Why Has the Price of a Microsoft 365 Subscription Not Budged?

That’s despite global inflation and the dramatic improvements Excel has seen.

Two weeks ago, the bombshell news about Python integration coming to Excel was greeted with rip-roaring excitement. The secret had been well-kept by tight-lipped Microsoft MVPs, who were finally able to bombard us with their pre-recorded demos to whet our appetites.

However, amidst the intrigue and curiosity was a small sigh of disapproval about what was stated in Microsoft’s official blog:

“While in Preview, Python in Excel will be included with your Microsoft 365 subscription. After the Preview, some functionality will be restricted without a paid license. More details will be available before General Availability.”

Many of us are scratching our heads, wondering what “some functionality will be restricted without a paid license” actually means and whether this could have wider implications. However, it does raise an interesting talking point about the future.

Most people use Excel as part of Microsoft 365, whether a Personal, Family, Business, Enterprise, or Education subscription. However, there’s still a smattering who insist on clinging to their perpetual copies.

The big benefit of Microsoft 365 is having access to other programs, most notably Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneDrive. We also receive regular updates, a far cry from the past when we’d wait three years for the next Office copy to be released on DVD-ROM.

I use Microsoft 365 Personal (formerly Office 365), which, according to my email billing records, has an annual fee that has not budged. It was £59.99 in 2017, and it’s the same now.

That’s despite soaring global inflation and the price of pretty much everything else in our lives having rocketed in price.

By its nature, Excel is the outlier in the suite due to its unrivalled versatility. In the last three years, we’ve seen more improvements than in the previous 13. The biggest being the new calculation engine, which paved the way for a plethora of new functions to slash the time it takes to construct formulas…