You can now access a version of Microsoft’s Office package without a subscription…but there are a few caveats.
This new version of the desktop app is ad-supported and pared down; but nevertheless is free and available for now though Microsoft seems to have suggested that this is just a test.
The move comes as Microsoft is pushing its AI tool, Copilot, and faced the wrath of some consumers when it hiked the price of Microsoft 365 to cover the AI tool; but make it an opt-out option as opposed to asking users to opt it.
How to Access the Free Version of Microsoft Office
This free version is currently only available on Windows, but does give access to Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
You first have to download and install the official desktop Microsoft Office app for free from the company’s website. You then need to let the setup file run and the apps download.
This just in! View
the top business tech deals for 2025 👨💻
Once this is done, launch one of the apps; and you should get a dialogue box. Press ‘Skip for now’ and then you will get a message saying: “Welcome to free Word, Excel, and PowerPoint”. You then have the option to “Continue for free”.
What Are the Downsides of Free Microsoft Office?
This version is ad-supported so you will get both banner ads and video ads popping up. You can also only save files to OneDrive, which is a pain if you use any other Cloud service. You do get 5GB of OneDrive storage though.
These are also pared-down versions of each of the tools so a lot of features are not available. For Microsoft Word, this includes line-spacing, WordArt, all of the design and draw tools and lots of formatting options, among them headers, footers, columns, line numbers, wrap text, shading and borders. There are also no options for adding references or mailing out your documents.
Excel has a ton of features missing including the analyze data option; recommended charts and most of the aesthetic options like Themes, Colors, Fonts, and Effects. PowerPoint has also been stripped back to basics with lots of the formatting options gone as well as Dictate, Add-ins, Designer, and SmartArt.
What’s the Appeal of Ad-Supported Office?
This really is an option only for those who don’t do a huge amount with their Microsoft tools, are happy to use OneDrive and don’t mind ads. So perhaps not that many of us, though ‘free’ always has an appeal.
However, Microsoft has emphasized to PC World that this is just “a test” at the moment; and so could disappear at any time. “Microsoft has been conducting some limited testing,” the representative said in an email. “Currently, there are no plans to launch a free, ad-supported version of Microsoft Office desktop apps.”
This would suggest that it’s not wise to cancel your Microsoft 365 subscription and there is always the free web versions of the Office apps if you really don’t want to pay.