Buying guide
· 5 min read· Updated 2026-05-05Best Office for students in 2026
Free Microsoft 365 from your university, perpetual Office 2024 Home & Student, or LibreOffice — the right pick by budget and degree.
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- Buyer's guide
The free options most students miss
Microsoft offers Office 365 A1 free of charge to verified students at thousands of universities. Sign in at office.com with your .edu / .ac.uk / .uni email — if your school is enrolled, you'll see the full suite available instantly.
Google Workspace for Education is the second most common free option, dominant in K–12 but available at many universities too.
When to pay (and what to pay)
If you graduate, transfer, or your university isn't enrolled, you'll need to buy. The cheapest legit route depends on whether you need Outlook.
| Option | Price | Apps | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office 2024 Home & Student | €24.90 | Word/Excel/PPT/OneNote | Perpetual, 1 PC or Mac |
| Office 2024 Home & Business | €49.90 | + Outlook | Commercial use OK (side hustle) |
| Microsoft 365 Personal | €69/yr | Full + 1 TB OneDrive | Includes Copilot Chat |
| LibreOffice | Free | Writer/Calc/Impress | 100% offline, .docx-compatible |
Which to pick by degree
Some degrees lean heavily on specific features — choose accordingly.
- · Humanities / Law: any option works. LibreOffice + Zotero is a popular free combo.
- · STEM / Engineering: Excel is hard to replace (Solver, Data Analysis ToolPak). Office 2024 Home & Student or M365.
- · Business / Finance: Excel's pivot tables and Power Query make Office 2024 the practical pick.
- · Computer Science: VS Code (free) + LibreOffice is usually enough. Add Office only if your university requires .docx submissions.
- · Architecture / Design: PowerPoint Designer + Visio. Consider M365 for Loop + Copilot.
Frequently asked questions
- Is the free university Microsoft 365 the full version?
- Yes — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Teams and 1 TB OneDrive. The only catch: licence ends when you leave the institution.
- Can I keep files when my student licence ends?
- Yes. Files in OneDrive get a 90-day grace period to download. Documents on disk are unaffected.
Recommended licenses
Office Professional Plus 2024 — 1 PC
Perpetual · 1 PC · Windows
The latest perpetual Office suite for one Windows PC.
Microsoft 365 Personal — 1 user · 5 devices
1 user · 1 year · 5 devices
Premium Office and 1 TB OneDrive for one person.
Microsoft 365 Family — 6 users · 30 devices
6 users · 1 year · 30 devices
Premium Office for up to 6 people with 1 TB OneDrive each.
Related guides
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Office 2021, 2024 or Microsoft 365? A practical guide to picking the right Office edition by use case, hardware and budget.
- Office 2024 vs Microsoft 365 — which is better?
Head-to-head comparison of Office 2024 (one-time purchase) and Microsoft 365 (subscription) — total cost of ownership, cloud storage, multi-device support and feature differences.
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