Share your Office 365 Home subscription with up to four people

If you've purchased Office 365 Home, you can share your subscription benefits with up to four other people.

At no extra cost, each person gets:

• The latest version of the Office apps for PC, Mac, tablets, and smart phones.

  To install Office, each person needs their own Microsoft account and personal My Office Account page. If they don't already have a Microsoft account, they can create one when they accept your invitation to share. It's free.

• OneDrive—1 TB of free OneDrive storage. To learn more, see "About OneDrive" in Office 365 frequently asked questions.

  People you share your subscription benefits with get their own OneDrive storage. Don't worry: They can't access files or folders on your personal OneDrive storage, though you can share files with them if you want. To learn how, see Share OneDrive files and folders

• Skype—60 Skype minutes per month to mobile phones in eight countries and to landlines in 60+ countries (only in markets where Skype is available). To learn more, see "About Skype minutes" in Office 365 frequently asked questions.

• Outlook.com—Advanced email security tools help protect each person's inbox from phishing and malware with real time warnings about malicious websites and by scanning attachments for the latest viruses. People you share with will also get an ad-free experience and 50 GB of storage per mailbox.

Note: Anyone sharing your subscription will NOT have access to any files you create using Office—and you will not have access to theirs. All files and service usage information remains private—as though they had purchased their own subscription.

Want to install Office 365 Home for yourself on another device? You don't need to share your Office 365 Home subscription with yourself to install it on another device. Just sign in to your Microsoft account, Installs page on the device you want to install on, and choose Install.

How to share your Office 365 Home subscription benefits with others

You can share your subscription with anyone—within your family or outside it. This section tells you how to share with people outside your family. The next section tells you how to share with people within your family.

1. Sign in to your Office 365 Home account page. Be sure to use the same Microsoft account that you used to set up your Office 365 Home subscription.

2. Click the Sharing tab, and then click Start sharing.

   Notes: 

   • If you don't see a Sharing tab, or you don't see Share Office in your Sharing tab, you may not be the owner of the Office 365 Home subscription. If you're using an Office 365 Home subscription that someone else shared with you, or if you have another type of Office 365 subscription, you can't share your subscription with other people.

   • You may also not have an Office 365 Home subscription. Check the product name above the tabs. Office 365 Personal and Office 365 University don't include subscription sharing.

3. On the Share Office pop up, choose Invite via email or Invite via link.

Inviting someone using email

Enter their email. It's that simple. The email you use to invite them should also be the email they use for their shared Office 365 subscription.

Inviting someone by sending a one-time link

Click the Copy button to send the link via email, text, or other kind of message to the person you want to share with. When they click the link and sign in with their Microsoft account, they'll be added to your subscription.

If you want to share with more than one person, create a separate link for each person.

Before you share with someone: Think about how many devices you want them to install on and discuss it with them. As the owner of the Office 365 Home subscription, you can deactivate any install from your Microsoft account, Sharing page if you find you're running out, but it's a good idea to set expectations up front. Learn more about this and what to do if someone doesn't receive an invitation in the How to manage who you've shared with, invitations, and installs section.

Before someone installs Office: Make sure that their computer meets the system requirements. For example, the latest version of Office can't be installed on Chromebooks, or computers Windows running Windows Vista or Windows XP.

How to manage who you've shared with, invitations, and installs

Over time, you may want to share with different people or deactivate Office installs on older computers and install Office on new computers. It's easy to do: Just go to your Microsoft account, Sharing page, then follow these instructions.

Manage people and Office installs

Use the Manage people section on the My Office Account > Share Office 365 page to view and manage how people are using their shared Office 365 Home subscription and Office installs.

For example, if all your available installs are being used, and you want to free up an install, you have two options:

• Deactivate an Office install     Deactivating an install doesn't remove someone from your Office 365 Home subscription. It just puts an install on a specific device into read-only mode and frees up an Office install for another device. The person you shared your subscription with can still view and print their Office files; they just can't edit them or create new ones. They get to keep their extra OneDrive storage and can still use your Office installs, if more become available.

• Stop sharing your subscription with someone     When you stop sharing your subscription with someone, they lose all their Office 365 Home subscription benefits, including extra OneDrive storage and the ability to use your Office installs. They can still view and print their Office files, but they can't edit them or create new ones.

Manage invitations

Use the Manage invitations section on the My Office Account > Share Office 365 page to view and manage the invitations you've created. You can check the status of an invitation, or resend or delete invitations.

If the person you sent an invitation to can't find it, see Can't find an invitation to share Office 365 Home. And if someone hasn't accepted an invitation, and you don't care, you can simply delete the invitation.

Help for the people you've shared your subscription with

When you share your subscription with someone, they get an email from Microsoft telling them that you've shared your Office 365 Home subscription with them. All they need to do is click the Accept button in the email and go to their Microsoft account, Install page to install Office, access their OneDrive storage, and more.

As mentioned above, if they don't receive the invitation, ask them to read Can't find an invitation to share Office 365 Home. And if they have trouble installing Office, ask them to see Troubleshoot installing Office 365, Office 2016, and Office 2013.

See Also

Install Office on your PC or Mac