Microsoft's Licensing Fee Hike Slams Another Nail into PC Prices

PC buyers are facing another price hike this year, on top of already soaring memory and chipset costs. According to Taiwanese publication United Daily News, Microsoft has quietly raised its Windows OEM licensing fees by as much as 10%, a significantly larger increase than usual.

The annual fee hikes have typically stayed in the low single digits, but this year's jump is steeper. The pricing change affects PC brands differently depending on the CPU tier inside the machine, with laptops featuring i7 chips paying more in licensing fees than those with i3 or i5 processors.

Brands say most people haven't noticed the specific cost jump because component prices have already climbed so fast this year that it blends into the noise. Since last year, demand for memory, SSDs, and CPUs has surged, driving up prices. In Taiwan, ASUS and Acer have confirmed another round of price hikes this quarter, roughly 5%.

Some ASUS products are now selling for almost 30% more compared to the fourth quarter of last year, while PC sales continue to struggle. Counterpoint Research predicts global shipments will decline by 4% year over year in the second quarter of 2026.