If you are pricing up business email in India and have landed on Microsoft, the number you are quoted and the number you eventually pay are rarely the same. Microsoft publishes per-user monthly figures, bills them annually, adds GST on top, and sells two versions of most plans — one with Teams and one without, at different prices.
Here is what the plans actually cost, what changes the final bill, and which one a small Indian business genuinely needs.
Microsoft 365 Business Plan Prices in India
Taken from Microsoft’s own India pricing pages on 5 September 2026. All figures are per user, per month, on an annual subscription that auto-renews, and Microsoft states GST is extra.
| Plan | Standard version | “No Teams” version | Business email included? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Basic | ₹170 | ₹130 | Yes |
| Business Standard | ₹860 | ₹665 | Yes |
| Business Premium | ₹1,830 | ₹1,565 | Yes |
| Apps for business | ₹830 | — | No |
Business Basic — ₹170 per user per month
This is the business email plan. You get you@yourbusiness.com, the web and mobile versions of Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and 1 TB of cloud storage per user. What you do not get is the installed desktop software — those apps run in the browser.
For most small businesses in India this is the right plan. If your team already has Office on their laptops from somewhere else, or works mainly in the browser, paying more buys you nothing you will use.
Business Standard — ₹860 per user per month
Everything in Basic, plus Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook installed on the machine rather than run in a browser, and the ability to host webinars in Teams instead of only joining meetings. Worth being precise about what does not change: Microsoft lists 1 TB of cloud storage per user on Basic, Standard and Premium alike, so storage is not a reason to move up. This is the plan to choose if your team genuinely lives in desktop Excel or Word all day, and only then.
The jump from ₹170 to ₹860 is five times the price, so it is worth being honest about whether the desktop apps are actually needed. For a five-person business that is roughly ₹10,200 a year against ₹51,600.
Business Premium — ₹1,830 per user per month
Everything in Standard, with the identity and access management upgraded from “core” to policy-based — Microsoft’s wording — which is what lets you set rules about who can sign in from where and on what device. This exists for businesses that have to demonstrate control over company data on staff devices. Most small businesses do not need it, and a provider recommending it for a five-person team should be asked why.
Apps for business — ₹830, and it is not an email plan
This one traps people who are shopping on price, and the trap is subtle. Microsoft lists Outlook among its apps, so it reads like an email plan. But Outlook here is the desktop program, not a mailbox: Apps for business is the only business plan whose feature list does not include “Custom business email (you@yourbusiness.com)”. You would be paying ₹830 for software to read email you do not yet have anywhere to host. If email is why you are here, Business Basic at ₹170 does the job this ₹830 plan will not.
The “No Teams” Versions Nobody Mentions
Microsoft now sells every business plan twice: with Teams and without. The difference is real money — ₹170 against ₹130 on Basic, ₹860 against ₹665 on Standard, ₹1,830 against ₹1,565 on Premium.
If your team already runs on WhatsApp and Google Meet, which describes most small businesses in India, the no-Teams version saves you close to a quarter on Basic and does not remove anything you were using. It is not offered prominently, so you have to look for it.
What the Bill Actually Comes To
Three things sit between the advertised figure and your invoice.
- GST at 18% is added on top. ₹170 becomes about ₹201 per user per month.
- The annual commitment. The headline price assumes you pay for a year. Month-to-month billing exists and costs more per month, and the annual plan auto-renews unless you cancel.
- Per user, not per business. Every mailbox is a licence. Three people means three licences, whatever your team calls them.
So a realistic annual figure for a three-person business on Business Basic is around ₹7,200 including GST. That is the number worth comparing against, not ₹170.
Microsoft or Google for a Small Indian Business?
Both do the same core job, and for straightforward business email either is fine. The honest deciding factors are rarely the ones in the comparison tables:
- What your team already uses. If everyone lives in Gmail on their phone, Microsoft will feel like friction. If your accountant sends everything as .xlsx, Microsoft fits better.
- Desktop Office. If you genuinely need installed Word and Excel, Microsoft bundles it. Google does not.
- Who your clients are. Businesses dealing with government departments or large corporates in India tend to end up on Microsoft because everyone around them is.
We have written up the Google side separately in our Google Workspace pricing in India guide, with the same treatment of GST and annual billing, so you can compare like with like. And if you are not yet sure what business email even changes for a small business, what is business email covers that first.
What the Subscription Does Not Cover
Buying the licence is the easy part. What follows is DNS: MX records, SPF, DKIM and DMARC have to be set correctly on your domain, or your mail lands in spam or does not arrive at all. If you are moving from an existing mailbox, the switchover has to happen without a gap, and the old mail has to come across before the old service is switched off.
That is the part people underestimate, and it is where a wrong record costs a week of missed enquiries before anyone notices. If you would rather not touch DNS at all, our business email setup service handles that side from ₹799 on your existing hosting: records configured, mailboxes created, and every account checked on a real phone and a real desktop before it is signed off. Setup on a hosted provider is quoted separately by the number of users, because that is what it depends on. If your domain and hosting are also in the wrong place, hosting and domain support handles that side.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest Microsoft business email plan in India?
Business Basic (no Teams) at ₹130 per user per month, billed annually, plus GST. The standard Business Basic with Teams is ₹170. Both include a custom you@yourbusiness.com address.
Is GST included in Microsoft 365 prices?
No. Microsoft lists prices exclusive of GST and states that it is extra. At 18%, a ₹170 plan is closer to ₹201 per user per month on the invoice.
Can I pay monthly instead of yearly?
Yes, but the per-month price is higher than the annual figures above, which all assume a yearly commitment. The annual subscription also auto-renews, so diarise the renewal date if you are not sure you will keep it.
Do I need a plan for every employee?
You need one licence per mailbox. Shared addresses such as info@ or accounts@ can be set up as shared mailboxes without their own licence, which is a legitimate way to keep the count down — but every person who needs their own login needs their own licence.
Can I use Microsoft 365 email with my existing website hosting?
Yes. Your website can stay exactly where it is; only the mail records on your domain change. This is the most common setup we see, and it is also where mistakes happen, because pointing MX records at Microsoft while leaving old records in place is a reliable way to lose email.
Not sure which plan you need, or want the DNS and migration handled properly? Our business email setup service handles the DNS and account side from ₹799, whichever provider you pick. Tell us how many people need a mailbox and we will say honestly which plan fits — including when the cheaper one is enough.