By Zac Bowden
Publication Date: 2026-08-10 20:47:00
According to a new report from Taiwanese publication United Daily News (UDC,) Microsoft is raising the cost of Windows license fees for hardware makers by a much higher amount than normal. According to the report, certain OEMs are seeing licensing price hikes of between 7% and 10%.
Usually, Microsoft raises Windows license fees for OEMs by a low digit percentage, making this 7% to 10% increase much more significant than normal. “A PC brand executive stated that Microsoft increases licensing fees for Windows OEMs (device manufacturers) every year. In the past, licensing fees mostly increased by single digits each year, but starting in July this year, the average increase has reached 7% to 10%, which is a significant increase compared to previous years,” UDC says.
Of course, the cost of the Windows license fee is usually (at least partially) passed onto the consumer buying a computer, and UDC claims that their source says laptop pricing is already being impacted by these recent…