For home or personal use, you can choose from two Microsoft 365 subscriptions: Microsoft 365 Family or Microsoft 365 Personal. However, your Microsoft account — the email address and password you use to install Office — can have only one active Microsoft 365 subscription.
If you add the same Microsoft 365 subscription to your Microsoft account, you’ll have the same subscription benefits (same number of Microsoft 365 devices you can sign in to and the same amount of Skype minutes and OneDrive storage) as before. You're extending the amount of time for that subscription, not increasing the number of Microsoft 365 devices you can sign in to or amount of online storage you get. You can extend the duration of a Microsoft 365 subscription for up to 5 years.
For example, if you use a Microsoft 365 Personal product key to renew, and you currently have aMicrosoft 365 Family subscription, you'll be offered a choice to stay with Microsoft 365 Family subscription and receive less than a year of subscription benefits, since Microsoft 365 Family costs more, or you can switch to Microsoft 365 Personal.
What do you want to do?
If you already have a Microsoft 365 Family or Microsoft 365 Personal subscription, the table below summarizes your options when you switch from one subscription to the other. To see full subscription details, like how many Microsoft 365 devices you can sign in to or the number of Skype minutes, see Microsoft 365 subscriptions.
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Switch from Microsoft 365 Personal to Microsoft 365 Family |
Switch from Microsoft 365 Family to Microsoft 365 Personal |
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|
Installing and signing in to Microsoft 365 |
Microsoft 365 Family can be used by up to six people. Each person on the subscription can install Microsoft 365 on all their devices and be signed in to five devices at a time. |
Microsoft 365 Personal can be used by you. You can install Microsoft 365 on all your devices and be signed in to five devices at a time. |
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Subscription sharing |
No sharing |
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|
Remaining subscription time |
Can be extended |
Can be extended |
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OneDrive online storage |
No change to storage size but increases the number of users |
No change to storage size but decreases the number of users |
|
Skype minutes |
No change to amount of minutes but increases the number of users |
No change to amount of minutes but decreases the number of users |
Whether you stay with the same subscription or switch to a different subscription, your online storage capacity per user doesn’t change. For example, if you have only one user on the subscription, you’ll have 1 terabyte of storage, but if you have Microsoft 365 Family and share with five other people, you get a total of 6 terabytes of storage.
I want to extend my subscription
When you add a Microsoft 365 subscription to an account that already has a Microsoft 365 subscription, any remaining time from your current subscription is added to the new one. For example, if you have 6 months left on your current Microsoft 365 Family subscription and you add a new yearly Microsoft 365 Family subscription to your account, we’ll extend it to 18 months.
If you try to add too many subscriptions at once to the same account, you’ll get a Redemption Failed error because you can’t exceed the 5-year maximum.
In most cases, adding a different subscription to your Microsoft account automatically switches you to the new subscription. But, when you apply a Microsoft 365 Personal product key to an account that currently has a Microsoft 365 Family subscription, you’ll be given the choice to stay with Microsoft 365 Family or convert the subscription to Microsoft 365 Personal. After you switch, your subscription benefits will be updated. To learn more, see the "Managing your Microsoft 365 subscription" section in Microsoft 365 frequently asked questions. To learn how to switch subscriptions, see Switch to a different Microsoft 365 for home subscription.
Important: If you accidently switch your Microsoft 365 Personal, Microsoft 365 Family, or Microsoft 365 Personal subscription, contact support.
You can use the free offer in any of these ways:
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Redeem the offer now and choose to stay with Microsoft 365 Family. This will add an additional 9 months to your subscription.
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Redeem the offer now and switch your Microsoft 365 Family subscription to Microsoft 365 Personal. This will add an additional 12 months to your subscription.
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Redeem the offer now using a different Microsoft account.
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If you want to stay with your current subscription for now, you can wait until your subscription expires and then redeem the free offer for Microsoft 365 Personal.
If you have an existing Microsoft 365 Family subscription and redeem the offer for a free year of Microsoft 365 Personal, you’ll be asked if you want to convert your existing subscription to Microsoft 365 Personal or stay with Microsoft 365 Family. If you convert to Microsoft 365 Personal, you won’t be able to share your subscription.
To learn how to redeem the free offer and add it to your current subscription, see Switch from Microsoft 365 Home using a product key.
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