Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Price Hike – What It Means for You (Effective October 2025)

For the first time in over five years, Microsoft has announced a price increase for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, effective October 1, 2025. This move reflects Microsoft’s ongoing investment in innovation—especially in AI capabilities, deeper Power Platform integration, and enhancements in analytics, sustainability, and user experience.

As a Microsoft Solution partner, BaffleSol is here to help you navigate these changes, optimize your licensing, and plan strategically to maximize the value of your ERP investment.

What's Changing from October 1, 2025?

Microsoft is increasing the subscription costs across the Essentials, Premium, and Device license types. Here’s the updated pricing breakdown:

• Essentials: from $70 to $80/user/month
• Premium: from $100 to $110/user/month
• Device License: from $40 to $45/device/month

These prices apply to both cloud and on-premises subscriptions and will take effect for all new customers and renewing agreements after the effective date.

Why Is Microsoft Increasing Prices?

Microsoft has kept Business Central pricing stable for over five years. During this time, however, the platform has undergone massive upgrades, including:

1. Copilot & AI Integration

AI-driven features like forecasting, automated transaction matching, and intelligent insights are now embedded across modules.
Copilot empowers finance, sales, inventory, and operations teams to make faster, more accurate decisions using predictive suggestions and natural language queries.

2. Deeper Power Platform Integration

Seamless connections with Power BI, Power Automate, and Power Apps.
Users can now create custom workflows, visual dashboards, and low-code business applications directly from Business Central data.

3. Advanced Reporting and Analytics

Embedded analytics and real-time dashboards are now more powerful and easier to use.
New financial intelligence features support multi-dimensional analysis, period comparisons, and automated reconciliations.

4. Improved Sustainability & Compliance Tools

New capabilities help organizations track carbon emissions, monitor resource usage, and ensure regulatory compliance.
Business Central aligns with Microsoft's larger Cloud for Sustainability initiative.

5. More Storage at No Extra Cost

Alongside the price increase, Microsoft is also increasing the storage capacity included with each license. With the new pricing,

Essentials users will receive 3 GB of storage (up from 2 GB)

Premium users will get 5 GB (up from 3 GB)

Device licenses will now include 1.5 GB of storage (up from 1 GB).

This added storage helps organizations manage their growing datasets, particularly as AI features and advanced reporting generate larger volumes of insights and historical records. It ensures that businesses can scale their operations and data use without immediately incurring additional storage costs.

Who Will Be Impacted?

This price adjustment will affect:

• New Business Central customers onboarding after October 1, 2025
• Existing customers upon renewal of their CSP agreements post-October
• Organizations currently on short-term contracts or monthly plans

Customers with multi-year CSP agreements signed before October 1 can continue with their current pricing for the duration of the agreement (up to 36 months).

How to Prepare: Key Action Items for Business Leaders

To stay ahead of the price increase and ensure you're getting the best value, we recommend:

1. Review Your Current Licensing

Start by conducting a comprehensive audit of your existing Dynamics 365 licenses—Essentials, Premium, and Device-based. Evaluate if all licensed users are actively using the system and whether the license type aligns with their actual role or usage pattern. In many cases, businesses pay for premium licenses that are underutilized. Also, look for opportunities to consolidate roles or switch users to more cost-effective plans where appropriate

2. Renew or Extend Before October 1

If your current subscription term is ending soon, act now. By renewing or extending your Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) agreement before October 1, 2025, you can lock in the existing pricing for up to 36 months. This gives your organization a strategic cost advantage and budget predictability.

3. Maximize New Capabilities

The price increase comes alongside significant improvements—like AI-powered Copilot, enhanced analytics, sustainability tracking, and deeper integration with Power Platform tools. Make sure your organization is ready to take full advantage of these. This means training your teams, aligning use cases with new features, and updating internal processes to incorporate tools like Power Automate, Power BI, and Copilot. Maximizing the new capabilities not only justifies the price hike but also increases overall productivity and insight-driven decision-making.

4. Budget for the New Pricing

With a 10–15% increase on the horizon, it's essential to factor this change into your FY26 IT and licensing budgets. Beyond license costs, consider budgeting for related needs like user training, AI onboarding, additional storage, and implementation of new modules. Early financial planning will help avoid disruptions and allow you to allocate resources toward the most impactful upgrades in functionality and user adoption.

How BaffleSol Can Help

1. Cost Optimization & Licensing Audits

We help you reduce your licensing costs by auditing your current setup. Our team identifies unused licenses, overlapping functionalities, and better-suited plans—ensuring you only pay for what you need, while staying fully compliant.

2.  Custom AI Implementation Plans

We design and implement AI solutions tailored to your specific business needs. From intelligent forecasting to workflow automation, we help you integrate Microsoft AI tools like Azure AI and Microsoft Copilot to drive smarter decisions and greater efficiency.

3. Copilot Onboarding & Training

Maximize the value of Microsoft Copilot with structured onboarding and user training. We help your teams understand how to use AI-powered suggestions, automate routine tasks, and improve accuracy—so you can accelerate adoption and productivity.

4.  Business Central Renewals & Migrations

Whether you're renewing an existing subscription or migrating from another ERP system, we guide you through every step. From pricing optimization and license alignment to smooth data migration and user enablement—we make the transition seamless and strategic.

📩 Get in Touch

Don’t wait until the last minute. Let’s assess your current setup and build a smart transition plan ahead of the October 2025 pricing change.

👉 Contact us at: sales@bafflesol.com

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