Procurement

Global – October 20, 2026 -- Buying Microsoft licenses directly from Microsoft can cost more than purchasing them through a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP), because the company's partner network gives qualified resellers room to price competitively.

Microsoft passes administrative work and margin to CSP partners

Microsoft avoids handling every quote, subscription change, renewal and billing query itself. Qualified partners receive licenses at pricing that lets them resell competitively, and part of that margin can reach the customer as a lower price. The gap grows with scale: a small per-license difference matters little across a handful of seats, but compounds across hundreds of users, multiple products and recurring subscriptions.