Windows 8 price to soar on 1 February

Consumers will have to fork out extra for Windows 8 when Microsoft's upgrade offer ends on 31 January. The current upgrade price of £24.99 for Windows 8 Pro is set to rocket based on the software giant's announcement. See also: How to upgrade to Windows 8

On its blog, Microsoft said the Windows 8 Pro upgrade price would rise by five times from $39 to $199 on 1 February, an increase of 400 percent. It said the regular Windows 8 will cost $119.

There's no word on UK pricing at the moment but if Microsoft decides on the same price hike, upgrading to Windows 8 Pro will cost £125. This would exceed the price of a 64-bit DVD of Windows 8 Pro from Ebuyer which is priced at £114 at the time of writing. Read: Windows 8 price in the UK.

For comparison, upgrading to Apple's OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion costs £13.99, without any kind of limited time offer.

See also: Microsoft Surface price in the UK.