Microsoft Offers Free Microsoft 365 Personal Subscription to US College Students

Microsoft 365 Personal is now free for US college students for a year

Microsoft is giving away Microsoft 365 Personal subscriptions to all US college students. This subscription gives students free access to Microsoft's Office apps and the Copilot AI assistant integration for a year, after which the students are eligible for a 50 percent discount to continue the subscription. While most students have access to education versions of Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, Microsoft's offer is for student's own personal Microsoft accounts, and is available to claim until October 31st. Microsoft 365 Personal is usually $99.99 a year, or $9.99 a month, and includes 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed the free offer as part of the White House's AI Education Task Force meeting yesterday, and announced other commitments to meet the Presidential AI Challenge and the AI Education Executive Order. Microsoft is funding $1.25 million in educator grants, offering free LinkedIn AI courses for job seekers, students, and teachers, and expanding access to its AI tools in schools.

Microsoft 365 Personal With Copilot Is Now Free for College Students

Don't miss out on our latest stories. Add PCMag as a preferred source on Google. Microsoft has a last-minute back-to-school deal for college students, who can now get 12 months of Microsoft 365 Personal with Copilot AI integration for free. The plan includes productivity apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook, image editing app Designer, and Microsoft Defender. It also gets you 1TB of storage, which Microsoft estimates is sufficient to store up to 500,000 photos. Microsoft 365 Personal usually costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year. With the new offer, though, it's free for 12 months and eligible for a 50% discount thereafter ($4.99 per month). While students might get a Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace account assigned by their college, this offer applies to their personal Microsoft accounts, The Verge reports. Students have until Oct. 31 to sign up. They may be required to prove their student status periodically. Microsoft accepts proofs in the form of a school email account, enrollment details, student ID, verification code, current progress report, dated class schedule, or acceptance letter. CEO Satya Nadella made the announcement at the White House's AI Education Task Force meeting on Thursday. Other commitments include $1.25 million in educator grants, free LinkedIn Learning AI courses for students, teachers, and job-seekers, and AI training and certifications for community colleges. Meanwhile, Microsoft is ending support for Windows 10 on Oct. 14. If you wish to continue on the aging OS, you'll have to enroll in the Extended Security Updates program. As far as Microsoft 365 apps are concerned, they'll receive security updates for three years after Windows 10 reaches the end of support.

Microsoft offers a one-year free Microsoft 365 subscription to college students -- eligible users get 50% off the monthly plan after the first year

Software giant Microsoft has offered a free one-year Microsoft 365 subscription to college students in the U.S., provided they sign up using their college email address. According to the company, eligible users will get a further 50% discount on the monthly subscription for Microsoft 365 Personal, saving them $5 a month. The subscription will provide students with access to desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, as well as a terabyte of cloud storage on OneDrive. More importantly, it will give them free access to Copilot, the company's AI tool. "AI is the defining technology of our time, and how we empower people to use it will shape our country's future," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. He also added, "At Microsoft, we believe that delivering on the real promise of AI depends on how broadly it's diffused...And that's why, today, we are making new commitments. For students, we are announcing today that they are making Microsoft 365 Personal, including Copilot, free for 12 months to every college student in the United States. This includes our community colleges." Nadella also promised that K-12 students, teachers, and staff will get access to Microsoft 365 Copilot later. This move is part of Redmond's commitment to the White House's efforts to increase AI education in the U.S., in support of President Donald Trump's executive order, Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth. The program is designed to train both teachers and students in artificial intelligence, helping to develop an American workforce that's ready to address the rising threat of this technology. Many industry leaders have been warning that AI will decimate white-collar jobs, with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei stating that it can potentially push unemployment to 20%. Ford CEO Jim Farley is warning that the company will eliminate half of its office positions in the U.S. We're already seeing this trend. Although the widespread use of AI hasn't yet resulted in mass layoffs, a Stanford study revealed a 13% drop in entry-level coding and customer service positions in the past three years, at least in AI-vulnerable fields. But whether you want to learn more about AI or need an office suite you can use locally on your device, you're going to save almost $100 with this offer. And if you don't want to continue paying $5 a month after the free period ends, Microsoft also added instructions near the bottom of the page telling you how to turn off recurring billing to avoid surprise charges on your account.

Microsoft gives US students a free year of Microsoft 365 Personal

For everyone else, a yearly Microsoft 365 Personal subscription costs $99.99. It provides ransomware protection for photos and files stored on OneDrive, 1 TB of secure cloud storage, and can be used on up to five devices simultaneously. As Microsoft President Brad Smith also revealed yesterday, students who claim their free subscription can also receive a 50% discount if they keep it after the first year. "Today, we are making Microsoft 365 Personal free for 12 months to every college student in the United States," Smith said. "This includes all students attending community colleges. Microsoft 365 Personal includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook with Copilot, our AI assistant, built right in." The offer will be available until October 31, 2025, for university and college students in accredited institutions who want to upgrade their personal accounts, and it will require them to provide a valid university email address. "Verify your student status by providing a school email account, enrollment details, school account, International Student Identity Card, verification code, or documentation such as dated student ID, current progress report, dated class schedule, or acceptance letter," Microsoft says. This was announced during White House's AI Education Task Force meeting on Thursday, when Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also unveiled additional commitments to empower U.S. teachers and students. The company will also provide $1.25 million in educator grants through the Presidential AI Challenge, certifications for community colleges and AI training for job seekers, as well as expanded access to its AI-powered Copilot digital assistant in schools across the United States. Earlier this month, Microsoft also announced that Word for Windows will start saving all new documents to the cloud (in OneDrive) by default, a feature currently being tested with the help of Microsoft 365 Insiders in the Beta Channel, and that will roll out to Excel for Windows and PowerPoint for Windows users later this year. In April, the company reminded customers that Office 2016 and Office 2019 will reach the end of extended support on October 14, 2025. In May, it also announced plans to keep supporting Office apps on Windows 10 until 2028

Microsoft 365 Is Free for a Year, If You're in College

Microsoft 365 Personal OS Windows, MacOS, iPhone, iPad, Android Brand Microsoft Price $100/year Developer(s) Microsoft $100 at Microsoft Expand Collapse Microsoft is giving all U.S. college students a free 12-month subscription to Microsoft 365 Personal. This is available to claim until October 31, for students who are not already subscribers of the Microsoft 365 Personal student offer. This subscription is normally priced at $100 per year or $10 per month and includes the suite of productivity applications and cloud storage that comes with Microsoft 365. To claim the free 12-month subscription, you need to be a full- and part-time university or college student in an accredited U.S. institution, and you must verify your student status. Like with most subscription offers to students, you can verify using a college or university email address. Other accepted verification methods include providing enrollment details, a school account, an International Student Identity Card, a verification code, or documentation such as a dated student ID, current progress report, dated class schedule, or an acceptance letter. Even though you will not be charged for 12 months, you'll still need to put a card in your account. After the initial free year, the subscription will automatically convert to a discounted rate. This discount is also impressive, saving students over 50% off the regular price of Microsoft 365 Personal. You can cancel at any time to avoid future charges, but if you choose to continue, you can keep the savings for as long as you are eligible and re-verify your student status annually. The Microsoft 365 Personal subscription has a lot of apps that are great for school. The core of the offering is the suite of classic Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook, all of which now come with the integrated power of Copilot, Microsoft's AI assistant. Beyond the core productivity apps, the subscription includes 1 TB of secure cloud storage with OneDrive. This storage space is enough to save up to 500,000 photos directly from a phone, and it makes sure that all photos, videos, and projects created throughout your time in school are safe and accessible, even after graduation. I have used Microsoft 365, and my favorite app is Clipchamp. I use the Google alternative for everything else, but Clipchamp is very good for editing videos. While the performance isn't perfect, it does a lot of what Adobe Premiere does without the pricey subscription. Microsoft 365 also comes with a security feature that tends to get overlooked. With Microsoft Defender, you can protect your devices against malware and other online threats. The app has anti-phishing protection, around-the-clock antivirus scanning, and risk alerts. Of course, all of this will come with Copilot integration and AI features where they normally are. For example, Microsoft Designer comes with Microsoft 365 and is good at turning ideas into content, like social media posts, presentations, or invitations. Copilot is made to help with tasks like drafting documents, analyzing data in spreadsheets, creating presentations, and managing calendars and emails. If you want to capitalize on this limited-time offer, go to the sign-up page and subscribe. No rush, though, because you have a few months before the deal expires. Source: Microsoft

Microsoft 365 will be free for a year if you're a college student

Say what you will about America's tech titans cozying up to the current administration, but at least the kids are benefiting. As part of a Thursday meeting with the White House's AI Education Task Force -- chaired by Melania Trump -- Microsoft said it would provide a free Microsoft 365 Personal subscription to college students for a year's time. Microsoft normally charges $99.99 annually for that Microsoft 365 Personal subscription, so that's a fairly substantial savings for a college student. Students will need to sign up for the (free) subscription using a college ID email address. The subscription includes everything that the Personal subscription already does, including access to Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and more, plus Copilot and 1 TB of online storage. There is a catch, of course: the first year's free. After that, students will either be asked to pay another year's subscription -- though that will be discounted by half, to about $50 per year or $4.99 per month, Microsoft said. Microsoft is also offering students and teachers free AI courses via LinkedIn Learning, the company said. Microsoft isn't the only company trying to convince U.S. students to join their programs. In addition to the typical student discounts offered to college students. Google said in April that the company will offer Google Gemini Advanced, plus perks like NotebookLM Plus and 2TB of cloud storage for free.

College Students Can Now Get Microsoft 365 Personal for Free

The plan comes with access to Office apps, Copilot support on desktop, 1TB of cloud storage, and Microsoft Defender. Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source. There are a lot of productivity apps available today, but many still see Microsoft Office as the gold standard. The problem is, unlike Google's suite of apps, Office is largely paywalled: While you can use the web apps for free, if you want to access these programs in full, you'll need to subscribe to Microsoft 365, adding another monthly or yearly cost to your budget. Luckily for some of us, that's now changing -- at least for the next year. As The Verge reports, Microsoft is now offering 12 months of Microsoft 365 Personal for free to college students. This plan, which typically costs either $99.99 per year or $9.99 per month, comes with Microsoft Office apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook across platforms like PC, Mac, iOS, and Android. In addition to the Office apps themselves, Microsoft 365 Personal also comes with Microsoft Copilot access in the desktop version of these apps, as well as Designer, and AI-powered image generator and editor. Microsoft has been pushing AI integration in its apps for over two years now, and whether or not you find these tools useful, they are available as part of this free plan. It's important to note, however, that Copilot in Excel requires AutoSave enabled, which saves all files to OneDrive, while Copilot use in Outlook only works with @outlook.com, @hotmail.com, @live.com, or @msn.com accounts. Microsoft is also throwing in 1TB of cloud storage as part of this plan, as well as Microsoft Defender support. You'll need to download the Defender app to your devices of choice. This plan will net you one free year of Microsoft 365 Personal, but you won't have to pay full price once it expires. Instead, Microsoft is offering a 50% discount on the monthly rate of Microsoft 365 Personal, so long as you are still an eligible student. Microsoft isn't really restricting this deal to specific types of college students. As long as you are enrolled in an accredited college or university, you are eligible for this promotion. That includes both full and part-time students. That said, you will need to verify your eligibility as a current college student. Microsoft says you can verify your status with your school's email account, school account, "enrollment details," International Student Identity Cad, verification code, or other documentation like a dated student ID, up to date progress report, current class schedule, or school acceptance letter. Like other student plans, Microsoft will check your eligibility once a year. As long as you meet the requirements during this check, you'll be set with your discounted plan for another 12 months.

College Students Can Grab Free Microsoft 365 + Copilot for a Year; Here's How

It brings desktop apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, and 1TB of cloud storage. Following a White House AI Education Task Force meeting, hosted by First Lady Melania Trump, Microsoft announced that it's making Microsoft 365 Personal with Copilot free for all US college students for 12 months. It's part of a broader push to expand AI access among students. Microsoft 365 Personal brings access to desktop apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook. In addition, all Microsoft 365 apps will come with Copilot AI integration and 1TB of cloud storage. College students in the US can grab the offer from here. The offer is valid till October 31, 2025. In the announcement, Microsoft's vice chair and president, Brad Smith writes, "Microsoft announced a sweeping set of new commitments to support the Presidential AI Challenge and the AI Education Executive Order, marking a major step forward in bringing cutting-edge AI tools and training to classrooms across the US. " What is interesting is that Microsoft is including all full and part-time college students, even those attending community colleges. Students need to sign up with their school/college email account, student ID, acceptance letter, or other documentation. Earlier in May, Microsoft had announced a similar three-month free subscription to Microsoft 365. Apart from that, Microsoft says after one year of free service, college students can get 50% off on the Microsoft 365 plan going forward. Note that if you are already subscribed to Microsoft 365 Personal, you are not eligible for this offer.