Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace 2027: $7 to $32 a seat after Copilot bundles

Summary. On list price, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace now cost the same in the US at the entry and middle tiers: $7 a user a month for Business Basic or Business Starter and $14 for Business Standard on either suite, on annual terms. The UK is different. Microsoft lists Business Basic at £5.40 and Business Standard at £10.80 before VAT, against £5.90 and £11.80 for Google's equivalents. Microsoft's update of 1 July 2026 raised Business Basic from $6.00 to $7.00 and Business Standard from $12.50 to $14.00, and left Business Premium at $22.00. Archived copies of Microsoft's UK pages show the UK rise: Basic from £4.60 to £5.40 and Standard from £9.60 to £10.80, with Premium flat at £16.90. Microsoft now leads with Copilot bundles at $23.50 and $32.00 (£18.10 and £24.60); Google includes Gemini in Business Standard and Plus. Both cap business plans at 300 users. Choose on the apps your staff use, security needs and the cost of moving, not on AI alone.

About this article. It is written for owners, finance leads and IT managers at US and UK firms under 300 staff pricing a renewal or a switch. On 12 November 2026 we checked every price, plan name, user cap and billing basis against Microsoft's licensing page and FAQ, Google's US and UK Workspace pages, Microsoft Learn, Google Workspace Admin Help and GOV.UK. Microsoft's shop pages refuse automated requests, so we read archived copies dated 11 to 30 October 2026, and earlier copies for pre-July UK prices. All figures are list prices and change often; confirm before you sign. No vendor paid for inclusion, and this is not financial advice. Researched with AI assistance and reviewed by our editorial team.

What Microsoft's July 2026 update changed

Microsoft announced the change on 4 December 2025 and published the price tables on its licensing news page, dated 16 February 2026. The new prices took effect on 1 July 2026. Microsoft's FAQ says the rise applies worldwide with local adjustments for currency, and that existing customers move to the new price at their first renewal after 1 July 2026, on monthly and annual billing alike. A subscription renewed before that date kept the old price until its next renewal, so many firms meet the change in the first half of 2027.

US figures come from Microsoft's licensing table, which rounds percentages down (it shows 16% for Basic). UK figures are annual prices before VAT from Microsoft's UK pages, archived on 22 February, 16 April and 11 May 2026 (before) and 19 July and 11 to 12 October 2026 (now).

Partner prices can differ from Microsoft's list, so get your old and new per-seat rates in writing.

Packaging changes. The same update added 50 GB of email storage to all three business suites, URL time-of-click protection to Basic and Standard, and Copilot Chat enhancements plus Copilot Chat Analytics to all three. Microsoft says the enhancements bring awareness of the user's inbox and calendar and access to agents in Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Rollout began in June 2026, with at least 30 days' notice to admins before features reach a tenant.

The Copilot bundles. Microsoft's US business plans page now features Business Premium with Copilot at $32.00, Business Standard with Copilot at $23.50 and Business Basic at $7.00. Plain Business Standard ($14.00) and Business Premium ($22.00) no longer appear there but are still sold on their own product pages. Microsoft also notes that some advanced AI features in the bundles are billed on usage, on top of the seat price.

2027 suite prices side by side

Prices are per user per month. Microsoft figures come from its plan and product pages; Google figures from its US pricing page and its US and UK business pages.

Billing basis. Microsoft's annual prices are paid yearly on a one-year subscription that renews automatically; month-to-month costs 20% more in both countries. Google's annual plan is a one-year commitment billed monthly, which Google says saves 16% against its flexible plan; flexible costs 20% more in the US and about 19% more in the UK (£14 against £11.80 on Standard). Microsoft's UK prices exclude VAT; Google's UK page does not say, and its US prices exclude tax. Google's US page was also offering new customers 50% off for three months, for a limited time.

No-Teams versions. Microsoft also sells each suite without Teams. US prices are Basic $5.40, Standard $10.79 and Premium $18.79, with Standard with Copilot (no Teams) at $20.30 and Premium with Copilot (no Teams) at $28.80. UK prices are £4.20, £8.30, £14.40, £15.60 and £22.10. These suit firms that already standardise on another meeting and chat tool.

Add-ons that change the total. Teams Phone Standard costs $10.00 (£7.70) and Defender for Business $3.00 (£2.30); Business Premium already includes the latter. The Copilot Business add-on, sold only to existing customers on an eligible business plan, lists at $21.00 (£16.10), or $18.00 (£13.80) for the first year on annual offers taken from 1 July to 31 December 2026. Google's AI Expanded Access add-on for heavier AI use has limits listed in Admin Help but no published price.

Microsoft 365 business plans: what each tier includes

Each business suite serves 1 to 300 users, and Microsoft counts the 300 across the whole business family: a tenant with 250 Business Premium seats can add only 50 more seats of any business plan. Above 300 users you move to enterprise plans, where Microsoft 365 E3 rose from $36 to $39 on 1 July 2026.

• Business Basic ($7.00, £5.40). Web and mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook only, Exchange email with a 100 GB mailbox and 50 GB archive, 1 TB of OneDrive storage per user, Teams, SharePoint and Copilot Chat.

• Business Standard ($14.00, £10.80). Everything in Basic plus desktop apps on up to 5 PCs or Macs, 5 tablets and 5 phones per user, Microsoft Access (PC only), Loop and Clipchamp.

• Business Premium ($22.00, £16.90). Everything in Standard plus a 1.5 TB archive, Intune Plan 1 device management, Defender for Business, Defender for Office 365 Plan 1, Purview Information Protection, policy-based identity and access controls, and a Windows 11 Pro upgrade.

Plan contents are from Microsoft's US comparison table. The Windows 11 Pro upgrade and Intune matter to firms still on Windows 10. Microsoft's consumer ESU programme now runs to 12 October 2027, the same day the second year of commercial ESU ends. Our Windows 10 ESU and SMB PC refresh plan sets out the steps.

Microsoft's FAQ sets the exit terms. Month-to-month subscriptions can be cancelled at any time without penalty, annual subscriptions paid monthly may carry a penalty if cancelled early, and annual subscriptions paid upfront are not refunded. After cancellation, admins can reach the data in a limited-function account for 90 days.

Google Workspace business plans: what each tier includes

Google sells Business Starter, Standard and Plus for up to 300 users; Enterprise has no minimum or maximum.

• Business Starter ($7, £5.90). Gmail with a custom domain, 30 GB of pooled storage per user, Meet for 100 participants, chat with Gemini on web and mobile, Gemini in Gmail and Vids, and basic Gemini Notebook access.

• Business Standard ($14, £11.80). 2 TB pooled per user, Meet for 150 with recording and noise cancellation, appointment booking pages, eSignature in Docs and PDFs, Gemini in Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive, Meet and Chat, and the Google Workspace Migrate tool.

• Business Plus ($22, £18.40). 5 TB pooled per user, Meet for 500 with attendance tracking, Vault for retention and eDiscovery, Secure LDAP and advanced endpoint management.

• Enterprise (contact sales). Meet for 1,000 with in-domain live streaming, data loss prevention, context-aware access, enterprise data regions, S/MIME and Cloud Identity Premium.

Google's comparison table also lists Office file interoperability, room booking in Calendar and Workspace Studio automations on every plan, which matters for firms that swap Word and Excel files with clients.

The AI layer in brief

Microsoft's FAQ calls Copilot Chat, included on every business plan, limited AI chat with enterprise data protection, and points firms wanting AI inside the apps and on their files to a Copilot plan. The bundles charge $9.50 a seat more on Standard and $10 on Premium; the add-on lists at $21. Google includes Gemini in Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive, Meet and Chat on Standard and Plus, while Starter gets Gemini in Gmail and Vids plus chat with Gemini. Our Copilot, Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude per-seat comparison covers usage limits and admin controls, and ChatGPT and Claude as cross-suite options.

Head-to-head comparison

The rows below summarise the plan contents cited above.

Which suite to choose

Worked example: a 40-person firm in the US and the UK

Take a 40-person design and engineering firm on annual plans, at the list prices above.

The same firm on Business Standard before 1 July 2026 paid 40 × $12.50 × 12 = $6,000, so its first renewal after that date adds $720 a year for the same suite. In the UK the same move is 40 × £9.60 × 12 = £4,608 to 40 × £10.80 × 12 = £5,184, an extra £576.

UK, annual list cost for 40 users, ex VAT. Google Workspace Business Standard costs 40 × £11.80 × 12 = £5,664, against £5,184 for Microsoft 365 Business Standard, so Microsoft is £480 a year cheaper. At the top business tier, Google Business Plus costs 40 × £18.40 × 12 = £8,832 and Microsoft Business Premium 40 × £16.90 × 12 = £8,112. Copilot on every seat takes Microsoft to 40 × £18.10 × 12 = £8,688 on Standard or 40 × £24.60 × 12 = £11,808 on Premium. At the 20% standard VAT rate, the £8,112 Premium bill becomes £8,112 × 1.2 = £9,734.40.

In the US the suites cost the same until you add Copilot; in the UK, Microsoft is cheaper before Copilot and dearer after it. The mixed option gives Copilot to heavy users without buying it for everyone.

Migration effort: what moves and what does not

A gap of a few dollars a seat rarely justifies a migration by itself. Here is what the vendors' own tools cover.

Google Workspace to Microsoft 365. Microsoft's tool moves mail and rules, calendar and contacts in user batches, using automated or manual methods in Exchange admin tools or PowerShell. Users must be provisioned in Microsoft 365 first, and you need mail-routing subdomains on both sides. Microsoft lists these limits:

• Vacation and automatic-reply settings, room bookings, shared calendars and event colours are not migrated.

• Contacts keep at most three email addresses each, and contact URLs, Gmail tags and custom tags are dropped.

• Rules arrive turned off, and the default maximum message size is 35 MB.

• Mailboxes over 100 GB need a separate large-mailbox process.

• Microsoft strongly advises turning off retention and archiving policies first, or archived items show up as missing.

• The tool is not available for Office 365 US Government GCC High or DoD.

The page does not cover Google Drive files, so plan a separate file migration.

Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace. Google's data import tool has guides for Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint Online and Teams as sources, with delta imports to catch late changes. A super administrator connects it by signing in to Microsoft 365 as a Global Administrator. Google also offers the Workspace Migrate tool on Business Standard and above, and GWMME for Microsoft Exchange.

What drives the effort.

Integration rework is often the cost a quote leaves out. Our note on Microsoft 365 and Graph integration work covers the throttling limits and permission scoping that come up when you move or rebuild these connections.

US and UK buying notes

UK. Microsoft's UK prices exclude VAT, charged at the 20% standard rate. Check your renewal quote against the UK list prices in the first table.

US. Google's US page says its prices exclude tax; budget for state and local sales tax wherever it applies to software subscriptions. An annual Microsoft subscription last renewed before 1 July 2026 moves to $7.00 or $14.00 at its first renewal after that date.

Nonprofits. Microsoft's licensing page lists US-dollar nonprofit prices tied to commercial rates at a 60% to 75% discount: Business Basic free, Business Standard $3.50 (up from $3.00) and Business Premium $5.50.

Above 300 users. Both move you to enterprise plans: Microsoft 365 E3 at $39.00, or Google Workspace Enterprise on a quote. Our Copilot renewal math covers that side.

How eCorpIT can help

eCorpIT is a Gurugram-based technology organisation, founded in 2021, assessed at CMMI Level 5 and MSME certified, with senior-led engineering teams working across AWS, Microsoft and Google platforms. Our cloud migration services team can cost both suites at your real seat mix and plan batch moves of mail, files, calendars and integrations in either direction. Talk to us at /contact-us/.

Last updated: 12 November 2026.

References

1. Microsoft 365 plans and pricing for business, US (archived copy, 29 October 2026) — Microsoft

1. Compare flexible pricing plan options, US (archived copy, 11 November 2026) — Google Workspace

1. Microsoft 365 plans and pricing for business, UK (archived copy, 11 October 2026) — Microsoft

1. Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot, UK (archived copy, 11 October 2026) — Microsoft

1. Google Workspace business plans, UK — Google Workspace

1. Microsoft 365 Pricing and Packaging Updates, 16 February 2026 — Microsoft Licensing

1. Microsoft 365 Business Basic, UK (archived copy, 22 February 2026) — Microsoft

1. Microsoft 365 Business Standard, UK (archived copy, 11 May 2026) — Microsoft

1. Packaging and Pricing Updates for Microsoft 365 Commercial Suites, public FAQ — Microsoft Licensing

1. Microsoft 365 Apps for business, UK (archived copy, 16 April 2026) — Microsoft

1. Microsoft 365 Business Standard, UK (archived copy, 19 July 2026) — Microsoft

1. Microsoft 365 Business Standard, US (archived copy, 24 October 2026) — Microsoft

1. Microsoft 365 Business Premium, US (archived copy, 24 October 2026) — Microsoft

1. Microsoft 365 Business Basic, US (archived copy, 30 October 2026) — Microsoft

1. Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot, US (archived copy, 28 October 2026) — Microsoft

1. Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot, US (archived copy, 28 October 2026) — Microsoft

1. Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot, UK (archived copy, 12 October 2026) — Microsoft

1. Google Workspace business plans, US — Google Workspace

1. AI Expanded Access — Google Workspace Admin Help

1. Windows 10 Extended Security Updates for consumers (archived copy, 31 October 2026) — Microsoft

1. Lifecycle FAQ: Extended Security Updates — Microsoft Learn

1. VAT rates — GOV.UK

1. Perform a Google Workspace migration to Microsoft 365 or Office 365 — Microsoft Learn

1. Import email with the data import tool — Google Workspace Admin Help