Why Your Microsoft 365 Renewal Doubled and What to Do

There is a second thing happening in 2026, and it lands on top of the reseller renewal jump rather than instead of it.

On 1 July 2026 Microsoft raised its list prices for the first time since 2022. Business Basic went from £4.60 to £5.40 (up 17%). Business Standard went from £9.60 to £10.80 (up 13%). Business Premium stayed at £16.90. New subscriptions pay the new prices immediately. Existing customers are hit at their first renewal after that date.

So if you are renewing with an incumbent in the second half of 2026, you can face two increases at once. First the intro-to-standard reset (the reseller's own uplift), then Microsoft's list rise feeding through on top. A 123 Reg customer who started on £7.99 is not just moving to £13.99, they are moving to a renewal that already reflects Microsoft's higher underlying cost.

This is why so many renewal bills in 2026 look like they have doubled or worse. Two separate price movements arrive in the same invoice.

Before you do anything, get to a clean number. Most businesses do not know their real per-seat cost because the bill is annual, includes VAT, and bundles a domain or hosting alongside the licences.

Work it out in three steps:

1. Find the licence line on your latest invoice. Separate the Microsoft 365 user licences from any domain, hosting or email-extras lines.
2. Divide to a per user per month ex VAT figure. Take the annual licence cost, strip the VAT (divide by 1.2), then divide by 12, then divide by the number of seats. That is your true unit price to compare against anyone.
3. Count seats you actually use. Open your Microsoft admin centre and check active users against assigned licences. Renewal shock is often made worse by paying for seats nobody logs into. Ex-staff, duplicate accounts and shared mailboxes that did not need a full licence all inflate the bill.

If you would rather not do this by hand, our free licence audit does it for you and flags unused or over-specified seats. It is the fastest way to see whether your renewal jump is partly a pricing problem and partly a waste problem.

Once you know your real per-seat cost, you have three honest choices.

Option 1: Renegotiate with your current provider. You can ask, and occasionally a retention team will offer a one-off discount. The catch is that it is usually another temporary rate that reverts again next year. You are back in the same intro-then-renewal cycle, just delayed twelve months.

Option 2: Do nothing. This is the most expensive option over time. The renewal price compounds, and with Microsoft's underlying cost now higher post-1 July, the standard rate only goes one direction. Doing nothing also keeps you in a provider-managed tenant if you are with GoDaddy or 123 Reg, which makes leaving harder later.

Option 3: Switch to transparent pricing with no teaser price that jumps at renewal. This is what we do. Our annual prices are Business Basic £4.97, Business Standard £9.94 and Business Premium £15.55 per user per month ex VAT (Basic and Standard reflect Microsoft's post-1 July cost; all three stay below Microsoft's list). There is no teaser price that jumps at renewal. There is no intro rate waiting to expire because there is no intro rate. A 25-seat business renewing with GoDaddy at £15.99 and moving to our Standard plan keeps £2,148 a year, for the same licences.

The single biggest fear at renewal is that moving providers will break email or lose data. With us, it does not, because of how the licences are provisioned.

We attach licences to your own Microsoft 365 tenant, the organisation account where your users, mail, files and Teams already live. We never move you into a provider-managed tenant of ours. Your mailboxes, addresses, calendars and SharePoint stay exactly where they are. Nothing migrates. The change is to who supplies and bills the licence, not to where your data sits.

If you already own your tenant (most Microsoft-direct, IONOS and many other customers do), the switch is a billing change and email never moves. If your current provider holds you in their tenant (this is the GoDaddy and 123 Reg pattern), there is a one-time move to your own tenant first. We guide that move, and a paid migration is available if you want it handled for you. Either way you end up owning the tenant, so you are never locked in again.

One honest limit worth stating: Microsoft's New Commerce Experience rules apply to every reseller, us included. You can cancel within 7 days of an order with a prorated refund, and reduce seats at renewal, but not decrease seats mid-term. We tell you this upfront rather than burying it.

If your renewal has jumped and you want to stop the cycle:

1. Get your real per-seat cost using the three steps above, or run the free licence audit to also catch unused seats.
2. Compare it against our published prices on the pricing page. Every figure is per user per month ex VAT, and there is no teaser price that jumps at renewal.
3. Start annual pricing. Annual upfront is the lowest price and fixes your rate for 12 months, which matters now that Microsoft's underlying cost is higher. Prefer flexibility? Monthly flexible runs about 20% more and lets you resize or cancel at each monthly renewal.

If you also want the security tier, Business Premium at £15.55 is below Microsoft's £16.90 and is sold through online checkout, which no UK incumbent offers. And if you are adding AI, Copilot Business is £13.80 per user per month ex VAT under Microsoft's promo running to 31 December 2026.