MICROSOFT 365 FOR CONSUMERS

Overview

For personal users that need to use Microsoft 365 at home there are four paid offerings: Microsoft 365 Basic, Microsoft 365 Personal, Microsoft 365 Family, and Microsoft 365 Premium. They’re targeted at consumers and are specifically for non-commercial use, which is confirmed in the FAQs for Microsoft 365 Basic and on the Microsoft website for the other plans. There’s a detailed EULA from January 2023, which contains some additional terms for Microsoft 365 Personal and Microsoft 365 Family.

All four plans of the paid for offerings are available direct from the Microsoft website, and you’ll find a summary of each below.

Microsoft 365 Basic

This is the entry-level plan for a single user. It includes 100 GB of OneDrive cloud storage, and Outlook web and mobile, which provides email and calendar in a browser or mobile app.

Microsoft 365 Personal

This plan is also for a single user only, expanding on Microsoft 365 Basic by including these locally installable desktop applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. It also includes higher OneDrive storage (1 TB) and additional Copilot features such as higher limits than the publicly available free Copilot offering. Note that this plan was previously known as Office 365 Personal.

Microsoft 365 Family

This appropriately named plan is designed for licensing multiple family members. It licenses up to six users, each benefiting from everything that appears in the Microsoft 365 Personal plan, with a notable exception of the additional Copilot features, which are only available to the primary subscription owner and can’t be shared. Note that this plan was previously known as Office 365 Family.

Microsoft 365 Premium

Microsoft 365 Premium was introduced in October 2025. Not to be confused with the commercial offering Microsoft 365 Business Premium, this subscription combines Microsoft 365 Family with Copilot Pro, which was discontinued in October 2025. Again, this is a license for six users to access the Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote desktop applications, along with 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage each.

There are also advanced AI features available, which include the highest available usage limits and the powerful reasoning Agents Researcher, Analyst, and Deep Research. Note that these features are only available to the subscription owner, not all six users.

Comparing the options

You’ll find a table below comparing each Microsoft 365 paid-for consumer option:

Other offerings

Microsoft also offer free web and mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, and Outlook on their website. These are accessed through a web browser or an app on an iOS or Android device, and include 5 GB of OneDrive storage.

The Workplace Discount Program (known as the Home Use Program until August 2022), allows consumers to purchase Microsoft 365 Family or Microsoft 365 Personal at a 30% discount through the website, when their organization has purchased eligible licenses with Software Assurance.