Billing and Licensing Frequently Asked Questions

All new Microsoft subscriptions will be under the New Commerce Experience. Existing customers will be transitioned to the New Commerce Experience by June 2022.

There are three term options for New Commerce Experience:

1. Monthly – Subscriptions will be held to a monthly commitment*
2. Annual – Subscriptions will be held to an annual commitment
3. Multi-Year – Subscriptions will be held to a multi-year commitment

*Please Note, there is a 20% premium added to the license price for monthly commitments.

Yes, all monthly commitments will have a 20% premium added to the license price.

For annual commitments exceeding $2,000/year, customers will have the option to pay upfront for their annual commitment or receive 12 monthly bills. For commitments under $2,000/year, customers must pay upfront for their subscription.

Yes, customers with commitments exceeding $2,000 annually will have the option to pay upfront for their multi-year commitment, pay yearly for their multiyear
commitment or receive 36 monthly bills for their annual commitment. For commitments lower than $2,000 annually, customers will have the option to pay upfront for their multi-year commitment or pay yearly for their multi-year commitment.

While there are no price changes related to the expansion of New Commerce Experience, Microsoft has announced price increases to the following SKUs starting on March 1st, 2022:

Enterprise SKUs

• Office 365 E1 is increasing to $10 per user per month (PUPM) from $8 PUPM
• Office 365 E3 is increasing to $23 PUPM from $20 PUPM
• Office 365 E5 is increasing to $38 PUPM from $35 PUPM
• Microsoft 365 E3 is increasing to $36 PUPM from $32 PUPM

SMB SKUs

• Microsoft 365 Business Basic is increasing to $6 PUPM from $5 PUPM
• Microsoft 365 Business Premium is increasing to $22 PUPM from $20 PUPM

NOTE: Prices for Microsoft 365 E5, Microsoft 365 Business Standard, & Frontline SKUs will not be changing at this time. These price changes will impact all public-sector customers worldwide. Purchasing channels for Nonprofit solutions is not changing at this time.

Customers will have 7 days from the time of purchase to decrease their seat counts for a subscription (subject to proration). Customers can at any point during their commitment increase their seat count for an existing subscription.

Customers have 7 days after purchasing to cancel a subscription. Customers will receive a full refund if the subscription is cancelled on Day 1 and will receive a pro-rated refund for subscriptions cancelled on Days 2 through 7. The 7-day period begins on the same day a customer starts a subscription and no refunds will be granted after the 7-day period. Once a subscription is cancelled, this cannot be reversed. The subscription will immediately enter a “disabled” status where users
cannot access services or files; however admins will have to access to data for subscription(s) for 90 days.

Subscriptions will automatically renew at the end of the subscription(s) term and the 7-day cancellation period will restart for the renewal term.

The renewal date for the newly added seats will match the original renewal date for that subscription. This means if you’re adding additional licenses of the same SKU, the new and existing licenses will all renew on the original subscription’s renewal date.

Yes, you can combine monthly and annual commitments on your account to take advantage of lower costs for a core number of licenses while also maintaining flexibility with monthly commitments for a portion of licenses that you may not need or want to change during the 12-month period.

Yes, a customer’s subscription can be changed from a monthly term to an annual term in New Commerce Experience.

In the New Commerce Experience, upgrading means going from one paid subscription to another paid subscription. You can upgrade all seats as a full upgrade or some of the seats as a partial upgrade. It is important to know that subscription upgrades must be on the authorized list of upgrades provided by Microsoft.

Please note, subscription downgrades are NOT supported in the New Commerce Experience.

Yes. Microsoft offers discounts on select Microsoft and Office 365 suites to be used for nonprofit customers. Customers much receive a nonprofit designation from Microsoft. These licenses can be discounted up to 75% and are purchasable from PEI.

Microsoft has announced price increases to the following nonprofit SKUs starting on September 1st, 2022:

Enterprise Nonprofit SKUs

• Office 365 E1 is increasing to $2.50 per user per month (PUPM) from $2
• Office 365 E3 is increasing to $5.75 PUPM from $4.50
• Office 365 E5 is increasing to $15.20 PUPM from $14
• Microsoft 365 E3 is increasing to $9 PUPM from $8

SMB SKUs

• Microsoft 365 Business Basic is increasing to $5.50 PUPM from $5

NOTE: These changes will not impact any nonprofit offers available as a grant, including 10 licenses of Microsoft Business Premium and 300 licenses of Microsoft 365 Business Basic available through CSP.

2000 licenses of Office 365 E1 are available via grant through an Enterprise Agreement for eligible customers with 250 paid users of qualifying products.