for the Copilot plan or stick with the basic one.

But these are all my opinions. Let me know what you think about this price hike in the comment section below.

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