Update to work across phones, laptops, and tablets

Office 2016 includes apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. They’re available as a one-time purchase for use on a single PC. Microsoft 365 plans include always-up-to-date versions of these apps plus other services that are enabled over the internet, including cloud storage with OneDrive. With Microsoft 365 you get the fully installed productivity apps on PCs, Macs, tablets (including iPad® and Android™ tablets) and phones. Microsoft 365 plans are available as a monthly or annual subscription. Learn more.

See system requirements for compatible versions of Windows and macOS, and for other feature requirements.

You don’t need to be connected to the internet to use productivity apps, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, because the apps are fully installed on your computer.

However, you’ll need internet access to install and activate all the latest releases of desktop apps and all Microsoft 365 subscription plans. You’ll also need internet access to manage your Microsoft 365 subscription account, for example to install Microsoft 365 on other PCs or to change billing options. Internet access is also required to access documents stored on OneDrive, unless you install the OneDrive desktop app.

You should also connect to the internet regularly to keep your apps up to date and benefit from automatic upgrades. If you don’t connect to the internet at least every 31 days, your apps will go into reduced functionality mode, which means that you can view or print your documents but can’t edit the documents or create new ones. To reactivate your apps, reconnect to the internet.

Yes. Documents you’ve created belong fully to you. You can choose to store them in the cloud on OneDrive or locally on your PC or Mac.

If you cancel your subscription or it expires, you can still access and download all your files by signing into OneDrive directly using the Microsoft account you used to set up Microsoft 365. You do lose the additional storage that comes with your subscription, so you must save your files elsewhere or buy more OneDrive storage if the contents of your OneDrive account exceed the free storage quota.

No, while Microsoft 365 offers the best collaboration experience, others can view and edit your files for free using the web versions of Microsoft 365 apps such as Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. 

If you purchase a subscription that automatically renews, your subscription starts when you complete your purchase. You can purchase automatically renewing subscriptions from Microsoft365.com, MicrosoftStore.com, iTunes®, and some other retailers. If you purchase a prepaid subscription, your subscription starts when you activate it and land on your My Account page. You can purchase prepaid subscriptions from a retailer, reseller, or Microsoft support agent.

If you have an active Microsoft 365 Family subscription, you can share it with up to five other people (six total). Each person you share your subscription with can use any of your available installs on their PCs, Macs, iPads, Android tablets, Windows tablets, iPhones® or Android phones, get an additional 1 TB of cloud storage, and manage their own installs from www.account.microsoft.com.

To add someone to your subscription, visit your My Account page and follow the on-screen instructions to add a user. Each person you add will receive an email with the steps they need to follow. Once they’ve accepted and completed the steps, their information, including the installations they’re using, will appear on your My Account page. You can also stop sharing your subscription with someone or remove a device they are using at on your My Account page. 

The cloud is a friendly way of describing web-based computing services that outside of your home or organization. When you use cloud-based services, your IT infrastructure resides off your property (off-premises) and is maintained by a third party (hosted), instead of residing on a server at your home or business (on-premises) that you maintain. With Microsoft 365, for example, information storage, computation, and software are located and managed remotely on servers owned by Microsoft. Many services you use every day are part of the cloud, such as web-based email, mobile banking, and online photo storage. Because this infrastructure is located online or “in the cloud,” you can access it virtually anywhere, from a PC , tablet, mobile device, or other device with an internet connection.