The American giant has just drastically increased the price of Microsoft 365 subscriptions in France for individuals. His justification? Adding “AI features” that no one wants.
After an initial deployment in countries such as New Zealand, Malaysia and Australia, the American giant Microsoft is applying its change in pricing policy for its Microsoft 365 subscription to France. As we reported to you on November 10, 2024, the price of the different formulas of Microsoft’s subscription office suite was literally exploding in these countries, all to add more than dubious so-called “artificial intelligence” functions.
And as was to be expected, the American giant did not take too long to export its new prices in other territories, notably France. Concretely, the Family plan, which offers access to several tools of the office suite, such as Word, Excel or PowerPoint, to a maximum of six people, increases from €10 to €13 per month, an increase of 30%. And the bill is even higher for the Personal plan, which gives access to the same tools but to a single person, whose monthly rate increases from €7 to €10, an increase of 42%, just that.
How does the company justify this surge in prices for its most popular product? Unsurprisingly, by the integration of its “super artificial intelligence assistant Copilot”. From now on, all Microsoft 365 subscribers will be able to use Copilot within the Office applications, to ask how to calculate a sum in Excel or how to align an image in PowerPoint. But be careful, this use will in reality be very limited, since the number of requests or requests will be governed by a system of monthly credits. And once the ceiling is reached, you will then have to (again) checkout to take out a Copilot Pro subscription, at €30 per month.
Last but not least, the functions linked to Copilot will only be accessible to the main account holder, and other users of a Family plan will not be entitled to them. All Microsoft 365 subscribers are therefore subject to a drastic price increase, for the addition of a service whose value and interest are more than questionable, whose scope is frankly limited, and above all which absolutely no one asked for. . If Microsoft Office tools undoubtedly remain the most efficient office applications on the market, the quality-price ratio of the Microsoft 365 subscription is clearly deteriorating.
What alternatives are available? If you like and absolutely want to continue using Microsoft Office, the best solution, by far, is to buy a used lifetime license for less than €1. It’s perfectly legal and only takes a few minutes. If you are tired of the antics of the company, you can also turn to a free and open source solution, such as the excellent office suite OnlyOffice, which offers a modern graphical interface and real-time collaboration functions, or to the well-known and ultra-complete LibreOffice suite.
This regrettable price increase is unfortunately symptomatic of the direction taken by Microsoft over the past two years, which has constantly tried to impose “AI functions” that no one wants. Instead of focusing on improving and finalizing its Windows 11 operating system (end-to-end dark mode, homogenization of character sizes, speed and stability of File Explorer, etc.), l The company prefers to deploy useless gadgets everywhere. And make its customers pay high prices for them.