Short answer
Microsoft had approximately 223,000 full-time employees on June 30, 2026, according to its Form 10-K for fiscal 2026, filed July 29, 2026: 121,000 in the US and 102,000 in other countries. That is 5,000 (2.2%) fewer than a year earlier, the first year-end fall since at least 2018. Its 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026 says total company headcount decreased 2% year over year, without giving a number.
- Latest figure: about 223,000 full-time employees on June 30, 2026, from the fiscal 2026 10-K: 121,000 in the US and 102,000 abroad.
- Headcount rose from 131,000 in 2018 to 228,000 in 2024 and 2025, then fell 5,000 in fiscal 2026 while revenue grew 18%.
- Product research and development lost 3,000 people in fiscal 2026; operations, which includes datacenter operations, stayed at 89,000.
- The 10-Q for the September 2026 quarter says total company headcount decreased 2% year over year.
- Revenue per employee was about $1.49 million in fiscal 2026 (our calculation), up from about $897,000 in fiscal 2022.
On this page
This page is for sellers sizing Microsoft as an account, recruiters, analysts and anyone who needs a headcount they can cite. Third-party sites publish Microsoft figures from modelled data, rarely dated. Every number here comes from Microsoft's own SEC filings: the annual report on Form 10-K, which gives the count once a year, and the quarterly report on Form 10-Q. Microsoft's fiscal year ends on June 30, so fiscal 2026 ran from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026.
Microsoft employees by year
| Fiscal year | As of | Employees | US | International | Change on prior year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | June 30, 2026 | 223,000 | 121,000 | 102,000 | -5,000 (-2.2%) | 10-K filed July 29, 2026 |
| 2025 | June 30, 2025 | 228,000 | 125,000 | 103,000 | 0 | 10-K filed July 30, 2025 |
| 2024 | June 30, 2024 | 228,000 | 126,000 | 102,000 | +7,000 (+3.2%) | 10-K filed July 30, 2024 |
| 2023 | June 30, 2023 | 221,000 | 120,000 | 101,000 | 0 | 10-K filed July 27, 2023 |
| 2022 | June 30, 2022 | 221,000 | 122,000 | 99,000 | +40,000 (+22.1%) | 10-K filed July 28, 2022 |
| 2021 | June 30, 2021 | 181,000 | 103,000 | 78,000 | +18,000 (+11.0%) | 10-K filed July 29, 2021 |
| 2020 | June 30, 2020 | 163,000 | 96,000 | 67,000 | +19,000 (+13.2%) | 10-K filed July 30, 2020 |
| 2019 | June 30, 2019 | 144,000 | 85,000 | 59,000 | +13,000 (+9.9%) | 10-K filed August 1, 2019 |
| 2018 | June 30, 2018 | 131,000 | 78,000 | 53,000 | 10-K filed August 3, 2018 |
Each 10-K gives the figures as "approximately", rounded to the nearest thousand; the changes are our arithmetic. Between annual reports Microsoft gives only a direction: the 10-Q for the first quarter of fiscal 2027, filed October 28, 2026, says "Total company headcount decreased 2%" in its comparison with the same quarter of 2025. The next exact count is the fiscal 2027 10-K, due in late July 2027.
Microsoft employees by function
Each 10-K also splits the workforce into four groups.
| Function | June 30, 2020 | June 30, 2022 | June 30, 2024 | June 30, 2025 | June 30, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operations | 56,000 | 85,000 | 86,000 | 89,000 | 89,000 |
| Product research and development | 55,000 | 73,000 | 81,000 | 80,000 | 77,000 |
| Sales and marketing | 40,000 | 47,000 | 45,000 | 44,000 | 43,000 |
| General and administration | 12,000 | 16,000 | 16,000 | 15,000 | 14,000 |
| Total | 163,000 | 221,000 | 228,000 | 228,000 | 223,000 |
Operations is the largest group, and its definition changed. Until fiscal 2023 the 10-K described it as "manufacturing, distribution, product support, and consulting services"; from fiscal 2024 it is "product support and consulting services, datacenter operations, and manufacturing and distribution." Since fiscal 2022, operations has added 4,000 people while sales and marketing has lost 4,000.
The fiscal 2026 fall came from three groups: product research and development (down 3,000, or 3.8%), sales and marketing (down 1,000) and general and administration (down 1,000). By country, US headcount fell 4,000 (3.2%) and international headcount 1,000.
What the number includes
- Full-time employees only. The fiscal 2026 10-K says: "As of June 30, 2026, we employed approximately 223,000 people on a full-time basis, 121,000 in the U.S. and 102,000 internationally." It gives no part-time or contractor figure, so neither is in the count.
- One company-wide figure. The 10-K doesn't break out LinkedIn, GitHub or Activision Blizzard staff, and it gives no country split beyond US and international.
- Some union members. "Certain employees are subject to collective bargaining agreements," the filing says; the latest 10-Q adds that the global workforce is "predominantly non-unionized."
- A point-in-time count on June 30, not an average for the year.
What changed and why
- Fiscal 2019 to 2022: steady growth. Headcount rose by 13,000 to 40,000 a year. The biggest jump, 40,000 in fiscal 2022, includes the acquisition of Nuance Communications, completed in March 2022 for $18.8 billion. The 10-K doesn't say how many people Nuance brought.
- Fiscal 2023: about 10,000 jobs cut. On January 18, 2023, Microsoft announced a decision "to reduce our overall workforce by approximately 10,000 jobs through the third quarter of fiscal year 2023," which it said was less than 5% of its employees. It recorded $800 million of severance. Hiring elsewhere left the year-end count flat at 221,000.
- Fiscal 2024: Activision Blizzard. Microsoft completed the $75.4 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard on October 13, 2023, and headcount rose 7,000 that year.
- Fiscal 2025 and 2026: flat, then down. The count held at 228,000, then fell to 223,000. Neither 10-K describes a company-wide job-cut program or gives a number of roles eliminated, so this page doesn't either. The fiscal 2026 10-K says operating expenses rose on "investments in research and development compute capacity, AI talent, and data."
- Fiscal 2027: new segments. In September 2026 Microsoft reorganized its reporting into two segments, Agents and Infra and Devices and Consumer, and recast its fiscal 2026 results in an 8-K filed October 28, 2026.
Revenue per employee
Fiscal 2026 revenue was $331,839 million. Divided by the year-end headcount, that's $331,839 million ÷ 223,000 = about $1.49 million per employee (our calculation).
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Employees | Revenue per employee (our calculation) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | $331.8 billion | 223,000 | about $1.49 million |
| 2025 | $281.7 billion | 228,000 | about $1.24 million |
| 2024 | $245.1 billion | 228,000 | about $1.08 million |
| 2023 | $211.9 billion | 221,000 | about $959,000 |
| 2022 | $198.3 billion | 221,000 | about $897,000 |
Revenue grew 67% from fiscal 2022 to 2026 while headcount grew 1%. It's a rough measure: a year-end count of full-time staff, with no contractors.
Under the segments Microsoft reported for fiscal 2026, Productivity and Business Processes brought in $140.0 billion, Intelligent Cloud $137.8 billion and More Personal Computing $54.1 billion. The 10-K doesn't split employees by segment, so a per-segment ratio isn't possible. By geography, customers in the US accounted for $170.8 billion (51%) of revenue, and 54% of employees work in the US.
Selling to a company of Microsoft's size
General guidance on how organizations of 200,000 people buy, not a description of Microsoft's internal processes.
- Map the function first. The 10-K's four groups are a first map: tools for engineers land with product research and development, datacenter and support tools with operations, and sales tools with a sales organization of 43,000.
- Follow the stated spending. The filings name AI infrastructure, compute capacity and AI talent as where the money is going. A pitch that supports those plans is easier to fund than one that competes with them.
- Bring the cost case. A company that grew revenue 18% with fewer people will judge vendors on output per person. Show the hours or headcount your product saves.
- Plan for review time. Expect security, privacy and procurement reviews before a first order.
Working out which of several hundred teams owns a problem is the slow part of an account this size. Our guide to enterprise account research sets out a routine, and how to find decision makers covers reaching the budget owner. Bebop researches each account and suggests who to talk to; check what it finds against the filings.
How to check Microsoft's headcount yourself
- Open Microsoft's 10-K filings on SEC EDGAR and pick the latest, filed each July.
- In Item 1, Business, find Human Capital Resources. The first sentence gives the count, the date and the US split; the next gives the four functions.
- Between annual reports, search the latest 10-Q for "headcount" for the direction of change.
- Before comparing with another company, check the basis: Microsoft counts full-time employees only.
Next step: compare Microsoft with its peers on our list of the largest software companies.
Sources
- Microsoft Corporation Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, Microsoft Corporation, via SEC EDGAR, 28 October 2026
- Microsoft Corporation Form 8-K recasting fiscal 2026 segment information, Microsoft Corporation, via SEC EDGAR, 28 October 2026
- Microsoft Corporation Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2026, Microsoft Corporation, via SEC EDGAR, 29 July 2026
- Microsoft Corporation Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025, Microsoft Corporation, via SEC EDGAR, 30 July 2025
- Microsoft Corporation Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024, Microsoft Corporation, via SEC EDGAR, 30 July 2024
- Microsoft Corporation Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2023, Microsoft Corporation, via SEC EDGAR, 27 July 2023
- Microsoft Corporation Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2022, Microsoft Corporation, via SEC EDGAR, 28 July 2022
- Microsoft Corporation Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021, Microsoft Corporation, via SEC EDGAR, 29 July 2021
- Microsoft Corporation Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020, Microsoft Corporation, via SEC EDGAR, 30 July 2020
- Microsoft Corporation Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2019, Microsoft Corporation, via SEC EDGAR, 1 August 2019
- Microsoft Corporation Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2018, Microsoft Corporation, via SEC EDGAR, 3 August 2018
Written by the Bebop team at Blackpearl Group. Published .
Questions people ask
How many employees does Microsoft have in the US?
About 121,000 on June 30, 2026, out of approximately 223,000 full-time employees worldwide, according to Microsoft's fiscal 2026 10-K. That's down from 125,000 a year earlier and 126,000 in June 2024. The other 102,000 work outside the US. Microsoft doesn't publish a headcount for any other country, or for its Redmond headquarters.
Did Microsoft lay off employees in 2026?
Microsoft's full-time headcount fell by 5,000 in fiscal 2026, to about 223,000 on June 30, 2026, and its next 10-Q says headcount was down 2% year over year in September 2026. The filings don't describe a job-cut program or a number of roles eliminated for 2025 or 2026. The last cut the 10-K quantified was about 10,000 jobs, announced in January 2023.
How many Microsoft employees work in research and development?
About 77,000 on June 30, 2026, or 35% of the workforce, according to the fiscal 2026 10-K. That's down 3,000 from a year earlier and 4,000 from the peak of 81,000 in June 2024. The other groups were operations (89,000), sales and marketing (43,000) and general and administration (14,000), all from the same filing.
What is Microsoft's revenue per employee?
About $1.49 million in fiscal 2026, by our calculation: revenue of $331,839 million divided by about 223,000 full-time employees on June 30, 2026, both from the 10-K. The same arithmetic gives about $1.24 million for fiscal 2025 and about $897,000 for fiscal 2022. It rose because revenue grew 67% over four years while headcount barely moved.
Does Microsoft's employee count include contractors?
No. The 10-K counts people Microsoft employs on a full-time basis and gives no figure for contractors, vendors or part-time staff. Many people who work on Microsoft products or in its buildings are employed by suppliers, so the total number of people working for Microsoft is larger than 223,000, but the company doesn't publish that figure.
When does Microsoft report its number of employees?
Once a year, in the Human Capital Resources section of its Form 10-K, filed in late July. The count is as of June 30, the end of Microsoft's fiscal year. The quarterly 10-Q reports sometimes give the percentage change in headcount, as the September 2026 report did (down 2%), but not a number.