How much does Microsoft 365 Family cost?

Annually, if you intend to keep the subscription for twelve months. The annual fee is EUR 129.00 and the monthly fee is EUR 13.00: twelve monthly payments come to EUR 156.00, which is EUR 27.00 more for exactly the same service. Monthly billing only makes sense if you expect to use the apps for a few months, during a project or a dissertation for instance, and want the freedom to cancel without having prepaid a full year.

The contents are the same, the number of people is not. Family costs EUR 129.00 a year and can be shared with up to six people, each with their own account and 1 TB of OneDrive. Personal costs EUR 99.00 a year and covers one person. The break-even is simple: if two or more people will use the subscription, Family costs less than two Personal plans; if you are on your own, Personal is the cheaper choice.

Microsoft presents Family as a household plan, but sharing works through an invitation to each person's Microsoft account, and everyone keeps their files separate from everyone else's. Each invited person gets their own app installation and their own terabyte of OneDrive: nobody can see anyone else's documents. That separation is what makes splitting the cost across several people workable, as long as the six-person maximum is respected.

Renewal is automatic on the date you selected and happens at the full price in force at that moment, not the price you first paid. This is where most people notice list price increases, because the charge arrives without a confirmation prompt. If you do not want to renew, switch off automatic renewal in your Microsoft account before the expiry date: once the charge has gone through, you are into a refund request, which is slower and not always granted.

It depends on how you work. The web versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint are free with a Microsoft account and cover basic writing and calculations. The subscription earns its money when you need the apps installed locally, offline working, large files, the advanced features of Excel and Outlook, and 1 TB of cloud storage per person. Before paying, the free trial month is the most direct way to find out whether the extra features matter to you.

No, and that is the main reason lower figures circulate online. EUR 129.00 is the official Italian Microsoft Store price. Retailers and electronics chains often sell annual activation codes at different prices that Microsoft does not publish and that can change from week to week. These are legitimate channels when the retailer is authorised, but the price cannot be verified against an official source, which is why it does not appear in the figures in this guide.