Upgrade your plan message despite active Microsoft 365 subscription

Question

Hello,

I have an active Microsoft 365 subscription. In Word, under File → Account, the product appears as activated and correctly linked to my Microsoft 365 subscription.

However, in the Office apps I keep seeing a button/message at the top saying “Upgrade your plan”.

If I sign out and sign back in, the message disappears, but after restarting the PC it appears again.

I use Office with one account, while the Microsoft 365 subscription is associated with another personal Microsoft account. The product still appears activated in File → Account.

Could you please confirm whether this is just a promotional message or if there may be a license/account issue? Is there any way to disable or remove this “Upgrade your plan” message?

Thank you.

Answer 1

Hello Matteo Bregani

From what you described, your Office apps show as activated and linked to a valid Microsoft 365 subscription, but the “Upgrade your plan” message keeps appearing and returns after restarting the PC.

Could you please confirm whether this is just a promotional message or if there may be a license/account issue?

This behavior has also been observed by other users who have active subscriptions. In those cases, Office continues to work normally, and all features remain available even when the “Upgrade your plan” banner appears. Some have found that the banner may disappear after signing out and back in or refreshing the license, but it tends to return after some time. This may indicate that the message is being shown as a promotional message rather than a sign of a licensing issue.

See: MS365 - how to remove the "Upgrade you plan" banner

Is there any way to disable or remove this “Upgrade your plan” message?

Currently, there doesn’t seem to be an option to disable this message long term. In this situation, I would recommend submitting feedback so the product team can review and potentially improve how this message is presented. Since this is a user‑to‑user community forum, we can only share suggestions based on our findings and personal experiences, but we don’t have the ability to make changes directly on the product side.

You can share your feedback about this directly from within the app:

Open Word (or any Office app)

• Go to File > Feedback
• Describe the issue and include a screenshot if possible

Or via the feedback portal:

• Go to https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/
• Sign in > choose Microsoft 365 / Office > submit your suggestion

This helps ensure it reaches the right team and may lead to adjustments in future updates.

I use Office with one account, while the Microsoft 365 subscription is associated with another personal Microsoft account. The product still appears activated in File → Account.

In terms of this behavior, you could try clearing any saved Office credentials to see if that helps:

• Press Windows key + S, type Credential Manager, and open it
• Select Windows Credentials
• Look for entries related to Microsoft Office, Office16, or ADAL
• Click each one and choose Remove
• Restart your PC, then open Word and sign in again

Hope this helps. Thank you so much for your patience!

Best regards.

Answer 2

The “Upgrade your plan” banner is a subscription-related notification, not just a generic promotion. It appears when the signed-in account in the Office apps does not fully match the subscription that provides the license, or when Office detects a mismatch or pending change in the subscription state.

Key points from the described setup:

• Office is activated and shows as licensed under File → Account.
• Office is being used with one account, while the Microsoft 365 subscription is associated with another personal Microsoft account.
• Signing out and back in temporarily clears the banner, but it returns after restart.

This behavior is consistent with account/licensing notices described for Microsoft 365 subscriptions:

• When Office detects a subscription issue or mismatch, it shows account or subscription notices and can eventually move to reduced functionality mode if the correct subscription is not consistently verified.
• If the wrong account is signed in, or if Office cannot reliably verify the active subscription, it may show subscription-related notices even if the apps appear activated.

To minimize or remove the banner:

1. Ensure the account that actually owns the active Microsoft 365 subscription is the primary account in Office:
   • In Word (or another app), go to File → Account.
   • Under “User Information,” sign out of all accounts.
   • Sign back in only with the Microsoft account that has the active Microsoft 365 subscription.
2. Make sure the subscription is active and correctly associated with that account:
   • For home subscriptions, verify status on the Subscriptions page at https://account.microsoft.com/services as described in the subscription-notice guidance.
3. Keep Office updated so subscription changes and license checks are applied correctly:
   • In Word, go to File → Account → Update Options → Update Now.

If multiple accounts must be used on the same device (for example, one for sign-in and another for subscription), Office can continue to show subscription-related notices because it prefers a single, clearly licensed account. In that case, the banner may reappear periodically and cannot be permanently disabled from within Office.

If the banner persists even when only the correct subscription account is signed in and verified as active, this indicates an ongoing account/license mismatch rather than a purely promotional message. In that scenario, contacting Microsoft support to review the account and license association is recommended.

---

References:

• A subscription notice appears when I open a Microsoft 365 application
• Office error "Account Notice: We've run into a problem with your Microsoft 365 subscription"
• Microsoft 365 Apps activation error: "The products we found in your account can't be used to activate"
• Microsoft 365 Apps activation error: "We've run into a problem with your Office 365 subscription"
• Microsoft 365 subscription features aren't available in Office apps