A clear guide to Microsoft Teams pricing in 2025

Trying to make sense of Microsoft Teams pricing can feel like a bit of a maze, can’t it? You’re not the only one. After Microsoft decided to unbundle Teams from its Microsoft 365 suites, a lot of businesses are taking a second look at their subscriptions, trying to figure out what they’re actually paying for.

On the surface, the plans look simple enough. But the real costs? They tend to hide in the fine print, things like how many people can join a meeting, storage limits, and some surprisingly expensive AI add-ons.

This guide is here to give you a clear, no-fluff breakdown of the different Microsoft Teams pricing tiers for businesses in 2025. We’ll walk through each option, explain the recent changes, and point out the hidden details so you can make a good call without getting tangled up in marketing speak.

What is Microsoft Teams?

At its heart, Microsoft Teams is a platform designed to pull all your communication and teamwork into one spot. It mixes together ongoing workplace chat, video meetings, file storage, and plugs in neatly with other Microsoft 365 apps you probably already use, like Word, Excel, and SharePoint.

Think of it as your team’s digital headquarters. It’s where you can hash out project details in channels, jump on a video call, and even work on the same document at the same time. It’s built to cut down on the constant app-switching we all do, which makes it a really handy tool for teams, whether you’re all in the office or spread out across the globe.

The big shift: Why Microsoft Teams pricing is changing

Back in 2024, Microsoft shook things up by "unbundling" Teams from its Microsoft 365 and Office 365 packages around the world. This move started because of some regulatory pressure in Europe, and it means that new business customers now buy Teams as a separate item.

For years, Teams was just included, which helped it grow like wildfire but also sparked some debate about fair competition. Now, you have more choice, but that also means more complexity. You can get a Microsoft 365 plan without Teams and add it on later, or if you’re already a customer, you might be able to stick with your bundled plan. This change makes understanding the standalone Teams pricing more important than ever, especially when you’re weighing what you actually need versus what’s just a nice-to-have.

A complete breakdown of Microsoft Teams pricing for business (2025)

Microsoft has a few different plans for businesses, from basic communication tools to full-blown suites with extra security. With the recent changes, new customers usually grab a base Microsoft 365 plan and then add a Teams license. Let’s look at how the most common business plans stack up.

Microsoft Teams Essentials

This is the entry-level paid plan if you just want the core Teams experience without all the other Microsoft 365 apps.

• Price: $4.00 per user/month (with an annual commitment).

• Key Features: You get unlimited group meetings for up to 30 hours, can have 300 people in a meeting, and get 10 GB of cloud storage per user. It also includes standard security and lets you record meetings with transcripts.

• Best for: Small businesses that have their other software sorted out but need a solid, professional tool for meetings and chat.

Microsoft 365 Business Basic

This plan is your first step into the bigger Microsoft world, bundling Teams with the web and mobile versions of the Office apps.

• Price: $6.00 per user/month (with an annual commitment), and Teams is included.

• Key Features: It has everything from the Essentials plan, but adds web and mobile versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Storage gets a huge bump to 1 TB per user, and you get business-class email with your own domain.

• Best for: Teams that want one central place for collaboration, file storage, and professional email, but don’t need the full desktop versions of the Office apps.

Microsoft 365 Business Standard

This is one of the most popular choices because it gives you the full power of Microsoft 365, with both cloud and desktop apps.

• Price: $12.50 per user/month (with an annual commitment), and Teams is included.

• Key Features: You get everything in Business Basic, plus the desktop versions of apps like Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. It also unlocks the ability to host webinars and includes tools like Microsoft Loop and Clipchamp.

• Best for: Most businesses that want everything to work together smoothly, letting people switch between desktop and cloud apps without missing a beat.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium

This is the top-tier plan for small to medium businesses. It throws in advanced security and device management on top of everything in the Business Standard plan.

• Price: $22.00 per user/month (with an annual commitment), and Teams is included.

• Key Features: You get all the goodies from Business Standard, plus serious threat protection with Microsoft Defender, data control with Microsoft Purview, and endpoint management through Intune.

• Best for: Companies that work with sensitive data or are in regulated industries. If you need top-notch security and compliance features, this is the one.

Microsoft Teams pricing comparison for business plans

To make it a bit easier to see the differences at a glance, here’s a quick summary table.

Feature	Microsoft Teams Essentials	Microsoft 365 Business Basic	Microsoft 365 Business Standard	Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Price (Annual)	$4.00/user/month	$6.00/user/month	$12.50/user/month	$22.00/user/month
Max Users	300	300	300	300
Meeting Capacity	300 participants	300 participants	300 participants	300 participants
Cloud Storage	10 GB per user	1 TB per user	1 TB per user	1 TB per user
Office Apps	None	Web & mobile only	Desktop, web, & mobile	Desktop, web, & mobile
Webinars	No	No	Yes	Yes
Advanced Security	No	No	No	Yes

A quick note: For larger companies (over 300 users), Microsoft has Enterprise plans called E3 and E5. New customers on these plans will need to buy a separate Microsoft Teams Enterprise license for $5.25 per user/month on top of their Office or Microsoft 365 plan.

Hidden costs: The headaches of native Teams AI

While Teams is great for collaboration, things get complicated if you want to use it for advanced support automation. The base plans don’t really offer much in the way of true AI for helping customers or employees. To get anything meaningful, you have to start stacking on some pretty expensive add-ons.

• Microsoft Teams Premium: This add-on costs $10 per user/month and gives you AI-powered meeting summaries and live translations. That’s neat for productivity, but it won’t help you automate support tickets or answer common employee questions.

• Copilot for Microsoft 365: This is Microsoft’s big AI assistant, but it’s another $30 per user/month and you need to be on at least the Business Standard or Premium plan to even get it. It’s a powerful general tool, but it’s not built for support. You can’t train it to follow specific escalation paths, triage tickets, or limit its answers to a curated set of knowledge.

This puts you in a tough spot. To get even basic AI features, your total cost per user can jump by $30-$40 a month. For a support team of 20 people, that’s an extra $7,200 to $9,600 a year for a tool that wasn’t even built for support automation in the first place.

A smarter way to add AI to Microsoft Teams

So, instead of wrestling with a pricey and complex web of add-ons, what if you could just plug a specialized AI directly into the tools you already use, including Microsoft Teams?

That’s exactly what eesel AI is for. It was built from day one to handle customer service and internal support, and it connects smoothly with your help desk and knowledge sources. For internal support, you can drop an AI Internal Chat bot right inside Teams.

This shows eesel's AI Internal Chat bot answering an employee question directly within the Microsoft Teams interface.

Here’s why this is a more practical way to go:

• It unifies all your knowledge: eesel AI doesn’t live in a Microsoft-only bubble. It connects to your Confluence, Google Docs, Notion, Zendesk history, and more. It brings all your scattered company knowledge into one reliable brain that can answer questions right where your team is working.

• You can go live in minutes, not months: You can actually set up and tweak your eesel AI bot yourself. No mandatory sales calls or long, drawn-out implementation projects. Just connect your sources, customize the AI’s personality, and roll it out when you feel ready.

• The pricing is transparent and predictable: eesel AI offers straightforward plans without charging you per resolution. You know exactly what you’re paying, so you don’t have to worry about your bill going through the roof after a busy month.

This approach lets you keep using Teams for what it does best, collaboration, while adding powerful, purpose-built AI for support without that eye-watering enterprise price tag.

Making the right Teams pricing choice for your team

At the end of the day, picking the right Microsoft Teams plan is all about what your business actually needs. For general collaboration, the Business Standard plan usually hits the sweet spot for features and price. But when you start thinking about automating support, relying on Microsoft’s own AI add-ons can get expensive and messy, fast.

By understanding the real costs and limitations, you can make a much smarter decision. Let Teams handle your collaboration, but for your support needs, think about bringing in a specialized tool like eesel AI. It’s a more efficient, affordable, and powerful way to bring real AI automation to your team, right inside the app they use every day.