An Office 365 license (now called Microsoft 365) lasts for the duration of your subscription, typically 1 month or 1 year, depending on the plan (Personal, Family, Business, Enterprise), requiring renewal for continuous service, unlike older perpetual licenses which were one-time purchases. You can extend your subscription by entering multiple product keys for up to 5 years total.
Your Microsoft 365 Personal Annual subscription is valid for 12 months starting from the date you purchase or renew it, not from the beginning of the calendar year. You can check the expiration date via https://account.live.com > Services & Subscriptions.
Support for Office 2016 and Office 2019 ended on October 14, 2025 and there will be no extension and no extended security updates. All of your Office 2016 and Office 2019 apps will continue to function. However, you could expose yourself to serious and potentially harmful security risks.
If Office activation fails, you'll see Unlicensed Product or Non-commercial use / Unlicensed Product in the title bar of your Office apps, and most features of Office are disabled.
Just like any other subscription, you get a grace period before your account gets deactivated. During this period, you can access the files, emails, and other features of Office 365. During this grace period, you can renew the subscription, failing which, all of your data will eventually get deleted.
Cons of purchasing Microsoft 365 annually:
You have to renew every year. You'll only have access to the latest updates twice a year.
Access for Users: During the expired stage, end users experience no change in service. All users can still log in and use Microsoft 365 apps and services normally, including Outlook email, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Office applications, etc.
Microsoft 365 Online is a free version of Microsoft 365 Copilot that you can use in a web browser. You can do almost everything with the Microsoft 365 Online apps, but some more advanced features are only available with the Microsoft 365 or Office desktop apps. You can access Microsoft 365 with a Microsoft account.
No Retention Policy
Becomes a Disabled Mailbox (deleted after 30 days). Becomes an Unlicensed OneDrive (deleted after 93 days).
It looks like they're still selling perpetual licenses. A quick search brought me to this page - Buy Office Home & Business 2024 (PC or Mac) - Download & Pricing | Microsoft Store.
Microsoft Word in the 2024 version includes better collaboration features, improved dictation capabilities, and more sophisticated editing recommendations. The Editor tool has expanded considerably, providing writing assistance that surpasses what the 2019 release offered.
Individual users can extend support for one year, but will only receive critical security updates. Microsoft is set to end support for Windows 10 on Oct. 14, 2025, but those who are not ready to make the leap to Windows 11 can pay $30 to stay on the company's aging OS.
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for Windows is currently $29.97, which is price dropped from $229 for lifetime access.
Caution: If you cancel a Microsoft 365 Basic or Microsoft 365 Personal subscription, your storage allowance will revert to 5GB of cloud storage, which includes your OneDrive and Outlook.com attachments, and 15GB of Outlook.com storage.
Choosing a Microsoft Office lifetime license can save cost as well as time. The lifetime license offers a one-time payment for continuous use of the software. This means that you get access to the Microsoft 365 apps for PC's and Macs. One-time purchases can be installed once on either a PC or Mac.
Get essential benefits such as 100 GB of cloud storage, ad-free and secure email with Outlook, additional photo and file protections, and access to experts for support with Microsoft 365 and Windows 11 when you need it. A credit card is required. After your trial period, you'll be charged $19.99 per year.
Microsoft 365 subscription
Pay a single, one-time cost. Pay a small monthly fee, or save by paying for a full year.
If you have Microsoft 365 through a third-party provider, you'll need to check their cancellation policy before cancelling. Just remember that your access to Microsoft applications and the data you store in Outlook or OneDrive will be lost when you delete your Microsoft account.
Licensed accounts can use Outlook 365 or POP3/SMTP, whichever you prefer. Non-licensed accounts can use the legacy email manager or POP3/SMTP, whichever you prefer.
One-time purchases are available for both PCs and Macs. However, there are no upgrade options, which means if you plan to upgrade to the next major release, you'll have to buy it at full price.
This message is often triggered by a problem with your Microsoft 365 subscription payment. For example, if your payment was declined due to an expired or cancelled credit card, your subscription may become expired or suspended.
If you don't renew your Office 365 subscription, you'll lose access to all the Office apps and services that are included in your subscription. This means you won't be able to create new documents, edit existing ones, or access any online storage that's included in your subscription.
Yes. You can buy standalone versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for Mac or PC. Go to the Microsoft Store and search for the app you want. You can purchase subscription or non-subscription versions of Visio or Project (desktop versions of these apps are for PCs only).
Canceling your Microsoft 365 account means that all data and files associated with your subscription will be deleted after 90 days at the latest. Directly following cancelation, you won't be able to edit or create files and documents, and your Office services will only be available in the read-only mode.