Microsoft raised the price of a Microsoft 365 business licence in 2026 and changed what you are buying at the same time, by folding Microsoft 365 Copilot into the Standard and Premium editions. If you last looked at these numbers a year ago, every one of them has moved, and the plan names have moved with them. This page carries the current Canadian list prices for every plan a business or a household can buy, what a real monthly bill works out to at different headcounts, and which line items actually change the total.
All figures were read from Microsoft's Canadian business pricing page, the enterprise pricing page and the Copilot pricing page on 14 August 2026. Microsoft moves them without much notice, so check the source before you commit a budget. Taxes are extra on every figure here.
Every Microsoft 365 business plan and what it costs
Canadian list prices, per user per month. The 300-seat ceiling applies to all four.
| Plan | Paid yearly | Monthly commitment | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Basic | $9.50 | Not published | Exchange email with a 50 GB mailbox, 1 TB of OneDrive, Teams, SharePoint, and the web and mobile versions of the Office apps. No installed desktop Office. |
| Apps for business | $14.20 | Not published | Installed Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook on up to five devices, plus 1 TB of OneDrive. No business email hosting. |
| Business Standard with Copilot | $31.90 | $38.28 | Everything in Basic, plus installed desktop Office on five devices per user, webinars, and Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. |
| Business Premium with Copilot | $43.40 | $52.08 | Everything in Standard, plus Intune device management, Defender for Business endpoint detection and response, Entra ID Plan 1 with conditional access, and Purview information protection. |
Business Premium is the plan we recommend for most businesses, and the gap to Standard is now $11.50 a seat rather than the $13.08 it was before the repackaging. Since both editions carry Copilot, that $11.50 buys the security stack and nothing else, which makes the decision cleaner than it used to be. Our full breakdown of Business Premium goes through each component and the ceilings that come with it.
The same plans without Teams cost less
Microsoft was required to unbundle Teams for European competition reasons, and the resulting editions are sold in Canada too. They are the same licences with Teams removed, at a lower price:
Business Basic without Teams: $7.30. Business Standard with Copilot, without Teams: $27.50. Business Premium with Copilot, without Teams: $39.10.
The saving is $2.20 to $4.40 a seat a month, which is $264 to $528 a year across 10 people. It is only worth taking if you genuinely run your collaboration and calling somewhere else, on Slack or Zoom or a hosted phone system. If you are already using Teams for meetings and chat, buying the no-Teams edition and then licensing Teams separately costs more than the bundle, not less.
What Copilot did to these prices
Before the change, Business Standard was $17.52 and Business Premium was $30.60, and Copilot was a separate add-on. Microsoft's public pricing pages now list only the Copilot-inclusive editions of both. On the headline number that reads as a 55 to 82 percent increase, which is why the change has been reported as a price rise.
The arithmetic underneath is more interesting. The step from the old $30.60 Premium to the current $43.40 is $12.80, and what it buys is Microsoft 365 Copilot inside the desktop apps. The nearest thing you can still buy on its own, the Microsoft 365 Copilot Business add-on, lists at $24.43 per user per month paid yearly. On enterprise plans the Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on is $40.70. So the bundled route prices Copilot at roughly half to a third of what the add-on costs.
That makes the question a straightforward one, and it is not really about price. If your team will use Copilot, the bundled editions are the cheapest way to get it and the increase is good value. If nobody will open it, you are paying $12.80 a seat a month for an unused feature, and the honest alternative is Business Basic at $9.50 paired with Apps for business at $14.20, which gets you hosted email and installed Office for $23.70 with no Copilot at all.
If you are on a legacy non-Copilot SKU today, do not assume it renews on the same terms. Confirm what your renewal converts to with whoever holds your licensing agreement before the date, not after.
E3, E5 and E7, for organisations past 300 people
The business plans stop at 300 seats. Past that, or where you need what these bundle, pricing moves to the enterprise line.
| Plan | With Teams | Without Teams | Seat limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 E3 | $52.90 | $41.30 | None |
| Microsoft 365 E5 | $81.40 | $69.80 | None |
| Microsoft 365 E7 | $134.30 | $122.70 | None |
Note what the comparison actually says: E3 at $52.90 costs more than Business Premium with Copilot at $43.40 and gives you fewer security features, because Copilot and the Defender and Entra tiers are not in it. Under 300 seats, Business Premium is usually the better security value, and E5 only starts to make sense when you will genuinely use Power BI Pro across the company, run Teams Phone as your telephony, and need advanced eDiscovery. Price those as add-ons to Premium first.
Microsoft 365 for one person or a household
If you are pricing this for yourself rather than a company, these are the plans you want, and they are cheaper.
| Plan | Per month | Per year | People covered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Personal | $11.50 | $115.00 | 1 |
| Microsoft 365 Family | $14.50 | $145.00 | Up to 6 |
| Microsoft 365 Premium | $27.00 | $270.00 | Up to 6 |
These are not business licences and should not be used as one. They give you the Office apps and OneDrive storage against a personal Microsoft account, with no business email at your own domain, no admin centre, no device management, and no way for anyone to recover a departing employee's files. Running a company on Family licences is the single most common licensing mistake we find on a first assessment, and it is usually discovered at the worst possible moment.
What the bill actually comes to
Per-user-per-month pricing hides the real figure. Here is the same set of plans as an annual number at four common sizes.
| Headcount | Basic | Standard with Copilot | Premium with Copilot |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 users | $570 | $1,914 | $2,604 |
| 10 users | $1,140 | $3,828 | $5,208 |
| 25 users | $2,850 | $9,570 | $13,020 |
| 50 users | $5,700 | $19,140 | $26,040 |
For context on where licensing sits in a wider budget, our breakdown of what a 10-person company should pay for IT puts these numbers next to support, hardware, backup and security.
What actually changes your bill
Paid yearly against monthly commitment
Where Microsoft publishes both, the monthly-commitment rate is exactly 20 percent above the paid-yearly rate. Ten Premium seats on a monthly commitment is $6,249.60 a year against $5,208 paid yearly, so flexibility costs $1,041.60.
Annual commitment and annual billing are separate choices. You can commit for twelve months and still be invoiced monthly, which is what most of our clients do: the cash flow of monthly, at the price of yearly.
Mixing licence types
Licences are assigned per user, not per tenant, so you do not have to buy one plan for everyone. A 10-person office with six knowledge workers on Premium and four browser-only staff on Basic costs $3,580.80 a year against $5,208 for all-Premium.
The judgement is which staff genuinely do not touch client data. Put anyone who does on Premium, because the saving is not worth the exposure.
The lines that are not in any plan
Third-party backup of Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams is a separate line item and it is not optional. Microsoft replicates your data for their availability, not your recovery.
Power BI Pro, Teams Phone calling plans, and Defender for Office 365 Plan 2 are all priced separately from the business plans. Additional storage beyond the 1 TB per user and the tenant pool is also billed on its own.
Copilot, priced three ways
Included: Microsoft 365 Copilot comes inside Business Standard with Copilot and Business Premium with Copilot, working in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. For an SMB this is now the default route.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business add-on: $24.43 per user per month paid yearly, discounted from $28.50, or $34.20 on a monthly commitment. It requires an existing Microsoft 365 Business plan and centres on AI chat and pre-built agents rather than the in-app Copilot.
Microsoft 365 Copilot for enterprise: $40.70 per user per month paid yearly, added to E3 or E5.
Copilot Chat: available at no additional cost to eligible business and enterprise customers. It is web-grounded chat without the in-app integration or access to your own tenant content, and it is the sensible place to start if you are not yet sure anyone will use AI. Our guide on whether Copilot is worth it goes through the use cases that actually recover the cost.
Free tiers, trials and discounts
There is no free Microsoft 365 business plan. There is a 30-day trial of the business plans, and there is Office for the web, which gives you browser-based Word, Excel and PowerPoint at no cost with no business email, no OneDrive allocation and no Teams. Neither is a plan you can run a company on.
Non-profit and education pricing exists and Microsoft has changed the terms of it recently, including what used to be a free Business Premium grant. Because the eligibility rules and the size of the discount have both moved, we do not publish a figure here that would be out of date within a quarter. If you are a registered charity or a school, the discount is worth confirming directly, and we can check eligibility with you.
Nobody sells Microsoft licences below Microsoft's price. Partners, ourselves included, buy at the same list price you do. What a partner is actually worth is licence design, which is where the real money is: right-sizing tiers per user, catching the seats still being billed for people who left, and turning on the half of Business Premium that most tenants never configure. That routinely saves more than any discount would have.
Quick answers.
How much is Microsoft 365 in Canada?
For a business, between $9.50 and $43.40 per user per month paid yearly, depending on the plan: Business Basic $9.50, Apps for business $14.20, Business Standard with Copilot $31.90, Business Premium with Copilot $43.40. For personal use, Microsoft 365 Personal is $11.50 a month or $115 a year and Family is $14.50 a month or $145 a year for up to six people. All figures are Canadian list prices as published on microsoft.com on 14 August 2026, before tax.
What is the price of Microsoft 365 Business Premium in Canada?
$43.40 per user per month paid yearly, or $52.08 on a monthly commitment. An edition without Teams sells for $39.10. The $30.60 figure quoted in most articles is the older pre-Copilot rate and no longer buys the plan, because Microsoft folded Microsoft 365 Copilot into Standard and Premium in 2026.
How much does Office 365 cost per user per month?
Office 365 is the old name for what is now Microsoft 365, and the plans map across directly. The equivalents are Business Basic at $9.50, Business Standard with Copilot at $31.90, and Business Premium with Copilot at $43.40 per user per month paid yearly in Canada. If you only need the installed Office apps without hosted email, Apps for business is $14.20.
Is Microsoft 365 billed in Canadian dollars?
Yes. Microsoft bills Canadian tenants in CAD at Canadian list prices, so there is no exchange-rate exposure on the licence itself. Applicable tax is added on top of every figure Microsoft publishes.
Is there a free Microsoft 365 plan?
No. There is a 30-day trial of the business plans, and Office for the web is free but gives you only browser-based Word, Excel and PowerPoint, with no business email, no OneDrive allocation and no Teams. Copilot Chat is also available at no additional cost to eligible business customers, but it is a chat tool rather than a licence.
How much cheaper is paying yearly than monthly?
Exactly 20 percent, on every plan where Microsoft publishes both rates. Business Premium with Copilot is $43.40 paid yearly against $52.08 on a monthly commitment. Across ten seats that is $5,208 a year against $6,249.60, so month-to-month flexibility costs $1,041.60. You can commit annually and still be invoiced monthly, which gets you the lower price without paying twelve months up front.
Can we put different staff on different plans?
Yes, and most businesses should. Licences are assigned per user, so a ten-person office might run six knowledge workers on Business Premium and four browser-only staff on Business Basic, which costs $3,580.80 a year against $5,208 for all-Premium. The rule we apply is that anyone who touches client data goes on Premium, because the saving is not worth the exposure.
Which plan should a small business actually buy?
Business Premium with Copilot for anyone who handles client data, carries compliance obligations, or holds cyber insurance, because it is the only business tier that includes endpoint detection and response, device management and conditional access. Business Standard with Copilot if you have no regulatory exposure and everyone works from one office on desks. Business Basic for browser-only roles like reception or a warehouse. If nobody will use Copilot, Basic plus Apps for business at $23.70 a seat is the cheaper honest answer.
Is E3 or E5 better value than Business Premium?
Under 300 seats, usually not. E3 costs $52.90 against Business Premium's $43.40 and includes fewer security features, since it carries neither Copilot nor the Defender and Entra tiers that Premium bundles. E5 at $81.40 earns its price only if you will genuinely use Power BI Pro across the business, run Teams Phone as your telephony, and need advanced eDiscovery. Price those as add-ons to Premium first and compare.
Can North Star get us a discount on Microsoft 365?
Not on the licence price, and neither can anyone else honestly claiming to. Partners buy at the same list price you do. What we are worth is licence design: right-sizing tiers per user, finding the seats still being billed for people who left, and configuring the parts of Business Premium that most tenants never turn on. That saves more in practice than a discount would, and it is the review we would start with.
Do we still need backup if we are paying for Microsoft 365?
Yes, and it is a separate line item on your budget. Microsoft replicates your data for their availability, not for your recovery. Retention policies and the recycle bin will not save you from a malicious administrator, a ransomware event that encrypts synced files, or a deletion nobody notices for eight months. Third-party backup of Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams typically runs $5 to $10 per user per month.
Can we switch plans without migrating data?
Yes. You change a user's licence in the admin centre and the features activate or deactivate immediately, with the data preserved. The exception worth planning around is a downgrade that removes storage or archiving entitlements, which can put you over a limit, and any move off Business Premium, which switches off the device management and conditional access policies you may be relying on for a compliance or insurance answer.
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