As of Monday, Microsoft has started allowing business customers with service subscriptions to begin reviewing which Extended Service Terms (EST) they are eligible for from April 1. The Redmond Giant has decided to do away with the free 90-day grace period when subscriptions expire, instead it moves customers to a paid service called Extended Service Terms. While ESTs are not active yet, customers can now access the “Manage Renewal” toggles in the Partner Center dashboard to see who will get an EST bill if no action is taken.
The Extended Service Term is a month-to-month bridge for companies to keep their Microsoft subscription services running while they decide whether to renew a full year or cancel. Unlike the free grace period before, the EST isn’t free; it costs the standard monthly rate of your subscription plus a 3% surcharge. If a customer has “Auto-Renew” turned off, but doesn’t explicitly cancel, Microsoft’s system will now automatically move them to the paid EST state. This billing could come as an unpleasant surprise for those not aware of the change or who forget to cancel or renew on time.
Here are the items that just came into effect:
- Subscriptions eligible for EST with auto-renew false would be converted to EST.
- Partners could start evaluating subscriptions eligible for EST and ensure their end-of-terms options are appropriate (renew, cancel, move to EST).
- Going forward from January 19, 2026, API requests to change a subscription’s auto renew property to false will be converted to EST.
From a business perspective, this is an excellent move for Microsoft to make. It will convert millions of dollars in previously free usage into high-margin revenue for Microsoft. However, this is considered a dark pattern (a deceptive trick) that could hurt the trust of customers, but it looks like Microsoft is willing to ****** that its services are irreplaceable and will be able to sustain the wrath of angry customers.
Microsoft has framed this move as giving customers “more flexibility”, but a skeptic might say the company is just making customers pay a premium for something they had access to for free before. If Microsoft didn’t want to keep the grace period, a better solution may have been to end access to the services when they expire, with a notification going out in advance, allowing businesses the time to prepare.