This week at its Inspire 2021 partner conference, Microsoft announced Windows 365, its Windows 10 and Windows 11 subscription offering in the cloud. At the time, the company said that Windows 365 pricing would be made public when the service is available on August 2, but it did let one detail slip in a session.
For two CPUs, 4GB RAM, and 128GB of storage, pricing is going to be $31 per user per month on the Windows 365 Business plan. Unsurprisingly, this is not an inexpensive product. Indeed, that’s $744 over two years, and you can buy a laptop with better specs for that money.
But that’s not the point of Windows 365. The service is meant to provide benefits that you can’t get from just buying a new Windows 11 laptop. It’s easier to manage, and you can run your installation of Windows from any device. It allows employees to work from anywhere, and it saves companies the hassle of having to handle devices.
That pricing is for just one of many tiers. And to be fair, it’s not the top tier or the bottom tier, the latter of which actually comes with a single CPU, 2GB RAM, and 64GB of storage. Indeed, it doesn’t even come with enough RAM to run Windows 11. Also, that tier was for Windows 365 Business; let’s not forget about Windows 365 Enterprise, which will have its own, more expensive pricing.
One thing that’s key though, is that this is flat rate pricing. You’re not getting charged extra by usage time, bandwidth used, or anything like that. Every tier is going to be a straightforward, per-user price. Presumably, Microsoft is already assuming that you’ll be using the service throughout an eight-hour workday.
The Redmond firm will provide more details on Windows 365 pricing on August 2, which is the day that the service will be generally available. Microsoft will have plenty more to share.