How to Activate Office 365, Office 2016, or Office 2013

Applies To: Excel 2016 Word 2016 Outlook 2016 PowerPoint 2016 OneNote 2016

In many cases, Office 365, Office 2016, and Office 2013 activate automatically over the Internet after you install Office on your PC. If you're not prompted to activate Office, you can begin using Office right away. But sometimes Office needs your help to activate and displays the Office Activation Wizard. Other times, you might be prompted to sign in to activate Office.

Sign in to activate Office

If Office prompts you to activate by entering an email address, it's important to enter the email address that's associated with your Office install. If sign-in fails, you might be entering the wrong email address. For help identifying the correct email address to use, see I can't remember the account or password I use with Office.

Activate over the Internet

1. In the Activation Wizard, select I want to activate the software over the Internet, and then select Next. If nothing happens when you select Next, use the Enter key on your keyboard.
2. Follow the prompts to complete the activation process.
   If activation fails, see Troubleshoot activation errors.

Activate by telephone

1. In the Activation Wizard, select I want to activate the software by telephone, and then select Next. If nothing happens when you select Next, use the Enter key on your keyboard.
   TIP: The option to activate by telephone is disabled for Office 365 because Office 365 requires an Internet connection to activate.
2. Under Step 1 in the Activation Wizard, select your country/region, and then call the Product Activation Center phone number that’s listed under the country/region you selected. If you see the message Telephone activation is no longer supported for your product, you can call the numbers for your specific country/region listed in this article.
3. When prompted by the Product Activation Center, provide the Installation ID that's shown in the Activation Wizard under Step 2.
4. The Product Activation Center will provide a Confirmation ID that you enter in the Activation Wizard under Step 3.
5. Select Next and follow the prompts to complete the activation process. If nothing happens when you select Next, use the Enter key on your keyboard.
   If activation fails, see Troubleshoot activation errors.

Activate after reinstalling Office per the Software License Terms

Office Home & Business, Office Home & Student, and Office Professional can be installed on a single computer. 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 you have reached the maximum number of activations.

NOTE: If you own multiple one-time purchases of Office and are having trouble activating subsequent Office installs, see Change your Office product key.

If you follow the transfer terms in the Software License Terms, you can move Office to a different computer, but you must activate it by phone and then uninstall Office from the original computer.

1. If you haven't installed Office on another computer yet, follow the instructions in Install Office on your PC or Mac.
2. Follow the steps in Activate by telephone, described above.
3. Uninstall Office from the original computer.

Read the Software License Terms to review terms on transferring Office

1. Open an Office application, such as Word. (Here's how to find Office on your computer.)
   NOTE: You can also view the Software License Terms online here: Software License Terms.
2. Go to File > Account > About program name (like About Excel) > View the Microsoft Software License Terms.
3. Terms for transferring ownership are located in these sections:
   • For Office 2016, see section 3. Transfer to a Third Party
   • For Office 2013, see section Can I transfer or reassign the software to another user or computer?

Troubleshoot activation errors

If you have an Office product from one of the Office for home and Office for business plans, select your plan below for help with activating Office.

Office for home

If you have activated too many installs of Office 365 and reached your activation limit, see Deactivate an Office 365 install.

If activation fails, see Unlicensed Product and activation errors in Office for help with troubleshooting common activation failures.

Office for business

If you have activated too many installs of Office 365 and reached your activation limit, see Deactivate an Office 365 install.

As an Office 365 for business user, you can download Support and Recovery Assistant for Office 365 to help you fix activation issues. If that tool doesn’t resolve your issue, see Unlicensed Product and activation errors in Office.