Is Office for Web free or do I need a license to use it?

Question

Is Office for Web free or do I need a license to use it?

Akanksh Narayana 21

I am trying to understand if Office for Web free or if it requires a particular license to use, especially if I want to edit the files in the web version.

I have found articles that mention you would need a license, and few places that mention that Office for Web is free to use.

Any information or resources that help me answer this query is much appreciated.

Viki Ji_MSFT 4,471 Reputation points

2021-08-03T02:05:30.92+00:00

@Akanksh Narayana ,
Please check if SimpleSamples's reply is helpful to you.
Any updates, please let us know.
Akanksh Narayana 21 Reputation points

2021-08-06T06:58:24.443+00:00

@Viki Ji_MSFT Still looking for clarifications on this

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Viki Ji_MSFT 4,471 Reputation points

2021-08-03T02:05:30.92+00:00

@Akanksh Narayana ,
Please check if SimpleSamples's reply is helpful to you.
Any updates, please let us know.
Akanksh Narayana 21 Reputation points

2021-08-06T06:58:24.443+00:00

@Viki Ji_MSFT Still looking for clarifications on this

Answer 1

Viki Ji_MSFT 4,471

@Akanksh Narayana ,

Thanks for your reply and sharing. I apologize for the late reply.

Per my research, for individual users, if you have a Microsoft account, you could use Office for web and 5G OneDrive space for free.

The links you provided are more targeted at users in organizations that subscribe to Microsoft 365.
For more information: Full subscription comparison table.

Hope the information is helpful to you.

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Viki Ji_MSFT 4,471 Reputation points

2021-08-10T09:03:12.5+00:00

@Akanksh Narayana ,
If you have a chance to review this thread, please check if our information is helpful to you.
Akanksh Narayana 21 Reputation points

2021-08-16T11:51:03.233+00:00

Sure, thanks for the response @Viki Ji_MSFT . Yes, I was looking in the context of an organization how this would work.

My use case is to understand how many users in an organization actually need a license assigned to them. We have a lot of users who just use the web version of M365 apps (mainly word and excel), so I was seeing if we need to assign these users a M365 license.

Let me know if you need more information about this. Would be happy to clarify.
Viki Ji_MSFT 4,471 Reputation points

2021-08-17T08:34:17.237+00:00

@Akanksh Narayana ,
Thanks for your reply and clarification.
As I said before, every user with a Microsoft account can use the web version of Office for free and has 5 GB of free OneDrive cloud storage space.

The Microsoft 365 license provides many online services and 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage.

The applicable users of the link that you provided that require a license are users of organizations that have subscribed to the M365 license, and they need the appropriate M365 license to use the Office for web. As shown in the PDF file I provided earlier.
For more information: Reimagine productivity with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams

In your use case, you can choose whether to assign appropriate permissions to users based on your needs.
One of the biggest advantages is that OneDrive's cloud storage expand to 1 TB.
Hope the information is helpful to you.
Akanksh Narayana 21 Reputation points

2021-08-17T11:20:28.077+00:00

@Viki Ji_MSFT Thanks for the explaining this clearly. This was helpful.

Answer 2

Sam of Simple Samples 5,546

What articles say we need a license? Are they official Microsoft articles? If you can provide a link to the specific articles then you will get specific answers.

Free Microsoft Office Online says it is free. Also see Office for the web service description - Service Descriptions.

Answer 3

Thanks for the response.

To edit a document in Office for the web (edit mode), you need a suite license, such as Office 365 Enterprise E1.

What's new in the office for web and the website you have linked above - says it's free

You try to use Word for the web, Excel for the web, or other Office for the web products and end up on the Microsoft 365 Settings page showing that you don’t have the needed license

Not all Microsoft 365 plans include Office for the web. What’s available depends on what’s been configured by your organization.

These are the articles I am referring to.

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Is Office for Web free or do I need a license to use it?

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