If Office activation fails, you'll see Unlicensed Product or Non-commercial use / Unlicensed Product in the title bar of your Office apps, and most features of Office are disabled. To restore all features of Office, you'll need to fix the problem that's causing activation to fail.

Check this list for common problems you may experience when you enter your Microsoft account or product key while redeeming your Office product at https://office.com/setup and https://microsoft365.com/setup associates:

Office might activate automatically. However, depending on your product you might see the Microsoft Office Activation Wizard. If so, follow the prompts to activate Microsoft 365 . If you need activation help, see Activate Office.

If you keep getting prompted to activate Office Standard or Office Professional Plus on a new PC, you can update the registry to stop the prompts.

If you try to install and activate these versions of Office on a different computer (owned by you or someone else), or on the same computer after a hardware change, you might see an error message that says you've reached the maximum number of activations.

If you need help activating Microsoft 365 or Office, see Activate Microsoft 365 or Office for Mac. If activation fails, see What to try if you can't install or activate Microsoft 365 or Office for Mac.

Troubleshoot installing Office. Office is taking long to install. Error messages or problems while installing Office. Unlicensed Product and activation errors in Office. Need more help? Talk to support.

If you see error code 0xC004C060 when you try to activate Office, your product key is no longer valid. If your Office product key doesn’t work, or has stopped working, you should contact the seller and request a refund.

Select your version of Microsoft 365 below to learn how to activate Microsoft 365. Activate Microsoft 365 or a non-subscription version of Office. Activate Office that's pre-installed on a new Windows device. Activate an Office purchase or offer that's included on a new Windows device.

This article applies to Office Home & Business, Office Professional, and individually purchased Office apps. To switch an Office install to or from Microsoft 365, see Switch your Office license. Change the product key for your version. How you change the product key depends on your version of Office. Select your Office version from the tabs below.