How to Get Microsoft Office for Free in 2026: Every Legit Way and What Each Includes

Yes, but for most people "free" means the browser apps. A free Microsoft account gets you Word, Excel and PowerPoint for the web with 5 GB of OneDrive storage. Students and educators with an eligible school email get Office 365 A1 at no cost. Since July 24, 2026, the free desktop apps open and print files but no longer let you edit them.

Microsoft changed its free desktop offer this summer, so older guides may describe a version that no longer exists. The table below lists every route we could confirm on the vendors' own pages. Prices checked 10 October 2026, in US dollars.

Every free and low-cost route at a glance

Route	Cost	Who qualifies	What you get	The catch
Office for the web	Free	Anyone with a free Microsoft account	Word, Excel and PowerPoint in a browser, 5 GB of OneDrive	Security updates only, no new features, no technical support
Phone and tablet apps	Free on screens of 10.1 inches or less	Phone and small tablet users	Core editing on iOS and Android	Extra features need a subscription
Office 365 A1	Free	Students and educators with an eligible school email	Web Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote	Ends when eligibility ends, then view only
Microsoft 365 trial	Free for one month	Anyone new to Microsoft 365	Personal with desktop apps	Renews at the regular price unless cancelled
College student offer	50% off	People with a college email	Microsoft 365 with Copilot included	A discount, not a free plan
Workplace Discount Program	30% off annual	Employees of eligible employers	Microsoft 365 Family or Personal	Needs an eligible employer and a work email
LibreOffice	Free	Anyone	Writer, Calc and Impress, open source	Not Microsoft software
Google Docs, Sheets and Slides	Free	Anyone with a Google Account	Browser documents, spreadsheets and slides	Shares 15 GB with Gmail, Drive and Photos

Read the cost column first. Three routes stay free with Microsoft's own apps: the web apps, phone and small-tablet editing, and the education plan. The one-month trial is free only until it renews, and the other routes either discount a subscription or swap Microsoft for a free alternative.

Word, Excel and PowerPoint on the web

Microsoft's free offer reads: "Get free access to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint using Microsoft 365 for the web." You sign in with a free Microsoft account and open the app in your browser. The account includes 5 GB of cloud storage, and files must be saved in and shared from OneDrive.

Five gigabytes holds a lot of documents and spreadsheets, but it fills quickly once you start storing video or large photo folders. Microsoft's comparison of free web apps and subscriptions says free accounts get security updates but no new features, and no technical support. Access and Publisher are not available at all. Free accounts also get Teams calling, capped at 60 minutes a month for up to 100 participants. If you are choosing a team chat tool, compare team chat apps first. For paid meeting tools, see video conferencing pricing compared.

The web apps suit occasional editing, a one-off CV, a shared budget, or a deck you need to send today. They are a poor fit for anyone who needs Access or Publisher, or who wants an editor that works without an internet connection.

The free desktop apps can no longer edit

Microsoft's free desktop editing preview is ending. Users began seeing notices on July 14, 2026, and started moving to the standard free desktop experience on July 24, 2026. After that, the free desktop apps open, view and print supported files, but you cannot edit them. To create, edit or save a file, you use the free web apps with a Microsoft account, or you buy a subscription for full desktop editing, as Microsoft's desktop status page explains.

If a desktop copy of Word or Excel now looks read-only, that is the expected result of this change, not a fault in your install. Plan your work around the web apps or one of the paid routes below.

Phones and tablets: free core editing up to 10.1 inches

Microsoft's mobile apps support page says: "Core editing is available for free on iOS devices with screen sizes of 10.1 inches or less." The Android wording matches. The page does not define "core editing," so open the file types you need on your own device before you depend on them. Extra features need a qualifying subscription, and the iPad Pro needs one to create and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.

For a phone or a small tablet, that covers reading and quick edits on the move. A larger tablet falls outside the threshold, so plan on the web apps or a subscription for it.

Students and educators: Office 365 A1

Microsoft's education offer says: "Educators and students with an eligible education email address can get Office 365 A1 for free." The A1 plan is web based and includes Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. The page places full Office desktop apps in the paid A3 tier, so do not expect desktop installs from A1.

Eligibility follows the institution. Microsoft says your eligibility "may be re-verified at any time." Automated checks are usually immediate, while manual review "may take up to a month." If you leave the school, or the school's status lapses, the plan drops to view only: "You can view documents but not edit or create them." You can restore access by re-verifying your status or buying a personal plan.

Ask your school whether it already gives students and staff Office 365 A1, because the institution decides who qualifies.

College students: a discount, not a free plan

Microsoft's student page, read on 10 October 2026, offers "Use your college email to save 50% on Microsoft 365 with Copilot included." That is a discount, not free access, and the page gives no price or end date for it. Student offers from Microsoft have changed over the past year, so read the terms and the price shown at checkout before you pay.

Employees: 30% off through the Workplace Discount Program

Microsoft's Workplace Discount Program page says Microsoft 365 Family and Personal annual subscriptions are 30% off for eligible customers. The discount depends on your employer, not on you, and it applies as long as recurring billing stays on. Enter your work email on the program page to check whether your company qualifies.

At Personal's $99.99 annual list price, 30% off is about $70. At Family's $129.99, it is about $91. Those figures are our arithmetic on Microsoft's list prices, not prices Microsoft publishes.

The one-month trial, then renewal

Microsoft lists a one-month free trial on Personal. Its terms say the subscription "automatically renews at the regular price and selected term, unless cancelled in Microsoft account." Use the trial for a short project, and set a reminder to cancel before the first renewal if you do not plan to keep paying.

Paying once: Office Home 2024 versus a subscription

Microsoft lists Office Home 2024 as a one-time purchase at $179.99 for one PC or Mac. Microsoft 365 Personal costs $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year. By our arithmetic, two years of Personal comes to $199.98, so on list prices the one-time license costs less.

The subscription buys more than the license. Personal includes 1 TB of OneDrive storage, desktop Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and advanced Copilot chat with higher usage than the free tier. Family costs $12.99 a month or $129.99 a year, covers up to six people and shares 2 TB across them. If you need a paid suite for a team instead, our Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365 comparison sets out the business prices side by side.

Choose the one-time license for one computer with no cloud needs. Choose a subscription for several devices, storage, or family sharing. If you want a view on which tasks suit an AI assistant at all, how to use AI at work covers that before you pay for Copilot.

Free alternatives that open Office files

LibreOffice is the strongest free desktop option. Its download page lists builds for Windows, macOS and Linux, and its home page says LibreOffice "provides unfettered access to our office productivity tools, at no cost to you." The suite is open source and includes Writer for documents, Calc for spreadsheets and Impress for slides. The trade-off is a different interface, so open your most complicated file before a deadline to check the layout.

Google Docs, Sheets and Slides run free on a personal Google Account. Google's storage help page says a personal account has "up to 15 GB of storage which is shared among Drive, Gmail, and Photos." The browser apps draw on that same pool, so a crowded inbox can leave less room for your documents. For a team that needs more room, compare the best cloud storage for business before you commit.

If your need is only cloud storage, the best free cloud storage options list the free tiers side by side. If you mostly need to edit PDFs rather than Word files, the best free PDF editors is the closer match.

What to avoid

Sites that offer "free" full Office installers, cracked copies or product keys carry malware risk, and the software they hand out is unlicensed. None of the routes above require one. Stick to Microsoft's pages, your school, your employer, or a free alternative.

Which route fits you

• Light editing on any computer: Office for the web.
• A phone or a tablet of 10.1 inches or less: free core editing in the mobile apps.
• A student or educator with an eligible school email: Office 365 A1.
• Full desktop Word and Excel for work: a subscription, or the Workplace Discount Program if your employer qualifies.
• One computer and no cloud storage: Office Home 2024 at $179.99, one time.
• Free and offline: LibreOffice.

If you need to sign documents rather than edit them, free e-signature software is the guide to read.

FAQ

Is Microsoft Office free in 2026?

Partly. Word, Excel and PowerPoint for the web are free with a free Microsoft account, and students or educators with an eligible school email get Office 365 A1 at no cost. The free desktop apps have not allowed editing since July 24, 2026.

Can I still download Microsoft Office for free?

You can still get the free desktop apps, but since July 24, 2026 they only open, view and print supported files. Creating and editing needs the free web apps or a Microsoft 365 subscription.

Is Microsoft 365 free for students?

Students and educators with an eligible education email get Office 365 A1 for free, but it is web based and depends on the school. Microsoft's college student page, read on 10 October 2026, offers 50% off Microsoft 365 with Copilot included instead of free access.

How much does Microsoft 365 cost?

Personal costs $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year. Family costs $12.99 a month or $129.99 a year and covers up to six people. Both are Microsoft's US list prices, read on 10 October 2026.

Does free Office for the web have a storage limit?

Yes. A free Microsoft account includes 5 GB of OneDrive storage, and documents must be saved in and shared from OneDrive.

Does free Office work on an iPad?

Core editing is free on iOS devices with screens of 10.1 inches or less. Above that size the free core editing does not apply, and Microsoft says the iPad Pro needs a Microsoft 365 subscription to create and edit Word, Excel or PowerPoint files.

How we checked

We read each price and rule on Microsoft's own pages on 10 October 2026, in US English and US dollars: the consumer plan comparison, the free web apps page, the desktop status page, the mobile apps support page, the education offer, the student page and the Workplace Discount Program. We also read Google's storage help page and LibreOffice's own pages. Microsoft's pages show no effective date, so confirm the price at checkout. Figures we calculated from list prices are labelled as ours.

Cite this: Techpresso, "How to Get Microsoft Office for Free in 2026", October 2026.

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