Activate Office

Activate Office 365, 2019, 2016, and 2013

When you start an Office app that's not activated, you'll be prompted to sign in to Office. Be sure to sign in using the Microsoft account, or work or school account, that you used to buy or subscribe to Office.

If the Activation wizard appears, Office needs your help to activate. Follow the prompts in the wizard to activate Office.

Activate Office that's pre-installed on a new Windows 10 device

If this screen appears, Office is installed as an Office 365 Home trial

You'll see this screen if you sign in to Office that was pre-installed on a new device but don't have an Office product associated with your account.

To use Office on your new device, you can activate Office as a 1-month trial of Office 365 Home. You can also buy Office, add Office to an existing Office 365 subscription, or enter a product key from a new product key card. If you have an older copy of Office, you can install that instead.

Activate an Office purchase or offer that's included on a new Windows 10 device

If this screen appears, Office is installed as a one-year subscription or one-time purchase

A digital Office product key is transmitted to your PC, so you won't need or receive a printed product key. You activate Office by selecting the Activate Office button. Be sure to activate Office as soon possible. The offer will expire 180 days after you activate Windows.

Activate Office HUP

If you bought Office Professional Plus, Visio Professional, or Project Professional through your employer's Microsoft HUP benefit, select I don't want to sign in or create an account (at the bottom of the screen) and enter your product key.

Activate a brand new Office product key

If you bought a new Office product key card, or you received a product key when you bought Office through an online store, go to office.com/setup and follow the on-screen prompts. This is a one-time process that adds your new Office product to your Microsoft account. After you redeem your key, you can install Office

Activate Office if you see a "limit reached" error

If you see this message, it means you need to deactivate or sign out of Office on another device before you can activate Office on this device.