Microsoft Office Free Trial: What You Need to Know

Microsoft Office is a standalone productivity suite offered only as a one-time purchase, while Microsoft 365 is a cloud-based subscription service that offers the same apps available with Office 2019, but with additional tools and benefits. If you'd like to try Microsoft Office but aren't sure you're ready to commit, download the Microsoft 365 free trial and use Microsoft Office for free for one month.

What You Get With Your Microsoft 365 Free Trial

A free trial of Microsoft 365 offers all the components of the Office suite, including Access, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Word.

A Microsoft 365 subscription also includes apps to edit Microsoft Office files on mobile devices. Android and iOS tablets and phones are supported.

You can sign in to Office on up to five devices at the same time, which includes any combination of PCs, Macs, tablets, and phones.

How to Install the Microsoft 365 Free Trial

A Microsoft account is required to sign up for the free trial of Microsoft 365. A new account can be created from the Microsoft Account page.

1. After you create an account, visit the Try Microsoft 365 for Free page and select Try 1 month free.

   If this is your first time using your email address on Microsoft's website, you might be asked some basic questions, such as your name.

2. Press Next on the first page.

3. Choose a payment method. Although the trial is free, Microsoft gathers your payment details during this process so that you'll be charged after the trial period ends. You can cancel at any time to prevent this (we'll go over that below).

   As long as this is your first time signing up for the free trial with this email address, you won't be charged until after the trial period ends.

4. Follow the steps necessary to add your payment details. This involves either entering your credit or debit card information, signing into PayPal, or detailing your bank information.

5. Select Subscribe to start the trial. Optionally uncheck the promotional email option if you don't want those.

   If you plan on not canceling at the end of the trial so that you can keep MS Office, the price you'll be charged is shown on this summary page.

6. Open the Installs tab on the page you were just redirected to, and then select Install Office.

7. Accept the default option unless you have reason to choose something else. For example, select Other options and choose a different language or version, if necessary. Then, select Install to download the suite of applications.

8. When the file has finished downloading, open it and follow the on-screen setup instructions to install Microsoft 365 on your computer for free.

Details on the Microsoft 365 Free Trial

The Microsoft 365 free trial is free for a single month, with no strings attached. You must pay for a subscription after the trial period is over unless you cancel before the deadline.

You aren't charged for anything at all for an entire month. Because you provided payment details to get the trial version, that information is linked to your Microsoft account.

To turn off automatic payments, cancel your subscription before the month has passed. If you cancel your subscription the same day you create it, for example, you will not be charged anything at the end of the trial and you can still use Microsoft 365 up until the last day of the trial.

How to Cancel Your Microsoft 365 Free Trial

Cancel your Microsoft 365 subscription before your free trial is over if you don't want to continue using the products. You can do this any time during the trial period and the software will work until the expiration date.

The date for when the subscription will renew is shown at the top of your Services & subscription page next to Annual subscription, and the date you started the trial is shown at the bottom under your billing history.

The quickest way to cancel the trial is to open the Manage part of your account and select Cancel subscription. On the following page, confirm by choosing Turn off recurring billing.

After canceling, you'll notice that the Annual subscription date changes from "Renews on " to "Expires on ". That's the easiest way to tell that you've successfully prevented Microsoft 365 from auto-charging you after the trial.