Office Lifetime Licence vs Microsoft 365: Cost Over 1, 3 and 5 Years (2026)
EsmailShare
Reviewed 24 September 2026 by Esmail, Technical Support Advisor at Nerdused. Prices checked on the same date; sources are linked in the cost table.
Microsoft sells Office two ways. You can pay once for a perpetual ("lifetime") licence such as Office 2024, or pay every year for a Microsoft 365 subscription. Both give you Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. They differ in what you pay over time, how long you receive updates, how many devices you can use, and whether you get cloud storage and the newer AI features. This guide puts real numbers on that choice.
What a Microsoft Office lifetime licence actually is
A lifetime licence is a one-time purchase of a fixed version of Office — today that means Office 2024 (or the older 2021 and 2019 releases). You pay once, install it, activate it with a product key, and it keeps working for as long as the PC does. There is no renewal and no account fee.
Three things are worth being precise about, because they are often described wrongly:
- Updates. You receive security and stability updates until Microsoft's published end-of-support date, but no new features. For Office 2024 that date is 9 October 2029; Office 2021 ends on 13 October 2026; Office 2019 ended on 14 October 2025. After that date the software still runs and activates, it just stops being patched.
- Devices. How many PCs a key covers depends on the licence you buy, not on the product family. Microsoft's retail Office Home 2024 covers one PC or Mac. The volume-licence builds we sell — Office Professional Plus 2024 and Office Standard 2024 — come in 1, 3 and 5-PC versions.
- Platform. Professional Plus and Standard are Windows-only. On a Mac the one-time options are Office Home 2024 and Office Home & Business 2024.
What a Microsoft 365 subscription is
Microsoft 365 is the same desktop apps on a yearly (or monthly) fee, plus the things Microsoft only offers to subscribers: 1 TB of OneDrive storage per person, the apps on up to five devices at the same time, continuous feature updates, Microsoft Defender for personal devices, and a monthly allowance of Copilot AI features in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. The two consumer plans are Microsoft 365 Personal (one person) and Microsoft 365 Family (up to six people, each with their own 1 TB). Stop paying and the apps drop into a read-only mode after the grace period; your files stay yours, but you can no longer edit them in the desktop apps until you renew.
Does a "Microsoft 365 lifetime licence" exist?
No. Microsoft 365 is only sold as a subscription, and Microsoft does not issue perpetual keys for it. Listings that promise "Office 365 lifetime" or "Microsoft 365 lifetime" are one of two things: a pre-made Microsoft 365 account that someone else administers (which they can suspend or take back, and which puts your files in a tenant you don't control), or a mislabelled Office 2021/2024 key. If you want to pay once, buy a perpetual Office version. If you want Microsoft 365, budget for it yearly. Our own Microsoft 365 Pro Plus product is a one-year subscription account and is labelled as such.
What each option costs over 1, 3 and 5 years
US prices, checked 24 September 2026. Microsoft subscription prices assume no further increases (Microsoft raised Personal and Family by $30 in January 2025). Nerdused prices are our live one-time prices on the date shown.
| Option | Price | 1 year | 3 years | 5 years | Source |
| Microsoft 365 Personal (1 person, 5 devices at once, 1 TB) | $99.99 / year | $99.99 | $299.97 | $499.95 | Office Watch, Jan 2026 |
| Microsoft 365 Family (up to 6 people, 1 TB each) | $129.99 / year | $129.99 | $389.97 | $649.95 | Office Watch, Jan 2026 |
| Office Home 2024, Microsoft retail (1 PC or Mac; Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote) | $149.99 once | $149.99 | $149.99 | $149.99 | Tom's Hardware (launch price) |
| Office Home & Business 2024, Microsoft retail (adds Outlook, commercial use) | $249.99 once | $249.99 | $249.99 | $249.99 | Same source |
| Office Professional Plus 2024, Nerdused (1 PC, Windows; adds Access) | $29.99 once | $29.99 | $29.99 | $29.99 | Nerdused, 24 Sep 2026 |
| Office Standard 2024, Nerdused (3 PCs, Windows) | $59.99 once | $59.99 | $59.99 | $59.99 | Nerdused, 24 Sep 2026 |
Read across the five-year column and the pattern is clear. A single Microsoft 365 Personal subscription costs about $500 over five years; Microsoft's own one-time Office Home 2024 costs $150 for the same period, and a volume-licence Professional Plus 2024 key costs $30. Even Microsoft's retail perpetual edition pays for itself against a subscription in about 18 months; a Nerdused key does so in under four months. Office 2024 is supported until October 2029, so the five-year column is a realistic lifespan, not a best case.
The subscription earns its price only if you use what it bundles. A Family plan for a household that would otherwise pay for cloud storage and wants Office on everyone's laptop and phone is reasonable value. If you just want the apps on one or two PCs, it isn't.
Side-by-side
| Office 2024 lifetime licence | Microsoft 365 subscription | |
| Cost | One payment ($30–$250 depending on edition and seller) | $99.99–$129.99 every year |
| Updates | Security updates until 9 October 2029; no new features | Security and feature updates for as long as you pay |
| Apps | Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote; Outlook in Home & Business, Standard and Pro Plus; Access in Pro Plus | Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, plus Access on PC |
| Devices | 1 PC/Mac (retail) or 1, 3 or 5 PCs (volume keys) | 5 devices signed in at once per person; up to 6 people on Family |
| Cloud and collaboration | None included; you can still use a free 5 GB OneDrive account | 1 TB OneDrive per person, real-time co-authoring, Defender, Copilot allowance |
| What happens if you stop paying | Nothing — it's yours | Apps go read-only until you renew |
Which should you choose?
Choose a lifetime licence if you want to pay once, you mainly need Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, you don't rely on OneDrive, and you're comfortable buying a new version every five years or so. That describes most home users, students, small offices with a handful of PCs, and anyone who dislikes recurring charges. For a Windows PC the cheapest genuine route is a volume-licence key such as Professional Plus 2024; for a Mac it is Office Home 2024 or Home & Business 2024.
Choose Microsoft 365 if several people need Office (the Family plan covers six for $130 a year, which beats six perpetual licences), if you live in OneDrive and co-author documents daily, or if you want the Copilot features as they arrive rather than waiting for the next perpetual release.
A common middle path: a perpetual Office on the main desktop, and a free Microsoft account (5 GB OneDrive, Office on the web) for the occasional file you need on your phone.
FAQs
Is a lifetime licence really worth it?
For the apps alone, yes: over five years a perpetual Office 2024 costs between a fifth and a sixtieth of a Microsoft 365 Personal subscription, using the prices above. It stops being worth it if you would separately pay for 1 TB of cloud storage or need the apps on more than five devices across several people.
Can I get a lifetime licence for Mac?
Yes — Office Home 2024 and Office Home & Business 2024 are one-time purchases that run on macOS. There is no "Office 365 for Mac lifetime" product; Microsoft 365 is subscription-only on every platform.
Does Microsoft 365 include cloud storage?
Yes, 1 TB of OneDrive per person on Personal and Family. Perpetual Office includes none, though any Microsoft account gets 5 GB free.
Will a lifetime licence give me the next Office version?
No. Office 2024 stays Office 2024. When the next version ships you decide whether to buy it; nothing forces the upgrade, and 2024 keeps receiving security updates until October 2029 either way.
Why are Nerdused's Office 2024 keys so much cheaper than Microsoft's retail price?
They are volume-licence keys rather than retail boxed keys, sold in bulk and delivered digitally, so there is no packaging, shipping or retail margin. They activate on Microsoft's servers like any other key and are covered by our 30-day refund promise. The trade-off is that they are Windows-only and activate with a MAK key rather than through a Microsoft account — our install guide explains the difference.