Microsoft raises cloud prices in rupees and NZ dollars from January

Microsoft raises cloud prices in rupees and NZ dollars from January

10 November 2026: Microsoft will raise its commercial cloud prices by 15.7% in Indian rupees and 10% in New Zealand dollars on 1 January 2027, and cut them by 4% in Australian dollars, 5.9% in Norwegian krone and up to 8.5% in Chinese yuan, to bring local prices back in line with its global levels. Customers paying in rupees face a rise of up to 20% on on-premises products as well.

Not yet independently verified. The percentages are Microsoft's own and it warns that individual SKUs may differ slightly through rounding; we have not seen the new SKU price lists, which partners usually receive through the price list portal closer to the date. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

The five currencies and the numbers

Microsoft published the changes on 10 November. Cloud and on-premises figures are given separately:

Currency	Cloud	On-premises
Australian dollar (AUD)	-4%	no change
Chinese yuan (CNY)	up to -8.5%	no change
Indian rupee (INR)	+15.7%	up to +20%
Norwegian krone (NOK)	-5.9%	no change
New Zealand dollar (NZD)	+10%	+10%

Microsoft says the percentage for an individual SKU "might vary slightly" because of its pricing calculations and rounding rules. The yuan change applies to Microsoft's global cloud services and to the Microsoft Cloud operated by 21Vianet, but not to Microsoft Azure operated by 21Vianet.

Why this happens every January now

In July Microsoft announced that local currency prices would be reviewed once a year and set each January, rather than adjusted whenever exchange rates moved far enough. This is the first round under that rule. The company frames it as keeping prices "competitive and regionally consistent", which in practice means a currency that has weakened against the dollar pays more, and one that has held up pays less.

Two currencies sit outside the January cycle. Brazilian real pricing will be reviewed after Brazil's tax reform takes effect, with notice in advance. Japanese yen stays on its own April cadence, and Microsoft says details for April 2027 will come in February 2027.

What Indian and New Zealand buyers can still do

The new prices take effect on 1 January, so an organisation billed in rupees or New Zealand dollars has seven weeks to ask its Microsoft partner or account team whether a renewal, a seat expansion or an Azure commitment due early next year can be placed in December, and how its own agreement treats price changes during its term. Microsoft's post does not say how existing agreements are affected, so that answer has to come from the contract.

India is also the only currency where on-premises licences rise, by up to 20%, against 15.7% for cloud. A company still running server products under perpetual licences there pays the steeper of the two increases for staying on-premises.

For Australian, Norwegian and Chinese customers the change is the other way round: waiting until January lowers the cloud bill, and nothing changes on-premises.

Sources

• Microsoft Source: Annual currency adjustments to Microsoft Commercial Cloud pricing, 10 November 2026, 10 November 2026