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