August 20, 2026
Windows 11 License Costs Are Rising: What SMBs Should Do
August 20, 2026
Microsoft has raised the price of Windows 11 licenses, and the increase is bigger than most people anticipated. If you're a small or mid-size business buying new PCs, renewing volume agreements, or planning any hardware refresh in the next 12 months, this hits your budget directly. It's not a rounding error. It's real money.
I want to be practical here because there's a lot of noise around this story. Let me cut to what actually matters for a 20-person accounting firm in Hoboken or a 75-person distributor in Edison.
Most small businesses don't buy Windows licenses the way consumers do. You're typically getting Windows bundled with hardware (OEM licensing), or you're paying through a Microsoft 365 Business Premium subscription, which includes Windows 11 Enterprise rights as part of the package. Those two paths have different exposure to this price change.
OEM licenses are baked into the cost of a new PC. When Dell, Lenovo, or HP pays more for those licenses, they pass it along. You'll see it when you get quotes on new machines. A $50 to $100 per-device increase might not sound catastrophic, but across 30 new laptops that's $1,500 to $3,000 that wasn't in your plan.
If you're on Microsoft 365 Business Premium, you already have Windows upgrade rights included. That's one reason I push clients toward that tier over the cheaper Microsoft 365 Business Standard plan. The Windows entitlement alone can justify the price difference, and now even more so.
Here's where this gets complicated. Windows 10 support ends in October 2025. That deadline is forcing a lot of businesses to replace older machines that can't run Windows 11 due to hardware requirements like TPM 2.0 and specific CPU generations. So you've got a deadline pushing you to buy new hardware at exactly the moment hardware prices are going up because of the license increase. That's a rough combination.
If your fleet is mostly 2019 or newer machines, you're probably fine. If you're still running 2017 or 2018 hardware, you need to look at this now, not in September. Waiting until Q3 of 2025 means you'll be buying at peak demand with less negotiating room.
First, run an audit. Know exactly how many devices you have, which ones can run Windows 11, and which ones need replacing. Tools like Microsoft Intune or even a basic export from your RMM platform can give you this list in an hour. If you don't have visibility into your own fleet, that's the first problem to fix.
Second, look at your Microsoft 365 licensing tier. If you're on Business Standard and paying separately for device management or security tools, you might actually save money by moving to Business Premium. You get Intune, Defender for Business, and Windows upgrade rights. I've done this math with clients and it often pencils out.
Third, if you know you need new hardware, buy sooner rather than later. Vendors haven't all repriced their inventory yet. There's a short window where you can still get hardware at pre-increase pricing if you move in the next few weeks.
Fourth, stop ignoring Windows Update for Business if you're managing your own devices. It's free, it's built in, and it keeps your machines compliant without a lot of overhead. Unmanaged Windows updates are one of the most common things I see causing problems for small businesses.
Microsoft has been steadily increasing prices across its product line for a few years now. Windows licensing is just the latest. If you're still budgeting IT the way you did in 2020, you're probably underfunding it. A realistic per-seat cost for a well-managed Windows environment in 2025 is meaningfully higher than it was three years ago.
That doesn't mean you throw money at it. It means you make smarter decisions earlier, consolidate where you can, and stop treating licensing as something to figure out when renewal comes up.
If you're not sure where your business stands on any of this, Exine works with NJ and NYC businesses every day on exactly these questions and we're happy to take a look.
