Forum Discussion
Microsoft 365 Business Premium grant is being discontinued
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Thank you all for the info, this has so helpful for understanding what is going on. The email MS sent alerting us to the cancellation was incredibly unhelpful and we almost assumed it was spam because they're still advertising the grant on their webpage! We JUST switched over to MS this spring, 100% because of the "free" 10 licenses. We're a very small team with no tech budget, we simply needed an email service after the small local company we've used for years stopped offering email service because new regulations made it impossible for them to keep up.
We've been "paying" monthly since we switched, so our licenses are set to expire in July 2025. I'm wondering if we switch over to annual billing now before the grant is canceled, would we keep our "free" licenses until June 2026?
erinyaakvalley, I looked at our account and I see no option to switch to annual billing. I'm assuming the "next renewal" relevant to this change is the "renews on" date that's in the licensing section, and can't game the system.
As for email, remember that M365 Business Basic includes the email functionality, tied to your domain, that you are using today. That product will remain $0 for the first 1000 seats. I created a new email user this morning, on the $0 plan, and the two licenses -- Premium and Basic, co-exist just fine (so far).
erinyaakvalley, glad you've found it helpful.
I think StewC is correct - unfortunately switching to Annual won't change the renewal date.
Since you're only using the email service and not desktop apps, the free Business Basic licenses will suit your needs. Here's some instructions for switching: https://aka.ms/CustomerGuideFromBPtoBB
