What happened
Microsoft 365 Personal cost $69.99 a year from its introduction in 2014 until January 2025, when it became $99.99. One increase, eleven years apart, and it was 43% in a single step.
Microsoft’s own framing was that this was the first consumer price rise in twelve years, and that is true. It is also why the jump was so large: a decade of deferred increases collected at once.
Note what this entry does not show. Earlier drafts of this timeline had Personal starting at $99.99 in 2013 and falling to $69.99 in 2022. That was two different products confused for one — Office 365 Home launched at $99.99 in 2013, Personal arrived later and cheaper. The plan on this page has only ever gone up.
Why
Copilot. The increase was announced as bundling Microsoft’s AI assistant into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote, and the $30 is what the AI costs.
The mechanism is what earns this entry its silent-increase flag. Subscribers were not asked whether they wanted Copilot. It was added, the price moved with it, and the change took effect at each subscriber’s next renewal — which for annual plans meant discovering it up to twelve months later. Microsoft did offer existing customers a route to Copilot-free plans at the old price, but it was time-limited and not prominently placed.
This is the pattern to watch across the whole industry: AI arrives as a feature nobody requested, attached to a number that moves.
What you can do instead
Office file formats are the lock-in, and they are now well supported outside Microsoft. A self-hosted suite, or an office package bought once, opens the same documents without the annual renewal.