Microsoft are making changes to their pricing model, beginning in 2023, which will affect all user (e.g. Microsoft 365) and software (e.g. Office LTSC) licences.
Microsoft announced they will be aligning all licences to USD ($) pricing – for more consistency across all countries and regions – from next year.
For Microsoft customers based in countries outside of the United States, pricing will be linked to currency fluctuation rather than fixed for the local region. Prices may go up or down, depending on the relationship of the local currency with the price of the USD ($) product, when the adjustments are made. For the UK, this means pricing will fluctuate with the value of GBP (£) versus USD ($) rather than being a set price in GBP (£).
Going forwards, Microsoft will review all pricing on a semi-annual (six monthly) schedule to ensure consistency with USD pricing. This will mean more frequent changes to the list price of products outside the US, which could have an impact on budgets, estimates, and other financial processes.
Please note that pricing will be fixed and protected throughout a subscription term, meaning Microsoft cannot change pricing in the middle of your subscription(s) but pricing may fluctuate more when your subscription(s) renew. Microsoft subscriptions are annual by default (monthly subscriptions incur a surcharge) so it makes sense to stick to annual subscriptions wherever possible, in order to keep consistent pricing and predictability.
More information about the new strategy and regional prices will be shared by Microsoft at the beginning of 2023, and we will continue to keep you updated. Please note that we are waiting on an exact date for this change, but it could be as soon as January 2023.
EDIT:
Microsoft have since announced that GBP (£) pricing will increase by 9% from 1 April 2023.
The new pricing will be updated on our website here for Microsoft 365 and here for Exchange, once available.