Microsoft Office | Microsoft Volume Licensing

Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft Office suites help enable enterprise productivity across devices. For Volume Licensing customers, Microsoft Office delivers new ways of collaborating, making it easier to support flexible work styles. See what’s new with Office and its licensing, learn how to buy, and get answers to frequently asked questions about licensing Office suites.

Licensing editions How to buy FAQ

Licensing editions

Office 365

Office 365 is Microsoft’s most complete, secure suite of cloud productivity services designed for the cloud. It's sold as suites available for every organization irrespective of their size. Some suites include Office 365 Pro Plus, which delivers the full downloadable Office client along with a set of web-based applications (including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), business-class email, file sharing, meetings and communications solutions, and an internal collaboration social network. Each suite helps keep your data private and protected from potential threats by focusing on security needs at every level. Office 365 gives users access to the productivity solutions from anywhere, provides simple management IT solutions, and comes with a financially backed Service Level Agreement.

The following Online Services are included in the Office 365 suites, available through Volume Licensing.

Online Services		Office 365 F3	Office 365 E1	Office 365 E3	Office 365 E5
Office for the web
Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise
Exchange Online K
Exchange Online Plan 1
Exchange Online Plan 2
SharePoint Online K
SharePoint Online Plan 1
SharePoint Online Plan 2
Skype for Business Online Plan 1
Skype for Business Online Plan 2
Teams
Audio Conferencing
Phone System
OneDrive for Business Plan 1
OneDrive for Business Plan 2
Microsoft Stream for Office 365 for Firstline
Microsoft Stream for Office 365 for E3
Microsoft Stream for Office 365 for E5
Microsoft Power Automate for Office 365
Microsoft MyAnalytics
Microsoft PowerApps for Office 365
Microsoft Power BI Pro
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 2
Office 365 Advanced Compliance
Office 365 Advanced eDiscovery
Office 365 Data Loss Prevention (email & files)
Communication Data Loss Prevention (Teams)
Office 365 Cloud App Security

Office 2019

Office 2019 is the latest software that gives you access to your familiar Office applications, email, calendar, HD video conferencing, and most up-to-date documents.*

Software Assurance customers benefit from an efficient migration path to Office and can take advantage of training, deployment planning, technical support benefits, and more to get the most out of the software.

*_{An appropriate device, internet connection, and supported Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, or Safari web browser are required. Use of some devices or functionalities may require the purchase of separate licenses.}

The following software is included in the Office 2019 suites, available through Volume Licensing.

Software		Office Standard 2019		Office Professional Plus 2019		Office 2019 for Mac
Access 2019
Excel 2019
OneNote
Outlook 2019
PowerPoint 2019
Publisher 2019
Skype for Business 2019
Web Apps
Word 2019
Work at Home
Excel 2019 for Mac
Outlook 2019 for Mac
PowerPoint 2019 for Mac
Word for Mac 2019

How to buy

Microsoft Office is available through a variety of licensing models to meet customers’ needs. Office 365 products are available as User Subscription Licenses (USLs) and Office 2019 products are available as software licenses.

Office 365

USLs are licensed on a per-user basis, where each user who accesses an Office 365 subscription must have a USL. There are four types of USLs: Full USL, From SA USL, Add-on USL, and Step-up USL.

Full USLs: For new customers who haven't previously purchased a corresponding solution from Microsoft and for Office on-premises software customers who don't have Software Assurance.

Add-on USLs: For Office on-premises software customers who want to try an Office 365 cloud solution without giving up their on-premises solution or who are not ready to fully transition to the cloud. Add-on USLs provide the full benefits of Office 365 at a fraction of the cost. To purchase Add-on USLs, customers must have and maintain Software Assurance on their qualifying on-premises solution. Add-on USLs must be purchased on the same agreement or enrollment as the qualifying licenses.

From SA USLs: ”From SA” is available to customers with Software Assurance and Office on-premises software customers who want to transition to the cloud. From SA USLs recognize your investment in Microsoft solutions and are offered at a discounted price. From SA USLs also offer cloud-relevant Software Assurance benefits. To purchase, customers must have and maintain Software Assurance on their qualifying on-premises solution. These licenses may be purchased only at contract renewal and on the same agreement or enrollment as the qualifying licenses.

Step-up USLs: For Office 365 customers who want to upgrade the level of their service during the term of the enrollment or agreement. These licenses must be purchased on the same agreement or enrollment as the base license from which the customer is upgrading.

Office 2019

Office 2019 products are on-premises software licensed on a per-device basis.

Volume Licensing

Microsoft offers volume licensing programs to help reduce administrative overhead and software-management costs for your organization, while enabling product licensing on an ongoing basis at considerable discounts. The various licensing options enable you to choose the program that works best for your management and operational needs.

	Office 365 F1/F3, E1, E3, E5	Office 365 A1, A3, A5	Office Professional Plus 2019	Office Standard 2019
Web Direct (MOSP)
Cloud Solution Provider (CSP)
Enterprise Agreement
Enterprise Subscription Agreement
Enterprise Agreement for Government Partner*
Enrollment for Education Solutions (EES)
School Enrollment
Open Value (OV)**
Open Value Subscription (OVS)
Open Value Subscriptions for Education Solutions (OVS-ES)
Select Plus Agreement for Academic (Select + for Academic)
Select Plus Agreement for Government (Select + for Government)
Microsoft Products and Services Agreement (MPSA)
Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA)

* _{Only available in some countries}

** _{Office 365 E5 isn't available in Open Value}

Next steps

Contact your local reseller for assistance
See if your organization qualifies for Microsoft financing options
Volume Licensing reference guide for Office 365 (PDF, 451 KB)
Volume Licensing reference guide for Office 2019 (PDF, 366 KB)
Licensing Microsoft Office 365 Pro Plus Subscription Service in Volume Licensing (PDF, 219 KB)

Contact a local reseller to confirm availability in your area. Prices for licenses acquired through Microsoft resellers are determined by the reseller.

FAQ

Yes. Office 365 Enterprise plans (E1, E3, E5) are CAL Equivalent Licenses providing Client Access License (CAL) rights to servers such as Exchange Server 2019, SharePoint Server 2019, and Skype for Business Server 2019. Please refer to Appendix A of the Product Terms for details on Office 365 Enterprise CAL Equivalent Licenses.

The Office Online Server is included when you purchase Office Professional Plus 2019 or Office Standard 2019 licenses. It allows you to host the Office Online Server on premises, and you can also access it with a Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise license.

Office Online Server is the successor to Office Web Apps Server 2013 and provides browser-based versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote.

External users accessing Office Web Apps documents for viewing or editing aren't required to license Office suites. External users are users who aren't either your or your affiliates’ employees, on-site contractors, or on-site agents.

Yes. Downgrade Rights in Volume Licensing programs give you the right to use any prior version of the same product. For example, if you're licensed for Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 through Volume Licensing, you can use Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2016 instead. But you may not downgrade to Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2016 because it is a different product and not considered a prior version of Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019.

Microsoft offers a number of licensing solutions that help you move to the cloud. Customers with Software Assurance can choose to replace their current Office 2019 solution with the Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise From SA offer or they can add Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise to their current Office 2019 solution with a Microsoft 365 for enterprise Add-on. Both the From SA and Add-on options recognize your existing investment in Office with unique price points.

Yes. You may use Office 2019 for Mac Standard in place of Office 2019 Standard. Concurrent use isn't allowed, so you may only have one of these versions installed and in use at a time.

Microsoft offers a number of online services that can enhance your Office 365 E3 subscriptions. Some of the Office 365 E5 features that can be added to your Office 365 E3 subscriptions include: Audio Conferencing, Microsoft MyAnalytics, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, and Office 365 Cloud App Security. For a full list, please contact your reseller or Microsoft account manager.

From SA subscriptions provide the same benefits as traditional Software Assurance. Learn about Software Assurance.

The free Office apps are available for personal use only. Business users require commercial use rights, which are available only with an Office 365 or Microsoft 365 commercial subscription. The premium features included with a qualifying commercial subscription include full editing rights, the ability to install on multiple devices, business cloud-storage portals like OneDrive for Business and SharePoint, and other enterprise-grade features.

Mobile apps on devices with displays that are larger than 10.1 inches will be view-only for everyone except subscribers with a qualifying Office 365 or Microsoft 365 plan. Eligible Office 365 and Microsoft 365 users will be able to sign in to the Office mobile apps and unlock the paid features.

Microsoft Office 365

Licensing editions

Office 365

Online Services

Office 365 F3

Office 365 E1

Office 365 E3

Office 365 E5

Office 2019

Software

Office Standard 2019

Office Professional Plus 2019

Office 2019 for Mac

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