Microsoft 365 pricing in Australia can be a moving target. Microsoft moved SMB licensing to the New Commerce Experience (NCE) in 2022, raised list prices by roughly 20% for month-to-month billing, and has adjusted plan inclusions several times since. For Australian businesses comparing plans, the question is rarely just "what does it cost?" — it is "what does each plan actually include, what am I paying for that I will never use, and should I buy direct from Microsoft or through a Microsoft Solutions Partner like Mycelium 365?"
This guide sets out the current 2026 NCE list pricing for the four most common Microsoft 365 plans bought by Australian SMBs and mid-market firms — Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium, and E3 — in AUD per user per month, annual commitment. It explains what each plan covers, when to move from Business Premium to E3, the donated and discounted nonprofit pricing, and what changes when you license through a partner rather than direct. Prices are list prices; partner-managed licensing is covered below.
Microsoft 365 plans available in Australia
The four plans below are the ones most Australian businesses choose between. All prices are AUD per user per month, annual commitment, on the New Commerce Experience (NCE) as of 2026. Month-to-month billing adds approximately 20% on top.
| Plan | List price (AUD/user/month) | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Business Basic | $9.40 | Email + Teams + web Office apps, no desktop apps |
| Microsoft 365 Business Standard | $18.90 | Businesses needing desktop Office apps plus email and Teams |
| Microsoft 365 Business Premium | $32.00 | SMBs wanting Defender, Intune, and Azure AD Premium P1 |
| Microsoft 365 E3 | $43.20 | Mid-market and enterprise needing advanced compliance and automation |
A few things to note about these figures. The annual-commitment price assumes you pay for the full term; cancelling mid-term does not refund unused seats. Microsoft bills in USD and converts at a floating rate, so the AUD figure moves slightly month to month — most Australian partners quote a fixed AUD rate to absorb that volatility. Business Basic is the entry point and is genuinely cheap, but it has no desktop Office apps, which catches businesses out. E3 is the enterprise tier and unlocks compliance features (Microsoft Purview, eDiscovery, retention) that the Business plans cap or exclude. Read more about the managed Microsoft 365 service Mycelium 365 delivers around these plans.
Microsoft 365 Business Basic vs Business Standard vs Business Premium — what's the difference for Australian businesses
These three Business-tier plans are where most Australian SMBs start, and the differences are easy to get wrong because the names do not tell you much.
Business Basic ($9.40) gives you Exchange Online (50 GB mailbox), OneDrive for Business (1 TB), SharePoint, and Microsoft Teams — but Office is web and mobile only. There is no desktop Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Outlook. It suits businesses where almost all work happens in a browser or in Teams, or where staff already own perpetual Office licences (Office 2019/2021) and just need hosted email and file storage. It is also the right plan for frontline and shift workers who only need email and Teams chat.
Business Standard ($18.90) adds the desktop Office apps — the full Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Publisher installable on up to five devices per user. For most Australian businesses with office-based staff, this is the default: you get hosted email, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, and the desktop apps in one licence. The jump from Basic to Standard is the one most businesses make within their first year once someone needs to work in Excel offline.
Business Premium ($32.00) layers Microsoft Defender for Business, Microsoft Intune (mobile device and app management), and Azure AD Premium P1 (conditional access, self-service password reset, MFA at the identity layer) on top of everything in Standard. For a 10-to-50-user business, Business Premium is usually cheaper than buying Standard plus standalone Defender and Intune separately, and it is the simplest way to get a defensible security baseline aligned to the Australian Cyber Security Centre's Essential Eight. If your business handles personal information under the Privacy Act, or is in a regulated industry, Business Premium is the floor — not Standard.
The practical decision tree: frontline or browser-only staff → Basic; office staff who need desktop apps → Standard; any business that wants device management, endpoint protection, and conditional access in one licence → Premium. The managed secure cloud package bundles Business Premium with the configuration and monitoring work that makes those security features actually protect you.
Does Microsoft Word cost extra with Microsoft 365?
No — Microsoft Word is included in all Microsoft 365 Business plans at no additional cost. You cannot purchase Microsoft Word as a standalone application through Microsoft 365 — it comes as part of the suite alongside Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint. The cheapest plan that includes the full desktop Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint installed on your computer) is Microsoft 365 Business Standard at $18.90/user/month (AUD). Microsoft 365 Business Basic ($9.40/user/month) gives you web-only versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint — the full desktop apps require Business Standard or higher.
Microsoft 365 E3 vs Business Premium — when to upgrade
Business Premium and E3 overlap more than people expect, and the upgrade decision is driven less by features than by compliance and scale.
E3 ($43.20) adds what Business Premium cannot offer at any price: Microsoft Purview compliance (data loss prevention across locations, information barriers, retention labels with policy enforcement), advanced eDiscovery and audit, Power Automate per-flow seeded rights, and Windows Enterprise licensing (E3 includes a Windows Enterprise upgrade licence for existing Windows Pro devices). It also raises Exchange Online mailbox limits to 100 GB and removes the 300-user cap that applies to all Business-tier plans — once you exceed 300 users, you must move to E3 or above regardless of features.
The trigger to move from Business Premium to E3 is usually one of three things. First, you have grown past 300 users and the Business tier is no longer an option. Second, a compliance obligation — ASIC, healthcare records retention, a legal hold, or a cyber-insurance policy wording — requires Purview DLP or retention labels that Business Premium only partially supports. Third, your security team needs enterprise conditional access and identity governance beyond Azure AD Premium P1, which means stepping up to the P2 entitlement that comes with E3.
For businesses under 300 users without a hard compliance mandate, Business Premium is the better buy. The roughly $11/user/month difference adds up, and Premium covers Defender, Intune, and P1 — the security stack most Australian SMBs actually need. When you do outgrow Premium, the managed modern workplace package handles the E3 migration, Purview configuration, and the conditional access rewrite that goes with it.
Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace — which is cheaper?
At comparable feature tiers, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are similarly priced. Microsoft 365 Business Basic ($9.40/user/month) vs Google Workspace Business Starter ($10.80/user/month) — Microsoft is cheaper at entry level. Microsoft 365 Business Standard ($18.90) vs Google Workspace Business Standard ($19.20) — Microsoft is cheaper at mid-tier. Microsoft 365 Business Premium ($32.00) vs Google Workspace Business Plus ($23.40) — Google is cheaper at higher tiers, but Microsoft Business Premium includes Intune device management, Microsoft Defender for Business, Entra ID P1, and Azure Information Protection — security tools with no Google Workspace equivalent at that price. For Australian businesses comparing on price alone, Microsoft 365 is cheaper at the Basic and Standard tiers. For businesses comparing on total value including security controls, Microsoft 365 Business Premium is typically more cost-effective than assembling equivalent Google Workspace + security tools separately.
Microsoft 365 nonprofit pricing in Australia
Microsoft offers donated and heavily discounted licensing to eligible Australian nonprofits through its nonprofit programme, administered via Tech Soup. Eligibility is restricted to registered charities, deductible gift recipients, and similar entities — not all nonprofits qualify, and religious and political organisations have separate rules.
The two plans most Australian nonprofits use:
| Plan | Nonprofit price (AUD/user/month) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Business Basic | $2.50 (donated) | Up to 300 users, web Office apps |
| Microsoft 365 Business Premium | $9.84 | Same inclusions as commercial Premium |
Business Basic is offered as a donated licence — effectively free of Microsoft list pricing, with a small Tech Soup admin fee. Business Premium at $9.84 is roughly a third of the commercial price and is the standout deal for small charities that want Defender, Intune, and conditional access. There is also a discounted Business Standard at around $5.50, and Office 365 E1 and E3 nonprofit variants for larger organisations.
The practical limit is administration. Nonprofit licensing is bought in allotments that must be renewed and reconciled, and over-allocating seats triggers an audit. Many Australian charities find the admin overhead worthwhile for Premium but struggle to justify it for a handful of Basic seats. Mycelium 365 helps eligible nonprofits set up their Tech Soup account, prove eligibility, and right-size their allotment so they are not paying for unused licences.
Microsoft 365 licensing through a Microsoft Solutions Partner vs direct — what changes
Australian businesses can buy Microsoft 365 directly from Microsoft via the Microsoft 365 admin centre, or through a Microsoft Solutions Partner. The list price is the same either way — Microsoft's NCE pricing is published and partners sell at the same list — but the experience and the total cost of ownership differ.
Buying direct gives you the pure self-service path: you provision tenants, assign licences, manage billing, and call Microsoft support yourself. That is fine for a business with a dedicated IT person who knows the platform. The trade-off is that you carry the configuration burden (conditional access, Intune enrolment, Defender policies, retention labels) and you get standard Microsoft support, which for SMB tiers is ticket-based and often slow.
Buying through a Microsoft Solutions Partner changes three things. First, the partner can quote a fixed AUD price that absorbs the USD-to-AUD float, so your monthly bill is predictable. Second, the partner handles the provisioning and ongoing administration — licence assignment, user onboarding, plan upgrades and downgrades, and the security configuration that makes Premium worth paying for. Third, you get partner-tier support, which is faster and more contextual than Microsoft's SMB support because the partner already knows your tenant.
What does not change: the licences are the same Microsoft 365 licences, billed through the same NCE, with the same Microsoft datacentres (Australia East and Southeast for most Australian tenants). The partner does not host your data. The difference is who manages the licences and the configuration around them, and whether you have someone to call who knows your setup. For most Australian SMBs without dedicated IT, the partner path is cheaper in total cost of ownership even when the per-seat price is identical, because the avoided configuration and support time outweighs any margin.
Mycelium 365 Modern Workplace managed IT support starts from $147/user/month — covering helpdesk, device management, Microsoft 365 administration, Security as a Service (SOC), and cyber awareness training. No per-incident charges. Licensing is not included. View our packages →