The brandingOffice 365 was introduced in 2010 to refer to a subscription-based software as a service platform for the corporate market, including hosted services such as Exchange, SharePoint, andLync Server, and Office on the web. Some plans also included licenses for theMicrosoft Office 2010 software. Upon the release ofOffice 2013, Microsoft began to promote the service as the primary distribution model for the Microsoft Office suite, adding consumer-focused plans integrating with services such as OneDrive andSkype, and emphasizing ongoing feature updates (as opposed to non-subscriptionlicenses, where new versions require purchase of a new license, and are feature updates in and of themselves).
In July 2017, Microsoft introduced a second brand of subscription services for the enterprise market known as Microsoft 365, combining Office 365 withWindows 10 Enterprisevolume licenses and other cloud-basedsecurity anddevice management products. On April 21, 2020, Office 365 was changing its name to Microsoft 365 to emphasize the service's current inclusion of products and services beyond the core Microsoft Office software family (including cloud-based productivity tools andartificial intelligence features). Most products that were called Office 365 were renamed as Microsoft 365 on the same day.[6]
In October 2022, Microsoft announced that it would discontinue the "Microsoft Office" brand by January 2023, with most of its products and online productivity services being marketed primarily under the "Microsoft 365" brand.[7][8][9] However, Microsoft continues to sell perpetually-licensed office suites under the "Microsoft Office" brand.[10][11]
As of April 2025, the Microsoft 365 app is now called Microsoft 365 Copilot.[12]
The final Office 365 logo before Microsoft's transition into the new Microsoft 365 branding.
Microsoft first announced Office 365 in October 19, 2010, beginning with aprivate beta with various organizations, leading into a public beta in April 18, 2011, and reaching general availability on June 28, 2011, with a launch aimed originally atcorporate users. Facing growing competition fromGoogle's similar serviceGoogle Workspace, Microsoft designed the Office 365 platform to "bring together" its existing online services (such as theBusiness Productivity Online Suite) into "an always-up-to-date cloud service" incorporatingExchange Server (for e-mail),SharePoint (for internal social networking, collaboration, and a public web site), andLync (for communication,VoIP, and conferencing). Plans were initially launched for small business and enterprises; the small business plan offered Exchange e-mail, SharePoint Online, Lync Online, web hosting via SharePoint, and theWeb App with the enterprise plan also adding per-user licenses for the Office 2010 Professional Plus software and 24/7 phone support.[13][14] Following the official launch of the service, Business Productivity Online Suite customers were given 12 months to migrate from BPOS to the Office 365 platform.[15]
With the release ofOffice 2013, an updated version of the Office 365 platform was launched on February 27, 2013, expanding Office 365 to include new plans aimed at different types of businesses, along with new plans aimed at general consumers, including benefits tailored towards Microsoft consumer services such asOneDrive (whose integration with Office was a major feature of the 2013 suite).[16] The server components were updated to their respective 2013 versions, and Microsoft expanded the Office 365 service with new plans, such as Small Business Premium, Midsize Premium, and Pro Plus.[17] A new Office 365 Home Premium plan aimed at home users offers access to the Office 2013 suite for up to five computers, along with expandedOneDrive storage and 60 minutes of Skype calls monthly. The plan is aimed at mainstream consumers, especially those who want to install Office on multiple computers.[18][19] A University plan was introduced, targeted at post-secondary students. With these new offerings, Microsoft began to offer prepaid Office 365 subscriptions through retail outlets alongside the normal, perpetually licensed editions of Office 2013 (which are only licensed for use on one computer, and do not receive feature updates).[20][21]
On March 19, 2013, Microsoft detailed its plans to provide integration with the enterprisesocial networking platformYammer (which they had acquired in 2012) for Office 365, such as the ability to use asingle sign-on between the two services, shared feeds and document aggregation, and the ability to entirely replace the SharePoint news feed and social functionality with Yammer.[22] The ability to provide a link to a Yammer network from an Office 365 portal was introduced in June 2013, with heavier integration (such as a Yammer app for SharePoint and single sign-on) to be introduced in July 2013.[23]
On July 8, 2013, Microsoft unveiledPower BI, a suite ofbusiness intelligence and self-servedata mining tools for Office 365, to be released later in the year. Power BI is primarily incorporated into Excel, allowing users to use thePower Query tool to create spreadsheets and graphs using public andprivate data, and also performgeovisualization withBing Maps data using the Power Map tool (previously available as a beta plug-in known as GeoFlow). Users will also be able to access and publish reports, and perform natural language queries on data.[24][25] As a limited-time offer for certain markets (but notably excluding the US), Microsoft also offered a free one-yearXbox Live Gold subscription with any purchase of an Office 365 Home Premium or University subscription, until September 28, 2013.[26]
From April 15, 2014, Microsoft renamed the "Home Premium" plan to "Home,” and added a new "Personal" plan for single users.[27][28]
In June 2014, the amount of OneDrive storage offered to Office 365 subscribers was increased to 1terabyte from 20 GB.[29] On October 27, 2014, Microsoft announced "unlimited" OneDrive storage for Office 365 subscribers.[30] However, due to abuse and a general reduction in storage options implemented by Microsoft, the 1 TB cap was reinstated in November 2015.[31]
In June 2016, Microsoft madePlanner available for general release. It is considered to be a competitor toTrello and to other agile team collaboration cloud services.[32]
In April 2017, Microsoft announced that with the ending of mainstream support forOffice 2016 on October 13, 2020, access toOneDrive for Business and Office 365-hosted servers for Skype for Business will become unavailable to those who are not using Office 365 ProPlus or Office perpetual in mainstream support.[33] In July 2019, Microsoft announced that the hostedSkype for Business Online service would be discontinued on July 31, 2021, with users being redirected to theMicrosoft Teams collaboration platform as its replacement. Since September 2019, Skype for Business Online is no longer offered to new subscribers.[34][35]
In October 2017, the existing Outlook.com Premium service was discontinued and folded exclusively into Office 365, with all Personal and Family subscribers subsequently being upgraded to 50 GB of storage.[36]
The "Microsoft 365" brand was first introduced atMicrosoft Inspire in July 2017 as an enterprise subscription product, succeeding the "Secure Productive Enterprise" services released in 2016, and combiningWindows 10 Enterprise with Office 365 Business Premium, and the Enterprise Mobility + Security suite including Advanced Threat Analytics,AzureActive Directory, Azure Information Protection, Cloud App Security andMicrosoft Intune. Microsoft 365 is sold via Microsoft and its cloud services reseller network.[37][38]
On March 30, 2020, Microsoft announced that the consumer plans of Office 365 would be rebranded as "Microsoft 365" (a brand also used by Microsoft for an enterprise subscription bundle of Windows, Office 365, and security services) on April 21, 2020, succeeding existing consumer plans of Office 365.[39]
It is a superset of the existing Office 365 products and benefits, positioned towards "life", productivity, and families, including theMicrosoft Office suite, 1 TB of additionalOneDrive storage and access to OneDrive Personal Vault, and 60 minutes ofSkype calls per month. Under the brand, Microsoft will also add access to its collaboration platformTeams (which will also add additional features designed around family use), and a premium tier ofMicrosoft Family Safety. Microsoft also announced plans to offer trial offers of third-party services for Microsoft 365 subscribers, with companies such asAdobe (Creative Cloud Photography),Blinkist, CreativeLive,Experian, andHeadspace having partnered. Microsoft 365 Personal and Family succeeded the Office 365 Personal and Home subscriptions, with no change in pricing.[40][41][42][43]
Office 365 for small- and medium-sized businesses was also renamed Microsoft 365, with Office 365 Business and ProPlus becoming "Microsoft 365 Apps for business" and "Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise", Office 365 Business Essentials becoming "Microsoft 365 Business Basic", and Office 365 Business Premium becoming "Microsoft 365 Business Standard" (with the existing Microsoft 365 Business product becoming "Microsoft 365 Business Premium"). The Office 365 brand remains in use for its enterprise, education, healthcare, and governmental plans. Microsoft stated that "over the last several years, our cloud productivity offering has grown well beyond what people traditionally think of as 'Office'", citing examples such asForms,Planner,Stream, and Teams.[44]
On October 13, 2022, Microsoft announced that it would be phasing out the Microsoft Office brand, in favor of branding all products under the Microsoft 365 name. This change took effect onOffice.com in November 2022, followed by the Office mobile apps in January 2023. The Microsoft Office brand will still be used for legacy products, including subscription products still carrying the "Office 365" name since the previous Microsoft 365 rebranding, and the "on-premises"/perpetually licensedMicrosoft Office 2021.[45][21]
In November 2024, Microsoft expanded the use of Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps to Microsoft 365 Personal and Home subscribers in Asia-Pacific markets, previously exclusive to Microsoft's Copilot Pro subscription. Microsoft subsequently increased the price of its consumer subscriptions to accommodate the addition of Copilot features.[46] In December 2024, Microsoft announced that the Microsoft 365 app would be rebranded as the Microsoft 365 Copilot App in an effort to highlight the integration of Copilot features for Microsoft 365 Personal and Home subscriptions. The logo was rebranded to the Copilot logo with an "M365" tag.[47][48][49][50]
In March 2025, Microsoft announced that it would bring Copilot for OneDrive to Microsoft 365 Personal and Home subscriptions. Copilot for OneDrive allows consumers to use Copilot to interact with their files stored in OneDrive.[51]
The Microsoft 365 desktop applications (formerly marketed asMicrosoft Office) are primarily used onpersonal computers runningMicrosoft Windows, and are distributed as part of the Microsoft 365 subscription. They are installed using a "click-to-run" system which allows users to begin using the applications almost instantaneously, while files aredownloaded in the background. Updates to the software are installed automatically, covering both security and feature updates. These applications were one of the core components of the initial Office 365 service.[16][19][20][52] If the user's subscription lapses, the applications enter aread-only mode where editing functionality is disabled. Full functionality is restored once a new subscription is purchased and activated.[53]
Although there are still "on-premises" or "perpetual" releases of Office released on a three-year cycle, these versions do not receive new features or access to new cloud-based services as they are released on Microsoft 365.[54][55][56]
All of these applications, excludingAccess andPublisher, are also available onmacOS.
Microsoft OneNote is anotetaking program that gathers handwritten or typed notes, drawings,screen clippings and audio commentaries. Notes can be shared with other OneNote users over the Internet or a network.
Microsoft Publisher is adesktop publishing app for Windows mostly used for designing brochures, labels, calendars, greeting cards, business cards, newsletters, web sites, and postcards.
Microsoft Access is adatabase management system for Windows that combines therelationalAccess Database Engine (formerly Jet Database Engine) with a graphical user interface and software development tools. Microsoft Access stores data in its own format based on the Access Database Engine. It can also import or link directly to data stored in other applications and databases.[57]
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are available asmobile andweb apps, usable for free with limitations, although they do not contain all of the functionality as the desktop versions. The mobile apps were originally limited to Office 365 subscribers,[58][59][60] but basic editing and document creation has since been made free for personal use. An active Microsoft 365 subscription is still required to unlock certain advanced editing features, use the apps on devices with screens larger than 10.1 inches, or to use the apps for commercial purposes.[61][62][63] In February 2020, Microsoft introduced a new Microsoft Office app that integrates Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, replacing the previous, separate apps for each.[64]
Microsoft Outlook for mobile is derived from the appsAcompli andSunrise Calendar, which were acquired by Microsoft and discontinued.[65][66][67]
Microsoft Family Safety is a service encompassingparental controls that can be used across Windows, Android, iOS, andXbox devices forweb filtering, time limits, location sharing, and other features.[69][70]
Business and enterprise-oriented plans for Microsoft/Office 365 offer access tocloud-hosted server platforms on asoftware as a service basis, including Exchange, Skype for Business, SharePoint, Microsoft Dictate (speech recognition[71][72]), andOffice on the web.[13] Through SharePoint's OneDrive for Business functionality (formerly known as SharePoint MySites and SkyDrive Pro, and distinct from the consumer-orientedOneDrive service), each user also receives 1 TB of online storage. Certain plans also include unlimited personal cloud storage per user.[73][74]
SharePoint is a web-basedcollaborative platform. It is primarily sold as adocument management and storage system, but the product is highly configurable and usage varies substantially among organizations.
Microsoft 365 offers subscription plans aimed at different needs and market segments, providing different sets of features at different price points.[77][78] Microsoft has also offered Office 365 subscriptions to students of institutions who have licensed Office software for their faculty.[79][80] There are two separate backends for the products:[81][82]
Consumer plans log in using aMicrosoft account, also called a "personal account".
Business, enterprise and education plans log in using a user ID managed byAzure Active Directory, also called a "work or school account"
Aimed at mainstream consumers, both plans offer access toMicrosoft Office applications (Word,Excel,PowerPoint,Outlook,Publisher, andAccess) for home/non-commercial use on one computer (Windows,macOS, and mobile devices), with access to additional online-based services and premium creative content, 1 TB ofOneDrive storage with Advanced Security, 60 minutes ofSkype international calls per month (subject to area), and partner offers.[83][84][85][86]
Microsoft 365 Personal (formerly Office 365 Personal): Includes access toWord,Excel,PowerPoint,Outlook,Publisher, andAccess for home/non-commercial use on up to five computers, phones or tablets (Windows,Mac,Android,iOS). Additional benefits include 1 TB of additionalOneDrive storage and 60 minutes ofSkype international calls per month (subject to area).[83][84] A version of Personal purchased on a discounted four-year plan, known asOffice 365 University, allowing use on two devices by one user, was available for those inpost-secondary institutions until 2019.[87]
Microsoft 365 Family (formerly Office 365 Home): Aimed at mainstream consumers and families; same as Personal, but for use on up to five devices per person by up to six users.[88]
Microsoft 365 Personal Classic/Family Classic: Similar to the standard Personal and Family plans, but with a lack of AI credits or AI-powered features, such as Microsoft Copilot or Microsoft Designer.[89][90]
Microsoft 365 Apps for business (formerly Office 365 Business): Offers Office applications for Windows, Mac, and mobile platforms for up to five computers, tablets, and smartphones per user.
Microsoft 365 Business Standard (formerly Office 365 Business Premium) includes Microsoft 365 Business Basic and Microsoft 365 Apps for Business.
Microsoft 365 Business Premium (formerly Microsoft 365 Business) is for businesses with up to 300 employees. It includes Microsoft 365 Business Standard and additionally: Windows 10 Business,Azure Virtual Desktop, Azure AD P1,Microsoft Intune, Defender for Business, Defender for Office 365.[91]
Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise (formerly Office 365 ProPlus)
Office 365 Enterprise: Intended for use in corporate environments. Provides access to all Office applications and hosted services, as well as business-specific features and regulatory compliance support.
Microsoft 365 Enterprise: A bundle of Office 365 Enterprise,Windows 10 Enterprise and Enterprise Mobility + Security.[92][93]
Office 365 operated by 21Vianet: Microsoft has licensed21Vianet to provide Office 365 services to itsChina customers. Microsoft does not operate Office 365 in China; instead, 21Vianet does. The service differs in features from the service offered elsewhere.[95]
In spite of claiming to comply with European data protection standards, and in spite of existingSafe Harbor agreements, Microsoft has admitted that it will not refrain from handing over data stored on its European servers to US authorities under thePatriot Act.[106]
InFinland,FICORA has warned Office 365 users of phishing incidents and break-ins that have caused losses of millions of euros.[107][108] In September 2019, NCSC-FI (National Cyber Security Centre of Finland) created a detailed guide on how to protect Microsoft Office 365 against phishing attempts and any data breaches.[109]
In July 2019, the German state ofHesse outlawed the use of Office 365 in educational institutions, citing privacy risks.[110] Denmark’s Ministry of Digital Affairs will phase out Windows and Office 365 by November 2025.[111]
A July 1, 2021cybersecurity advisory from British (NCSC) and American (NSA,FBI,CISA) security agencies warned of aGRUbrute-force campaign from mid-2019 to the present (July 2021) that focused a "significant amount" of activity on Microsoft Office 365 cloud services.[114][115]
On November 10, 2023, IT news portalHeise online disclosed that "if you try out the new Outlook, you risk transferring your IMAP and SMTP credentials of mail accounts and all your emails to Microsoft servers."[116]
TechRadar gave the 2013 update of Office 365 a 4.5 out of 5, praising its administration interfaces for being accessible to users with any level of expertise, the seamless integration of OneDrive Pro into the Office 2013 desktop applications, and the service as a whole for being suitable in small business environments, while still offering "powerful" options for use in larger companies (such asdata loss protection and the ability to integrate with a localActive Directory instance). However, the service was severely criticized for how it handled its 2013 update for existing users, and its lack of integration with services such asSkype andViva Engage.[75]
In the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2017, Office 365 revenue exceeded that of conventional license sales of Microsoft Office software for the first time.[121]
Gradwell, Andrew (October 19, 2010)."Microsoft unveils Microsoft Office 365".Cloud Hypermarket. Hypermarket Ventures Ltd.Archived from the original on October 22, 2010. RetrievedJanuary 24, 2011.
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