<p>If you have a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription, expect a major upgrade to your Office apps with new AI-powered features. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook will soon include a Copilot button, allowing you to access helpful tools for writing documents, analyzing data, summarizing emails, and creating presentations. The Microsoft Designer app, which can generate images from prompts and edit photos, will also be available to subscribers.</p>
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<p>These updates, announced on Microsoft’s blog, will be part of the latest Microsoft 365 update but come with a price hike. Subscribers will receive 60 AI credits each month, which can be used across Copilot and Designer. These credits reset every month, regardless of the renewal date.</p>
<p>The monthly fee for Microsoft 365 Family users will rise 30%, from $10 to $13, with the annual subscription increasing from $100 to $130. Personal users will see an even larger increase nearly 43%, from $7 to $10 per month, with the annual cost jumping from $70 to $100.</p>
<p>These are the first price increases for Microsoft 365, which has been available since 2013. The new prices will take effect at your next renewal.</p>
<p>While the new AI features will be available on any supported platform, Microsoft gives users more control over when they use Copilot. For example, you’ll soon be able to enable or disable Copilot in apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. This option should be available by February 2025.</p>
<p>If you’d prefer to stick with the old features, Microsoft offers the option to switch to a Personal or Family Classic plan, though this may not be available to new subscribers. However, even with a Classic plan, some AI features may still be accessible. Lastly, Microsoft acknowledges feedback from test markets, where many users expressed frustration with the price increase. Some may choose to cancel their subscriptions rather than accept the changes.</p>