Microsoft Defender for Business Pricing (October 2026)

How much does Microsoft Defender for Business cost?

Defender for Business costs $36.00 a user a year at list price for 10 users, on Microsoft's own pages; Microsoft 365 Business Premium costs $264.00 and Defender Suite add-on costs $120.00.

List price per user a year, in US dollars, before tax. Each price links to the screenshot it was read from.

Plan	5 users	10 users	25 users	50 users	100 users
Defender for Business EDR and XDR · up to 300	$36.00 $180.00 a year	$36.00 $360.00 a year	$36.00 $900.00 a year	$36.00 $1,800.00 a year	$36.00 $3,600.00 a year
Microsoft 365 Business Premium Suites and add-ons · up to 300	$264.00 one price a user a year at any quantity					$264.00 any quantity
Defender Suite add-on Suites and add-ons · up to 300	$120.00 one price a user a year at any quantity					$120.00 any quantity

Which Microsoft plan should you buy?

1. Defender for Business$36.00 a user a year at 10 users

   Best for: Offices on Business Basic or Standard that need EDR on every device

2. Microsoft 365 Business Premium$264.00 a user a year

   Best for: Small firms buying Office, email, device management and EDR in one licence

3. Defender Suite add-on$120.00 a user a year

   Best for: Business Premium customers who want identity and email threat detection

What does each Microsoft plan include?

From Microsoft's own plan comparison (screenshot).

Defender Suite add-on adds one thing to Microsoft 365 Business Premium: identity threat detection (ITDR). Microsoft 365 Business Premium adds email and collaboration threat protection, device management (Intune) and Office apps, business email and Teams to Defender for Business.

How does Microsoft compare with other small-business products?

List price per user a year at 10 users, against every product in its category with a published price in the SMB endpoint security price index, server-only products excluded.

Defender for Business is the cheapest EDR product in the Index at 10 users. It costs $36.00 a user a year, against an EDR median of $79.99.

Where does Microsoft rank, and how does it compare?

• Microsoft Defender for Business ranks 1st of 8 in the EDR ranking, with an SMB Fit Score of 75.
• Head to head: Microsoft Defender for Business vs Bitdefender GravityZone Business Security Premium, Microsoft Defender for Business vs CrowdStrike Falcon Go, Microsoft Defender for Business vs Huntress Managed EDR and Microsoft Defender for Business vs SentinelOne Singularity Complete.
• Our verdict: Is Microsoft Defender for Business Enough for a Small Business?
• Prices, lab results and terms compared: Microsoft Defender against CrowdStrike and SentinelOne for a small business.

What do AI assistants get wrong about Microsoft pricing?

We asked Perplexity, Gemini, ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews small-business security questions on 30 Sep 2026 and checked each claim about Microsoft against its own pages.

AI assistants get the $3 price right and the HIPAA position wrong. Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI Overview all said Microsoft's business associate agreement covers Defender. Microsoft's own list of in-scope services did not include it when we checked.