On July 1, 2026, Microsoft pushed through its biggest commercial price increase since 2022. Business Standard went from $12.50 to $14.00 per user per month. Microsoft 365 E3 went from $36 to $39. The gap between them is now $25 per user per month — $300 per user per year, every year.
For a 100-person company, that's $30,000 a year riding on a single licensing decision. Here's how to get it right.
Current list prices
| Plan | Per user/month | Per user/year | User cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Standard | $14.00 | $168 | 300 |
| Business Premium | $22.00 | $264 | 300 |
| Microsoft 365 E3 | $39.00 | $468 | None |
What the $300 actually buys
Business Standard is productivity only: desktop Office, Exchange, Teams, SharePoint. No Entra ID P1, no Intune, no Defender — beyond basic MFA, you have no managed device story and no Conditional Access.
E3 adds the whole management and security baseline: Entra ID P1 (Conditional Access, SSO), Intune, Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 (Safe Links, Safe Attachments — Microsoft folded this into E3 in 2026), Defender for Endpoint Plan 1, Purview DLP and eDiscovery, Windows 11 Enterprise rights, a 100 GB Exchange mailbox, and no 300-seat ceiling.
The comparison nobody runs (but should)
Price the security à la carte on top of Standard: Entra ID P1 runs about $84/user/year standalone, Intune about $96, Defender for Business about $36. Standard ($168) + those three = $384/user/year.
Business Premium — which bundles all of it — is $264/user/year.
If your users sign in from company laptops and you want Conditional Access (you do), Standard is the most expensive way to get there. The real mid-market decision isn't Standard vs. E3 — it's Premium vs. E3.
The break-even math
| Users | Standard/yr | E3/yr | Annual gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | $8,400 | $23,400 | $15,000 |
| 150 | $25,200 | $70,200 | $45,000 |
| 300 | $50,400 | $140,400 | $90,000 |
E3 earns its premium only when you need what Premium can't give you: more than 300 seats, Windows Enterprise, Purview-grade DLP and eDiscovery, or 100 GB mailboxes.
Decision framework
- Under 300 users, standard office work: Business Premium. Not Standard.
- Over 300 users, or you need Windows Enterprise / advanced compliance: E3.
- Standard only if: no managed devices, no Conditional Access requirement, genuinely basic productivity needs.
- Nobody should be on Standard + standalone security add-ons. That's the $384 trap.
Buying channel matters less than license architecture
List price is a useful baseline, not a verdict. A CSP, enterprise agreement, or direct purchase can each be the right route depending on your size, support needs, commitment terms, and available promotions. The durable savings are structural: true-up/true-down timing, mixing Premium and E3 by department instead of one plan for everyone, and setting the license mix before a migration rather than after it.
If you're renewing, over 300 seats, or migrating off on-prem Exchange or Google Workspace, design the license architecture before you sign. Then compare channels on the same scope, terms, and support model.
Prices: Microsoft commercial list, annual commitment, USD, effective July 1, 2026. Verified October 14, 2026. Your direct, CSP, or enterprise-agreement pricing may differ.
Where to go from here
First, map each user to the least expensive plan that meets their actual security, management, and compliance requirements. If that exercise confirms your current agreement is already right, keep it. If you want a second set of eyes, we recommend Olive + Goose for licensing and migrations.
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