November 5, 2026
BlogMicrosoft Shakes Up Its M365 Education Portfolio
Microsoft is making major licensing and pricing adjustments to its Microsoft 365 Education line-up over the next couple of years. On Nov. 5, Microsoft went public with some of the changes it has in the works that will affect both student and faculty M365 licensees.
Company officials are telling partners and customers that these changes will constitute “the most significant portfolio update to M365 Education in more than a decade.”
Pricing of the existing M365 Education tiers of A3 and A5 isn’t changing much. However, Microsoft will be raising prices of its education offerings in other ways — arguing, as it has with its commercial M365 portfolio– that it has added substantial new features and value to the set of offerings for the education market in recent years.
Part of this increase will come via the elimination of programmatic volume discounts upon contract renewals starting on or after May 1, 2027. As it has been doing with its M365 Commercial and online services platform, Microsoft is going to be eliminating the built-in discounts it has offered education customers. (Microsoft calls these volume discounts “waterfall pricing,” with customers purchasing the largest volume of licenses receiving the most significant discounts.
Microsoft also has added a new high-end suite called MA7 to the education line-up that is the equivalent of its Microsoft 365 E7 bundle. MA7, which Microsoft added to its product terms on Oct. 1, includes the features in E5, plus M365 Copilot, Agent 365, and elements of the Intune Suite. Microsoft officials have told partners the MA7 SKU will be available to faculty for an up-to-60 percent discount off the $99 per user per month commercial rate.
Microsoft plans to drop the free Office 365A1 SKU as of Jan. 2028. Its replacement will be a new, free Microsoft 365 A0 for students. Also as of Jan. 1, 2028, Microsoft plans to drop the Student Use Benefit it currently offers via its M365 Education plans. The Student Use Benefit gives eligible students access to M365 A3/A5, Windows Education Upgrade, Intune for Education, Entra ID, and in A5, advanced security, and analytics at no cost when tied to a qualifying faculty/staff license.
Meet the New M365 Education Line-Up
After the dust settles, Microsoft’s M365 for Education line-up will include separate editions for students and faculty for most of the family, with the exception of MA0, which is for students only.
Microsoft 365 Education A0, the updated Microsoft 365 Education A3, and the updated Microsoft 365 Education A5 won’t be available for purchase until Jan. 2028. (“The updated offer lineup, storage entitlements, and retiring-offer milestones apply at each customer’s first renewal or extension on or after this date,” according to Microsoft).
The updated M365 academic line-up:
MA0: $0 per year for students only and for Windows devices only. Looks to be the replacement for MA1, and the Student Use Benefit.
MA2: $2 per year for students ($3 with Teams); $34 per year for Faculty $34 per year ($46 with Teams). Adds Copilot Chat, Exchange, SharePoint, Entra ID P1, Power Apps, Automate, Purview Audit Standard, Exchange Online Protection.
MA3: $4 per year for students ($5 with Teams); $45 per year for faculty ($54 with Teams). Adds Windows 11, Windows Autopilot, Intune for Education P1, various Defender endpoint offerings.
MA5: $6 per year for students ($7 with Team); $105 per year for faculty ($117 with Teams). Adds more Defender, Purview, eDiscovery, PowerBI Pro, some Intune Suite features.
MA7: $385 per year for students ($386 with Teams) after discounts; $430 per yeaar for faculty ($442 with Teams). The new high-end academic SKU that bundles Copilot and Agents 365, like its E7 counterpart.
Microsoft’s key rival in the education market with online services remains Google. Microsoft’s guidance to its partners is that even though Google is perceived to lead on price, Microsoft’s M365 Education bundles are more comprehensive, and include collaboration, governance and security capabilities, all of which Google and its partners sell piecemeal. Google does include Gemini Basic in its free tier for students at this time, while Microsoft seemingly isn’t delivering any AI capabilities with MA0.
