Microsoft are removing any grace period for all expired subscriptions, including Microsoft 365. This means you will need to take action and/or make payment in advance of a subscription’s renewal date, to ensure the subscription and its services continue.

Microsoft previously offered a short grace period where services continued to be available and renewal was still possible after a subscription had expired. This allowed some flexibility and time to make belated decisions regarding accounts, licenses, etc.

This grace period will now be replaced by a paid option, the Extended Service Term (EST), where services can remain active after a subscription expires only at additional cost. Under an EST, subscriptions are billed monthly at the +20% monthly uplift rate plus a 3% surcharge, or a 23% surcharge if no monthly plan is available.

From 1 April 2026, organisations will need to choose from the following options at the end of a subscription term:

• Renew the subscription and ensure payment is made before the renewal date
• Cancel the subscription with the service stopping immediately at the end of its current term
• Move to an Extended Service Term (EST) with surcharges applied

The removal of the grace period means that subscription management now requires more proactive planning and payment to be made in advance of the renewal date in order to avoid losing access to services and incurring unwanted surcharges.

You can view Microsoft’s documentation regarding this here. Please note that Microsoft has recently revised their original enforcement date for EST transactions to 4 May 2026. The overall process and intention remain unchanged. We are implementing requirements for this from 1 April 2026 to allow for 30 day invoices plus a few days to cover a weekend, in advance of Microsoft’s enforcement date.

Important: Existing subscriptions which are not paid and thus not renewed on time can be moved to Extended Service Term (EST). However, in order to qualify for EST you must have set up automated billing to cater for the EST ad hoc payments. Otherwise unpaid and unrenewed subscriptions will cease immediately and irrecoverably at the end of their current term.

You can find full terms and conditions regarding this here.