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Verify academic eligibility for Microsoft 365 Education subscriptions

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If you're part of an academic institution, you can sign up for a free trial of Microsoft 365 Education. After Microsoft verifies the academic eligibility of your school, you can buy Microsoft 365 products at academic prices, including products that are available for free, like Office 365 A1 for faculty and Office 365 A1 for students. You have until the end of the free trial to convert it to a paid subscription at academic prices.

This article describes how to verify your school's academic eligibility, check the eligibility status, and buy subscriptions at academic prices after your school is approved.

Before you begin

You must already have a Microsoft 365 Education trial subscription. If you don't have a trial subscription, visit https://www.microsoft.com/education/products/office, enter your school email address, and select Get started.

Verify that you have a trial subscription

If you're not sure if you have a Microsoft 365 Education trial subscription, use these steps to verify that you do.

  1. Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center.
    • If you're using the Simplified view, select Subscriptions.
    • If you're using the Dashboard view, go to the Billing > Your products page.
  2. Look for Office 365 A1 for faculty Trial and Office 365 A1 for students Trial. If you don't find these subscriptions, visit https://www.microsoft.com/education/products/office, enter your school email address, and select Get started.

Verify your school's academic eligibility

When you sign up for a free trial, you complete the eligibility verification wizard to provide your school's domain. In most cases, you receive immediate approval or denial of your school's eligibility. In some cases, we require more information to complete a manual eligibility review and reach out to you with a questionnaire to complete. This review can take up to 10 business days. After we review your school's eligibility information, we send an email that notifies you of your school's status.

You can close the academic verification wizard before you enter a domain and start using the trial subscription right away. However, you aren't eligible for academic prices until you complete the verification process. You must complete the process before the end of your free trial to convert to a paid subscription and continue to use it. This also applies when you convert to the free Office 365 A1 subscription.

Important

If you exited the verification wizard before entering a domain, you can resume the academic verification wizard at any time during your free trial.

If your academic eligibility is denied, see My school isn't eligible. What do I do now?

Check the status of your school's academic eligibility

After you have a Microsoft 365 Education trial, you can check the status of your school's academic eligibility at any time.

  1. Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center.

  2. On the home page, find the Billing card. The Billing card indicates the status of the verification process. The card shows one of the following statuses: approved, pending, declined, or add your domain.

    Note

    If you don't see one of those statuses, it means that you don't have a Microsoft 365 Education trial subscription. To start a free trial, visit https://www.microsoft.com/education/products/office, enter your school email address, and select Get started.

Buy subscriptions at academic prices

After your school's eligibility is verified, you can buy subscriptions at academic prices. You can also convert your free trial to a paid subscription. If you want to convert your trial subscription, you must do so before the end of the trial period.

  1. Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center.

    • If you're using the Simplified view, select the Subscriptions tab, then select Add more products.
    • If you're using the Dashboard view, go to the Billing > Purchase services page. For some customers, the page is named Marketplace.

  2. To view academic offers, select the Education tab.

    Note

    The Education tab isn't displayed if your eligibility is pending.

  3. When you find the offer that you want to buy, select it, then select Buy.

  4. Complete the checkout process to buy the subscription.

When does my free trial end?

You can find the expiration date for your free trial subscription on the Your products page. You can also extend the trial.

  1. Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center.
    • If you're using the Simplified view, select Subscriptions.
    • If you're using the Dashboard view, go to the Billing > Your products page.
  2. Select the trial subscription.
  3. In the Trial subscription section, the expiration date is shown.
  4. If you want to extend the trial, select Extend trial end date. You can only do extend your trial once per free trial subscription.

My school isn't eligible. What do I do now?

If your school doesn't qualify as a Microsoft Qualified Academic Institution, you can still buy commercial offers in the admin center on the Billing > Purchase services page. For some customers, the page is named Marketplace. If your organization is a nonprofit group, your group might be eligible for subscriptions for nonprofits. To learn more, see Discounts and donations for nonprofits.

If you have questions about your school's academic eligibility decision, contact support.

Next steps

To learn how to deploy Microsoft 365 for your school, visit Microsoft 365 Education documentation and resources. Next, you can add users and assign licenses at the same time. If you need to, you can also buy more licenses for your subscription.

Related content

Microsoft 365 Education Documentation for IT Admins (article links)
Microsoft Teams for Education (product page)
Understand subscriptions and licenses in Microsoft 365 for business (article)
Assign licenses to users (article)
Buy or remove subscription licenses (article)
Move users to a different subscription (article)