If you are or have been a student or teacher at a school or university, you are likely eligible for a Microsoft free license 365.
Formerly known as Office 365, this is Microsoft's subscription service that gives you access to the Office applications you already know: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Microsoft Teams and, according to the plan, also Publisher and Access.
Office plans 365 start in 7 euros / dollars a month. However, thanks to the agreements that Microsoft maintains with educational institutions, you may have a free subscription waiting for you.
If this is the case, you will not only have access to online Office applications, but you can also download Office 2019 for Windows and Mac for free.
How to get Microsoft 365 free
If you have a valid institutional email address, follow these steps to claim a free Microsoft Office license 365:
- Enter the Office website 365 Education
- Enter the email of your study center
- Indicate if you are a student or teacher
- Complete the registration by entering your name and choosing a password
- Enter the PIN or access the link sent to your email
- You now have access to Microsoft 365 Education
- Finally, click on “Instalar Office” and then in “Install the software” to download Office on your PC or Mac.
If you have an assigned Office license, you can download the software to your computer. Otherwise, you can only use Office online applications for free.
The subscription is priced at 7 € per month, but on Amazon you can get a license for one year at a lower price:
Check your Office subscription 365
Microsoft 365 has several plans for schools. Therefore, depending on your school's subscription / college, have access to certain Office applications.
Follow these steps to verify your Microsoft subscriptions 365:
- Sign in to Office.com
- Click on your name or photo (in the upper right) and then in “See account”
- Click on “Subscriptions”
- Here it will tell you if you have an A1 license, A3 or A5.
Please note that not all licenses are the same. Here we show you what each one offers.
What's included in the Microsoft subscription 365
Microsoft 365 includes the main productivity tools that we all know. What's more, some additional services are included.
This is what each plan offers:
Office 365 A1
The basic and free version of Microsoft 365 Education that brings together only Outlook online applications, Word, Excel, PowerPoint y OneNote. Desktop applications for Windows or Mac are not included.
Students and teachers also get the following services from Microsoft: Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, Sway, Forms, Stream, Flow, Power Apps, School Data Sync y Yammer.
Office 365 A3
Includes desktop versions of all major Microsoft productivity applications for Windows and Mac. Also add the apps Editor and access, available only for Windows.
Regarding services, includes the same as plan A1, but Microsoft Bookings is added.
Office 365 A5
Comes with upgraded versions of the A3 plan apps, plus the new Microsoft BI tool. The main difference with the other plans is that focuses on security.
As you can see, Microsoft 365 Education offers you several advantages. Well, You don't just get Office's online and offline productivity apps, but you also get free OneDrive storage and access to different Microsoft services. And the only requirement is to have an email with educational domain.
