AT A GLANCE
Unchanged staff list prices can still produce a much bigger education bill. Discounts end at eligible renewals from May 2027; free benefits and storage change from January 2028. The worked example moves a school from about 105TB to 15TB..... check the full renewal before budgeting.
Microsoft’s existing A3 and A5 staff suite list prices with Teams remain unchanged..... but removing discounts and free benefits can still increase the total bill considerably.
The key dates (opens a new tab) are:
- 1 May 2027 Automatic volume price-level discounts for academic online services end at the first renewal or extension on or after this date.
- 1 January 2028 Retirement of free Office 365 A1, the Student Use Benefit and free alumni email, plus storage changes, apply at the first eligible renewal or extension.
Existing agreements continue through their current terms.
The free A0 student replacement excludes Exchange Online email, SharePoint and Teams.
Eligibility also requires paid staff coverage and students actively using Windows devices for education.
Consider 1,000 students currently receiving A3 through the Student Use Benefit....... Using Directions’ indicative annual pricing (opens a new tab), paid A3 with Teams at US$5 per student creates US$5,000 in additional annual charges..... approximately R90,000 at an illustrative R18/US$1, before tax, staff licences, lost discounts or extra storage.
Then check the storage!
Microsoft is removing the base allowance of 100 terabytes (TB). Under the new entitlements (opens a new tab), a school with 100 paid A3 staff licences and 1,000 A3 students could move from approximately 105 TB to 15 TB, assuming no other contributing licences or storage packs.
A bigger bill..... potentially MUCH less included storage!
THE SOURCE / FURTHER READING
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Read the original feature at Directions on Microsoft (opens a new tab)