Office 365 Cost
And forget about discounted upgrade prices, there are NO UPGRADES available from Office 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, 2008, 2011 or earlier. If you wish to purchase Office or Office 365, you will need to pay outright for Office 2019 or per month or year for Office 365. Microsoft 365 Business Microsoft 365 E3 Microsoft 365 E5 Microsoft 365 F1 Description All the features of Office 365 Business Premium, plus Windows 10 Professional subscription, mobile device and app management, and advanced threat protection for fewer than 300 users. All the features of Office 365 Enterprise E3, Enterprise. And Office 365 subscriptions actually cost less than $99.99/year. I’ve never paid that much. Sales at newegg.com, frys.com, and amazon bring that cost down to as low as $65/year. Just stock up when its on sale and buy 2 or 3 key cards, registering them as the subscription expires each year.
-->Microsoft 365 and Office 365 are available in a variety of plans to best meet the needs of your organization.
Service families and plans
The following table lists the different service families and plans available in Microsoft 365 and Office 365. For a high-level overview of features and pricing information, or to chat with an online representative, select any of the links in the Plans column.
Office 365 service family | Plans |
---|---|
Business (maximum of 300 users) | Microsoft 365 Business Basic (formerly Office 365 Business Essentials) Microsoft 365 Business Standard (formerly Office 365 Business Premium) Microsoft 365 Business Premium (formerly Microsoft 365 Business) Microsoft 365 Apps for business (formerly Office 365 Business) |
Enterprise (unlimited number of users) | Office 365 E1 Office 365 E3 Office 365 E5 Office 365 F3 Microsoft 365 F1 Microsoft 365 F3 (includes Office 365 F3) Microsoft 365 E3 (includes Office 365 E3) Microsoft 365 E5 (includes Office 365 E5) Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise (formerly Office 365 ProPlus) |
Education (unlimited number of users) | Office 365 A1 Office 365 A3 Office 365 E5 Microsoft 365 A1 (one-time, per device license paired with free Office 365 A1 per user licenses) Microsoft 365 A3 (includes Office 365 A3) Microsoft 365 A5 (includes Office 365 A5) |
U.S. Government (unlimited number of users) | See all available plans |
Office 365 operated by 21Vianet in China | See all available plans |
Office 365 Germany | Learn about Office 365 Germany |
Service availability within each Microsoft 365 and Office 365 plan
Each Microsoft 365 or Office 365 plan includes a number of individual services, such as Exchange Online and SharePoint Online. The following table shows the services that are available in each plan.
Important
While a service may be available across Microsoft 365 and Office 365 plans, the features available in each plan may differ. To see the details of features that are available for each plan, refer to the individual service description or contact your Reseller or Microsoft sales representative for more information.
Several of the Microsoft 365 and Office 365 plans have add-ons that you can buy for your subscription. An add-on provides additional functionality to the subscription. For more information, see Buy or edit an add-on for Office 365 for business.
Service | Microsoft 365 Apps | Microsoft 365 Business Basic | Microsoft 365 Business Standard | Microsoft 365 Business Premium | Office 365 E1 | Microsoft 365 E3/Office 365 E3 | Microsoft 365 E5/Office 365 E53,15 | Microsoft 365 F3/Office 365 F3 | Microsoft 365 F1 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Office 365 platform | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Exchange Online | No | Yes5 | Yes5 | Yes5 | Yes5 | Yes6 | Yes6 | Yes8 | No16 |
SharePoint Online | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes17 |
OneDrive | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes4 | Yes4 |
Skype for Business Online 14 | No | Yes9 | Yes9 | Yes9 | Yes9 | Yes10 | Yes12 | Yes13 | Yes13 |
Office for the web | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No18 |
Office applications | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Project | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Power BI | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
Yammer Enterprise | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Azure Information Protection2 | No | No1 | No1 | Yes | No1 | Yes | Yes | No1 | No |
Microsoft Kaizala | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
1 Azure Information Protection is not included, but can be purchased as a separate add-on and will enable the supported Information Rights Management (IRM) features. Some Azure Information Protection features require a subscription to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise, which is not included with Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Microsoft 365 F1, Microsoft 365 F3, Office 365 E1, Office 365 A1, or Office 365 F3.
2 To learn more about which Azure Information Protection features are included with Microsoft 365 and Office 365 plans, see Azure Information Protection.
3 Office 365 E5 and Microsoft 365 E5 contain Phone System and Audio Conferencing. To implement a Calling Plan requires an additional plan purchase (either Domestic or International).
4 Includes 2 GB storage.
5 Includes Exchange Online Plan 1.
6 Includes Exchange Online Plan 2.
7 Includes Exchange Online Plan 1 plus supplemental features.
8 Includes Exchange Online Kiosk.
9 Includes Skype for Business Online Plan 2 with basic client limitations.
10 Includes Skype for Business Online Plan 2 without any client limitations.
11 Includes Skype for Business Online Plan 1 plus supplemental features.
12 Includes Skype for Business Online Plan 2 with voice support and without any client limitations.
13 Includes Skype for Business Online Plan 1.
14 Microsoft Teams is now the primary client for messaging, meetings, and calling in Microsoft 365. As of Oct. 1, 2018, new customers with 500 seats or less are onboarded to Microsoft Teams and do not have access to Skype for Business Online. Tenants that are already using Skype for Business Online are able to continue doing so (including provisioning new users) until they complete their transition to Microsoft Teams.
15 Includes Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance, which provides automatic classification and retention, Customer Key, Advanced Message Encryption, Insider Risk Management, Communication Compliance, Information Barriers, Customer Lockbox, Privileged Access Management, Advanced Audit, Records Management, and Advanced eDiscovery capabilities; and Microsoft 365 E5 Security, which includes Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 2, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Azure Active Directory Plan 2, Microsoft Defender for Identity, Microsoft Cloud App Security, and Safe Documents.
16 Microsoft 365 F1 does not include rights to an Exchange mailbox. To enable a full Teams experience, M365 F1 licenses may come with the Exchange Online K1 service plan enabled. Although the Exchange Online K1 service plan will provision a mailbox for the user, M365 F1 users are not entitled to use the mailbox. We recommend that your customers disable Outlook on the web via these steps and ask users not to access the Exchange mailbox via any other methods.
17 Includes SharePoint Online Kiosk. Cannot be administrators. No site mailbox. No personal site.
18 Microsoft 365 F1 users can read files using Office for the web, but do not have create/edit/save rights.
Basic client limitations
The following features are available in the full client, but are not available in the basic client:
- Manage team call settings
- Manage delegates
- Make calls on behalf of another contact (manager/delegate scenario)
- Handle another's calls if configured as a delegate
- Manage a high volume of calls
- Initiate a call to a Response Group
- Call park
- Group call pickup
Changing or mixing plans
As the needs of your organization change, you may need to change your Microsoft 365 plan. You can switch from your current subscription to another subscription:
- In the same service family: For example, you can move from Microsoft 365 Business Basic to Microsoft 365 Business Standard, or from Office 365 E1 to Office 365 E3.
- From a standalone plan: For example, you can move from Exchange Online Plan 1 to Office 365 E1.
- To a different service family: For example, you can move from Microsoft 365 Business Basic to Office 365 E3.
For information about how to change subscriptions, including how to move from a trial to a paid subscription, see Switch to a different Microsoft 365 plan or subscription.
You can combine Enterprise, Business, and standalone plans (for example, Exchange Online Plan 1) within a single account. However, existing limitations on the number of seats per plan do not change. For example, you can have up to 300 seats per plan on both Microsoft 365 Business Basic and Microsoft 365 Business Standard, but an unlimited number of users on Exchange Online Plan 1.
Standalone services
The following online services are available on their own, as standalone plans. They can also be added to Business and Enterprise service family plans that don't already include them. For pricing information, or to chat with an online representative, select any of the plans listed in the following table.
Service | Plans |
---|---|
Exchange Online | Exchange Online Plan 1 Exchange Online Plan 2 Exchange Online Protection Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Exchange Online Archiving Exchange Online Kiosk |
SharePoint Online | SharePoint Online Plan 1 SharePoint Online Plan 2 |
OneDrive for Business | OneDrive for Business Plan 1 OneDrive for Business Plan 2 |
Office applications | Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise Microsoft 365 Apps for business |
Project portfolio management | Project Plan 1 Project Plan 3 Project Plan 5 |
Yammer | Yammer Basic |
Organizational insights | Workplace Analytics |
Business intelligence service | Power BI |
Online diagram software | Visio Plan 1 Visio Plan 2 |
Information Rights Management | Azure Information Protection |
Feature availability
To view feature availability across Microsoft 365 and Office 365 plans, see Microsoft 365 and Office 365 platform service description.
Browsing Office 365 plans?
Don’t get out your credit card just yet. There are some options you should try first.
I know, the prospect of a free Office 365 download sounds kind of farfetched. But it’s not. If there is a legal way that you don’t have to pay, you’ll find it here.
Of course, one way is to simply get the free trial of Office 365 if you don’t have it already. This is limited but will give you a chance to try it before you buy.
On to the ways to get a full free Office 365.
Office 365 Cost Business
1. Get Office 365 through your school
Microsoft offers Office 365 Education for free through many schools and universities. If you are a student or educator, and your institution is eligible, all you need is a valid school email address.
This is a truly free version of Office 365, and you should enjoy this benefit for as long as possible. In addition to your familiar MS apps, it comes with tools to encourage collaboration in the classroom, like Access, Sway, Teams, SharePoint, Stream, and Flow.
Every so often, Office will verify you are still are still an active educator or student. Once your Office 365 Education plan expires, applications will become view-only after 30 days. After 60, you will lose access. To keep working, you will need to subscribe to Office 365, or back up your files and use Office Online.
If you used to be a student, see if your school address will work. If not, access the alumni discount they offer for Office 365 Personal.
2. Get the free trial of Office 365
This is the easiest free option for accessing premium versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, and Access. But it only lasts for a month. After that, you’ll have to begin a subscription or use one of the other methods here.
Note: You will have to provide payment information to sign up for the free trial, though you won’t be charged until the trial expires. When it does, you will start getting billed automatically.
Remember to turn off recurring billing in your Account Settings unless you want to start paying.
Unlike the online version, when Office 365 is installed locally you have full document editing capabilities offline. You can share the free Office 365 trial version with up to five other people. Each person gets 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage, plus the ability to sync and share files across Windows, Apple, and Android devices.
This is a great option, but only for the short-term. You only get a single free trial per email and credit card, so unless you try to bend the terms of the license agreement, it’s a one-shot deal. Or is it?
3. Get the free trial of Office 365 ProPlus
Microsoft provides evaluation versions of its products to potential customers through its Evaluation Center. There you can test-drive the latest features and services the company offers, including Office 365 ProPlus. First, you’ll need to register an Office 365 ProPlus account and qualify for an evaluation account.
Note: Same as the trial version of Office 365, the ProPlus trial requires payment information and bills you after a month.
Once you have access to the full evaluation version of Office 365 ProPlus, you can share and manage up to 25 users. It comes with all of the premium Office tools, not just web apps, and Skype for Business. Streaming installation for up to five computers per user allows everyone to work offline with full editing capabilities.
Since it is an evaluation version, Microsoft is still working out the kinks of this software. Things may not work perfectly, so be prepared.
This is Microsoft’s way of hooking enterprise customers, and it is a sleek toolkit for any company. But if you are not looking to pay once the trial is up, you will have to back up and switch to something else.
Tip: G Suite Business isn’t free, but its pricing is competitive and the functionality works well for agile companies.
4. Convince your company to get Office 365
If your need for Office 365 is strictly personal, this may be a tough sell. But if you constantly find yourself in need of full-versions of Word or Excel, you probably have a strong case to make to your employer.
Office Online is great, considering it’s free, but the lack of function or offline capability can be extremely frustrating. If these things are getting in the way and costing you time, it’s likely costing the company more money a subscription would.
This isn’t always going to work—especially if you are your own boss, sorry freelancers—but I told you we were looking at every option to get Office 365 free of charge.
5. Free Office 365 (with purchase of a PC)
Here’s an option that is not going to be right for everyone, but if you are in the market for a new computer, this could be an answer. Some PCs come with one year of Office 365. This sometimes includes ultra-affordable laptops, and you still save $99 annually on an Office 365 subscription.
One thing to make sure of is that you are getting what you want. Some computers will only come with Office 365 Personal, and others may not even have an OS installed. Read the fine print and confirm everything is set up as you expect.
What about Office Online and Mobile?
Now you know how to get a free download of Office 365, but I should mention two easy, free-forever Office options just in case they do the trick.
Get Office Online
Office Online is entirely cloud-based and works on most browsers. As long as you have the internet, you have access to familiar MS Office tools like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, as well as Sway, OneNote, Outlook, Calendar, OneDrive, Forms, People, and Skype. Simply create an account and log in from anywhere to collaborate with anyone.
While Office Online doesn’t take up any space, the downside is that you need the internet in order to use the programs and your documents. If you can rely on wifi wherever you need it, this limitation isn’t so bad. Plus, you can always sync your computer with OneDrive so that files are automatically stored for offline access.
The features are greatly limited compared to Office 365, but for personal use, it’s probably okay as long as you plan ahead. The extra logistics required to coordinate larger teams using Office Online, however, probably don’t end up saving much money.
Get the Office mobile app
The Office mobile app works on Android and iOS on your phone or tablet. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are combined into a single app that syncs with all of your devices that use Office.
You can download additional apps, which take up some space, but all of your documents are stored in the cloud. You’ll be able to create and sign PDFs, and edit documents, tables, and slides—but be aware that the editing features are limited without the Office 365 subscription.
Similar to Office Online, the mobile app is okay for personal needs but quickly reveals itself wanting at the enterprise level.
Note: Editing in the Office mobile app is limited to screens up to 10.1 inches. If you have a larger screen, you will have to upgrade to Office 365 or be stuck in read-only.
Dubious methods and hacking
Finally, I want to point out that similar to giving Microsoft multiple credit cards or emails in an attempt to prolong your free trial of Office 365, there are other dubious methods out there. These are not always safe for you and may be illegal.
I mention them because your search has no doubt included these options, and many are disguised as genuine with a price that is too good to be true.
For example, you will find people offering Office 365 for $1 on eBay and other sites. This will get you a product key that maybe works, and definitely isn’t legal. Typically, you can use these accounts for one year, or until Microsoft detects that your key is not legitimate.
There are also videos and blogs that show you how to hack Office 365 by emulating a successful KMS activation. These authors claim that the KMS license key is legal, which may be true, depending on how the code is written. But installing the key to access licenses you never bought is certainly not legal.
Plus, whatever patch you copy into your system may have other functions you don’t want. A hacker wrote it after all. For us, we don’t consider it worth the risk.
This goes, too, for any free Office 365 you discover on torrents and other sites that get shut down periodically. With an illegal free version of Office 365 you may get more than you pay for in the worst way.
Final note: If you have to pay… it’s really not that bad!
In the end, Office 365 is an extremely valuable set of programs. Getting it for $99/year is pretty amazing.
I understand why it’s annoying, especially in the eleventh hour when your documents are out of reach. Trust me, I get it. But I also understand that the software of this century requires ongoing maintenance for security and integration. The game has changed and it’s not necessarily evil for companies to move to a subscription model.
Of course there are people who will disagree with me.
LibreOffice is a free fully-loaded office suite. Over 200 million people use the open-source program, which supports more than 200 file types. It’s got Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, and a number of other applications that are recognizable to any user of Word, etc.
Office 365 Cost Per Year
There are Google’s free offerings as well, which solve most personal needs for document creation, sharing, and storage. For enterprise needs, though, G Suite for Business is reasonably priced and has a higher user satisfaction score than Office 365.
Office 365 Cost India
Use the trials to figure out where you stand. If Office 365 is what you need, budget it in and write it off next year. Here’s a guide to help you make sense of the Office 365 pricing.