Microsoft is rolling out an update to the global Microsoft 365 price lists in February 2026 .
For us in the euro area, this means: The SKUs will be around 7.4% cheaper. That’s actually good news, but your tenant configuration is probably working against you!
The problem lies in the NCE provisioning timestamp: the system freezes the price at the exact time of renewal. If you now simply run your January renewals via “Auto-Renew”, the tenant will get today’s still high price and hardcode it for 12 months. The discount arrives in the Microsoft backend, but not with you – unless you intervene manually in the cycle now.
“Monthly Bridge” method against the NCE price trap
Normally, the NCE Price Protection protects you from increases, but currently this mechanism is boomerang: If you extend now (as of January 18th) blindly, you will fix the old, high price level for a full 12 months and miss out on the upcoming 7% discount. To plug this budget leak, you’ll need to artificially postpone the renewal date.
Your approach: Immediately disable auto-renew for expiring subscriptions and bridge the days until February 1 with licenses in the Monthly Term. Although you pay the 20% surcharge for a short time, as soon as your CSP confirms that the new Euro list prices are live, you convert back to an Annual Commitment.
The result: You exchange a few euros of additional costs in January for a massive saving for the entire fiscal year 2026.
Conclusion: Take a discount!
It almost never happens that Microsoft licenses become cheaper. That’s exactly why you can’t rest on your laurels now. The automatism works against you this time.
The short detour via the monthly license is annoying manual effort, but technically the only way to trick the rigid NCE logic. Make the switch, get the 7% and put the budget into better security licenses that really have your back in everyday life – instead of writing it off as an “administration fee”.
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