Microsoft 365 Fundamental is a brand new $1.99 a month subscription with 100GB of storage and extra

Microsoft is introducing a brand new client tier to its Microsoft 365 subscription choices. Priced at simply $1.99 monthly, Microsoft 365 Fundamental is designed to exchange the 100GB OneDrive storage possibility with some additional options that sit in between the free possibility and the $6.99 a month Private subscription.

Microsoft 365 Fundamental will probably be accessible worldwide on January thirtieth with 100GB of cloud storage, an ad-free Outlook net and cellular expertise, and enhanced safety features. The safety features embrace information encryption for an Outlook mailbox, suspicious hyperlink checking, and virus / malware scanning for attachments. Present OneDrive 100GB storage clients will probably be robotically upgraded to Microsoft 365 Fundamental on the identical $1.99 month-to-month charge.

“Later this 12 months, we’ll have a bunch of stuff with OneDrive superior safety that will probably be accessible as properly, that features Personal Vault, password-protected and expiring hyperlinks, ransomware detection and restoration, and bulk file restore,” says Gareth Oystryk, director of product advertising for Microsoft 365, in an interview with The Verge.

Microsoft 365 Fundamental may even embrace entry to Microsoft technical assist, which incorporates assist over the telephone or through on-line chat for each Microsoft 365 apps and Home windows 11. The principle distinction between the $6.99 Private subscription and this new $1.99 Fundamental one (aside from the quantity of cloud storage) is that Microsoft 365 Fundamental doesn’t embrace entry to the desktop variations of Phrase, Excel, and PowerPoint apps. Fundamental subscribers should use the online or cellular variations as a substitute.

“We all know many individuals are utilizing our companies immediately, however a few of them run out of storage or need extra advantages that you just don’t get with the free Microsoft 365 expertise,” says Oystryk. “We additionally designed this particularly with Home windows customers in thoughts.” The Microsoft 365 Fundamental bundle is geared toward Home windows customers that want additional storage but additionally seems like Microsoft’s means of familiarizing individuals with its productiveness subscriptions.

Microsoft can also be renaming its Workplace app on cellular and Home windows to Microsoft 365 later this month. It displays the branding modifications Microsoft introduced final 12 months, the place Microsoft Office will largely be referred to as Microsoft 365 going ahead. “Is the Workplace model going away completely? No,” explains Oystryk. “We’ve actually invested rather a lot in Microsoft 365 and it’s actually turn out to be our flagship productiveness suite, so Workplace performs much less of a task on condition that’s the place our focus is. You’ll nonetheless see Workplace present up in sure contexts. It’s extra of a shift in focus the place we’re doubling down on Microsoft 365 as our productiveness suite, and we would like individuals, once they consider productiveness, to consider Microsoft 365 and never Workplace.”

Later this month may even mark 10 years since Microsoft first launched client subscriptions for Workplace. Identified again then as Workplace 365 House Premium, the plan included entry to Workplace desktop apps and 20GB of cloud storage. That’s been elevated to 1TB of cloud storage lately, alongside a bunch of options added to the subscription.

“One factor hasn’t modified during the last 10 years: the worth,” writes Microsoft vice chairman Liat Ben-Zur in a weblog publish. “Microsoft 365 Private and Household nonetheless value solely $6.99 and $9.99 monthly, respectively.” Whereas inflation and prices have been pushing up different subscription companies over the previous decade, Microsoft says it doesn’t have any fast plans to boost Microsoft 365 costs, however Oystryk doesn’t rule it out for the longer term.