Not too long ago I received an email from Microsoft informing me that the price for my yearly subscription to Microsoft 365 Family was up for renewal, and that the price was increasing from $139 (AUD) / year to $179 (AUD) / year. A similar price rise is happening for Microsoft 365 Personal.
A little annoying but hardly very surprising given that just about everything in life has gone up in price. A hike of 29% did seem a bit steep, but what can you do? For a product that I use myself, plus share with my wife and children, it has become a must use product in our work and school lives.
I mean, even our OneDrive shared folders were still working to expectation, unlike many others.
Just a week or so ago, however, I stumbled across an article talking about people’s frustration with the price rise, and to my surprise, a way to get around it! That’s right, you CAN have the same functionality as you have always had, and still pay the old price.
Don’t need Copilot? Don’t pay for it!
As it turns out, the price increase is to do with the added functionality of Copilot, Microsoft’s generative AI bot and Cortana replacement. Without having had much a play with it, from what I have seen it is designed to help compose letters, emails, I guess help with creating formulas in Excel, and no doubt more.
But if you didn’t ask for it and don’t want to use it, why should you pay for it?
What do you know, there was no mention of an option to have Microsoft 365 Family without Copilot in the email I had received.
No clear options above other than to pay the new price, nor a clear explanation as to the reason behind the price rise. Is Microsoft being sneaky?
The key here is to go to your Microsoft account dashboard, and manage your subscription.
Cancel your existing subscription, and select a new one without Copilot
What they don’t tell you, is that by managing your subscription and cancelling it, you then get the option to select the option to choose Microsoft 365 Family Classic (or Microsoft 365 Personal Classic), which comes without Copilot AI, and is at the same price you were paying previously.
You can find good instructions on the Microsoft website, though I guess you need to know to begin with that this is an option, which is where the sneaky perception comes in. Plus, why wouldn’t using Copilot be an opt-in, rather than opt-out? Also note that when you select to cancel, you’ll see a warning explaining how you’ll lose everything in your OneDrive storage if you cancel, though this is only if you cancel your subscription completely, and not if you select another plan.
Also note that if you are currently on 365 Family, you can’t choose 365 Personal Classic (you can choose this if currently on 365 Personal), however you can still select 365 Family Classic. Re-confirm your payment details, and you should be done.
From the Microsoft site:
Downgrade to Microsoft 365 Personal or Microsoft 365 Family Classic
Go to Subscriptions. Sign in with the Microsoft account associated with your subscription, if prompted.
Find your current subscription and select Manage > Cancel subscription
To downgrade to another plan with fewer features, select Microsoft 365 Personal Classic or Microsoft 365 Family Classic, or another plan that works for you.
Follow the instructions to complete the switch.
Your existing subscription might not change immediately, but it will automatically switch to the new plan at renewal. You will not be charged for the new plan until it renews.
My plan “downgraded”
Once done I then received confirmation via email that my plan had been changed to Microsoft 365 Family Classic, and that I would be charged the existing price of $139 (AUD).
It’s worth noting that you need to do this within 7-10 days of your current subscription expiring.
Thoughts anyone? I found it a bit irritating that Microsoft had done such a thing, with no proper explanation or options freely given to their customers, without digging.
They have even been reported to the Australian consumer watchdog, the ACCC, so it will be interesting if anything comes of that.
At any rate, feel free to share or comment if you found this post helpful, and hopefully you have managed to save a few dollars as well!
