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If you want to use Microsoft Office and apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint for Mac but without having to pay a subscription, here we show you how to use Microsoft Office on a Mac for free.

Here you’ll learn how to use Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Sharepoint, OneDrive and other MS Office apps for free in macOS including on Apple Silicon M1, M2 and M3 chip Macs.

Note that most of Office 365 is now known as Microsoft 365 and will be referred to as such here.

Is There A Free Version of Microsoft Office For Mac?

There is no free version of Microsoft Office for Mac although there are a few workarounds to use it for free on macOS which we will show you here.

Currently, a Microsoft 365 subscription costs $6.99/£5.99 per month for individuals or $9.99/£7.99 a month for a family subscription. Business plans starts at $12.50 a month per user.

The closest thing to a free version of Microsoft Office on Mac is Apple’s iWork which includes Pages, Numbers and Keynote.

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With this in mind, here are five ways to get Microsoft Office For Mac For Free in 2023.

1. Sign-up For The Microsoft Office For Mac Free Trial

microsoft office for mac free - microsoft 365 trial

You can sign up for a one-month free trial of Microsoft Office for Mac (now called “Microsoft 365“) which enables you to use all Microsoft Office applications for free during that period.

You will need to enter your credit card details but can cancel your subscription at any time—even so that you don’t get billed.

The free trial of MS Office for Mac allows you to download the desktop version of Microsoft Office for Mac and gives you full access to the Microsoft 365 Home Plan

This includes Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote and 1TB of OneDrive storage in OneDrive.

If you’re a business you can also sign-up for a 30 day free trial of Office 365 ProPlus.

2. Download Microsoft Office 365 Education Edition

 

office for mac free - office 365 education edition

If you’re in education, you can download the student version of Microsoft Office 365 Education and use it for free.

This is because many educational institutions have paid for an educational license which can be used by students an educators.

Many educational institutions pay for Office 365 plans, allowing students and teachers to download the software for free.

Alternatively, you can get student discounts on most Microsoft software.

Note that the Educational edition of Microsoft Office is still branded as Office 365 and has not been rebranded as Windows 365 yet.

3. Use Office.com Online

office online free on mac - microsoft 365 online

Nowadays you can use Microsoft Office.com for free in a web browser. However, the online version of Office isn’t as complete as the desktop version and does not work offline.

You can though still open and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents in any browser on your Mac.

Simply go to Office.com and sign up for a free Microsoft account to start using Word, Excel, or PowerPoint for free on your Mac.

You can also upload files from your Mac into Office.com which will be saved in Microsoft OneDrive.

4. Use a Microsoft Family Plan Invite

microsoft office home plan invite

If you know a friend or relative that already has a Microsoft 365 Family Plan (formerly known as a Microsoft 365 Home Plan) they can share it with up to five other people.

You can simply request that they send you can invite via email in the Office Sharing page in their Microsoft account.

Once invited you can sign-in and download Microsoft Office for Mac which includes 1TB of OneDrive storage.

Alternatively, because a Microsoft 365 Family plan allows up to 6 users, you could agree to split the annual $99.99 Microsoft 365 Family Plan subscription fee between you and 5 others which works out at just $16.66 per user for a full years access to Microsoft 365.

5. Use Microsoft Office On iOS For Free

microsoft office free ipad

If you’ve already got an iOS device such as an iPhone or iPad then you can use Word, Excel and PowerPoint on iOS for free.

This is only for non-commercial use though which means non-business related and only for personal reasons.

You can download Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook for free from the iOS App Store on your iPad or iPhone.

You can create, edit and print documents for free although you will need to create a Microsoft ID to do so first.

Note that unfortunately, this doesn’t work on the iPad Pro as the free version for Microsoft Office for iOS does not support screens bigger than 10.2 inches.

You can however use Microsoft Office on the iPad Pro with a Microsoft 365 subscription.

Limited Offer: You can currently get 72% off a Microsoft Office For Mac Home & Business Lifetime License for $59.99 (normally $219.99) or 81% off 2 Lifetime Licenses for $79.99 (normally $439.98) for a limited period.

About The Author

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MacHow2 is a team of devoted and passionate Mac users that aim to help you get the most out of your Mac. Since 2013, we've been helping Mac users new and old with software and hardware recommendations or solving technical problems. If you've got any comments about this article, get involved by leaving a comment below. You can find out more About Us and how we work. You can also contact us using the contact form at the top of the site.

11 Responses

  1. Pam Watt

    I have been using a free Microsoft Office on my Toshiba laptop for many years. I now own a MacBook Air(Ventura). I really would like to use this great program on my Mac. Is there a way, to use it on my MacBook,please.

    Reply
  2. Paul Brown

    Hi currently running Office 2008 on my Mac Pro OS 10.14. If I update OS and purchase Microsoft Office Home & Business for Mac 2021: Lifetime License will I be able to convert old Excel and Word docs to view / copy and edit in new version?? Tx Paul

    Reply
    • MacHow2

      Yes you will be able to open documents created in older versions of Office in Office 2021 but you may need to access the Trust Center File Block settings in Office to enable it to open them.

      Reply
  3. Bill Laurin

    Hi there everyone. Well here we go. I purchased this product a few months ago. I had recently switched to MAC from Windows and was looking to use Microsoft office programs on my new MAC. Any way I contacted the supplier and asked if the product was going to work on my new MAC M1 Ultra with Monterey. They said sure no problem. So I went ahead and purchased it and got the code and downloaded the package. Well, right away after downloading the program I realized that something was wrong. The download was an executable. Being new to Mac, I was not sure but realized that MAC did not use “.exe” files but “.dmg” files. I tried and there was no way to run it. It was obviously designed for MAC’s with intel chips not the M1 brand Apple Silicon. I contacted the company and told them the problem. Being sales people they did not have a clue. I talked to the next level people and even tech help and finally got the idea across about the issue and finally was able to get a full refund but took a few days. So be aware.. I just looked at the link and it still does not say anything about M1 and M2 apple silicon chips.

    Reply
  4. AC1974

    Hi I recently got my old Mac out of storage and have set it up in my house for the first time in years; it is running OS Sierra; I want to upgrade to Catalina as that is the latest edition it is capable of running. I will then lose Microsoft Office 2011; what is the best way to be able to access Excel and Word thereafter? Part of the reason I want to upgrade is that my MacBook is running a later OS and the Mac cannot open the later versions of Numbers or Pages

    Reply
    • MacHow2

      Your could consider creating a partition on your Mac to run both Sierra when you want for Microsoft Office and Catalina. You can do this using a virtual machine like Parallels so you can switch between them instantly. Otherwise, your only other option is to use one of the suggestions featured above.

      Reply
  5. Karl

    So I purchased a refurbished Mac from Mac of all Trades. I did not get an original Mac drive…when I called Mac they helped me change the drive name to a Macintosh. The reasons why I am telling you this is when I tried to upgrade to Monterey from the MacOS 10.14.6 it would not allow me to do it. My question is, can I get the Microsoft (really only want word, excel and powerpoint) with the 10.14.6?

    Reply
    • MacHow2

      Microsoft Office works with macOS 10.14.6 but you won’t be able to receive updates to it unless you’re running the latest version of macOS.

      Reply

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