Microsoft Office 365 (now called Microsoft 365) subscriptions start at $ 70 per year, or you can buy a license for about $ 150. But don’t worry, you don’t have to pay these prices.
It doesn’t matter if you need to use it on the road or on your PC. It doesn’t matter if you are going to use it sparingly or 8 hours a day. There are ways to get Office 365 for free.
Use Microsoft Office Online
To compete with Google’s suite of productivity apps, Microsoft is offering a free online version of its popular Office apps. You can use Word, Excel and PowerPoint in your browser on a Mac, Windows PC, or Chromebook for free.
While they are not as feature-rich as desktop apps, most of the basic functionality is available. Editing features in Word and features in Excel are available in Office Online (Modern Web Pack).
Just open Office.com in your browser and sign in with your Microsoft account. Then you can create a blank document or start with one of the templates If you’ve already worked on a document or received a document that you want to edit, you can easily upload it to Office Online (using drag and drop).
Try Office 365 for free
If you only need Microsoft Office for a while (say, if you have college applications due in a couple of weeks), you can just use the Microsoft Office trial. Go to the Microsoft Office for Free website and sign up for the trial.
Although you will need to provide a credit card to do this, you can cancel your subscription before the end of the month. This way you will not be charged automatically. You can even cancel it right after registration and continue using the trial until the end of the month.
The trial will give you access to the Microsoft 365 Home plan (formerly known as the Office 365 Home plan). You will get free access to all Office 365 products like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, not to mention 1TB cloud storage.
Once you sign up for Office 365, you can use the Office desktop apps offline with all the available features. If your month has expired, you can register again using a different email address to get an additional month (or two).
Use the Office 365 Mobile apps for free
Microsoft has a free version of Office for smartphones and tablets. If your device’s screen is less than 10.1 inches, you can edit Microsoft Office documents for free. This includes 10-inch Android tablets and 9.7-inch iPads (but not the 10.2-inch 7th generation iPad).
If your device is larger than 10.1 inches, you will need to subscribe to Office 365 or use read-only mode.
Download: Microsoft Office (iOS, Android</a
Get Office 365 Education Edition for free
If you are a student, teacher, or even a graduate, you can use the entire standalone Microsoft Office 365 suite for free. The catch is that your school or educational institution must have an education license.
Go to the Office 365 Education page and enter your .edu email address to see if you qualify. If you do, you can download and use all the Office apps on your computer.
Try the review version
Microsoft has a separate trial for its business and enterprise users that offers the same Office 365 experience. You can go to the Microsoft Assessment Center and sign up for their 30-day ProPlus plan as another way to get your 30-day Office 365 trial. .
Get Office 365 for free with a new PC
Yes, this is not the most economical option, but if you are moving to work from home or looking for a new computer, you can look for the ones that come with your Microsoft Office 365 subscription.
You can find Windows laptops under $ 500 that come with a free Office 365 Home plan that you can share with up to 6 users.
Join a Microsoft 365 shared home plan
When talking about the Microsoft 365 Home plan, you might ask if you know anyone who already uses it. If you find a professional or small business person using this plan, you can ask them to add you to it.
Hey, if you can share your Netflix account, why not your Office account?
This way you can split the cost of $ 99 per year among six users. This means that you can get the entire Microsoft Office 365 suite for about $ 17 per year. Now that’s a great thing. If you can convince them to add you for free, that’s an even better option.
Have the business buy it for you
If Microsoft Office is essential to getting your job done, you can contact your employer. Instead of paying for it out of your own pocket, you can ask to be covered as company expenses.
Find deals on shared subscriptions
Microsoft’s website isn’t the only place you can sign up for an Office 365 subscription. If you keep an eye on the offerings, you’ll find discounts on Office 365 Personal Home plans online. After the discounts, you can get the Home plan on Amazon for about $ 80 ($ 20 off).
When you are looking for these deals, make sure they are from a legal site. Don’t fall for eBay sellers who offer a $ 1 Microsoft 365 or Office 365 subscription. They may work for a while, but this is definitely an illegal option.
Use free Office 365 alternatives
Finally, you don’t need to use Microsoft Office to work with Office documents. Instead, you can use the LibreOffice suite for Windows, Mac and Linux, which is a free and open source alternative to Microsoft Office.
Using LibreOffice, you can get similar capabilities of the offline Office desktop, where you can easily create, open and edit DOCX Word documents, XLS Excel spreadsheets and PPTX PowerPoint presentations.
If you want an online alternative to Microsoft Office, you can use Google’s suite of productivity apps. Google Docs, Sheets and Slides supports Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, respectively.
There are many more alternatives to Microsoft Office 365. Take a look at our list of the 6 best alternatives to Microsoft Office to find out more.
How do you use Microsoft Office in your work and personal life? Share with us in the comments below.
–
Comments on “How To Get Office 365 For Free”