Microsoft has been pushing its Office 365 subscription service pretty hard, and now there’s one more good reason to pay for an Office subscription instead of paying a 1-time fee for the latest desktop version of Office.

Sign up for Office 365 and not only do you get to use the latest Office apps… you also get unlimited online storage.

Plans start as low as $70 per year for an Office 365 Personal subscription.

onedrive unlimited

Microsoft had already been pretty generous with its OneDrive cloud storage, offering Office 365 subscribers 1TB of space for files that could be accessed across their devices. The idea is that you can save Office documents to the cloud and open or edit them on any device and backup your photos to the cloud. But you can also upload just about any file to OneDrive.

There are other companies that offer cloud storage for free or for a fee, but none of those services include the latest versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, and Publisher.

When you sign up for Office 365 you can download and install any of those apps on your computer: Personal subscribers get a license for up to 1 PC or Mac and up to 1 tablet, while Office 365 Home users get up to 5 licenses for PC/Mac and 5 more for tablets. Both subscriptions get you access to Android, iOS, and Windows Phone apps as well as web-based Office apps (which are also available to use without a subscription).

Unlimited storage is rolling out first to Office 365 Home, Personal, and University customers. Microsoft OneDrive for Business customers should get upgraded to unlimited storage in 2015.

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19 replies on “Microsoft Office 365 users now get unlimited cloud storage”

  1. M$ is just trying to earn more for doing less.. Office 2013 Pro is $400, includes 1TB of OneDrive, and did I mention that you OWN the software outright, becoming able to run it on your computer without subscription?

    Or just try out LibreOffice. That works too.

    EDIT: Wait, no. Office is for 1 PC now.. I guess I’ll hold onto my Office 2007 Enterprise…

    1. I’m not sure about 2007 Enterprise, but other 2007 Office apps have a license which is a bit dated now. It allows you to install on one computer and one portable device which is only used by one person. My wife’s current desktop is now a laptop, and only she uses it, so I could install her copy of Office on another computer! And I have a desktop with another copy of Office 2007, so if I get a Win8 tablet I could install it on that as long as only I use that tablet.

    2. “Office 2013 Pro is $400, includes 1TB of OneDrive, and did I mention that you OWN the software outright, becoming able to run it on your computer without subscription?”

      Look, I’m no fan of software as a service but you are seriously misconstruing the facts here…

      1. Office 2013 gets installed on ONE computer. If you are installing it on more than 1, you are breaking Microsoft’s EULA. Conversely, the yearly subscription gives you FIVE PCs as well as tablets. And you can’t buy Office for iPad. Its subscription only.

      “EDIT: Wait, no. Office is for 1 PC now.. I guess I’ll hold onto my Office 2007 Enterprise”
      No, its always been a per seat license, meaning 1 copy of office for 1 PC.

      2. The big draw here is the UNIMITED data. Unlimited =/= 1 TB.

      3. if you want to use LibreOffice be my guest. Where are you getting the OneDrive storage from?

      1. Let’s not also forget the subscription means you always have the latest version and never need to purchase the newer version every time they release one…

        While, compared to cheaper versions of Office like the Home & Student 2013, you generally get access to more of the Office Suite like Outlook, etc. for added value to business users…

        MS also allows lower subscription rates for companies with a lot of employees using the service… as well as more basic subscription options for individual subscribers…

        Also, the extra mobile device can be up to two and not just a single tablet or other mobile device as long as both devices aren’t using the same OS… Like you can have one Android and one iOS device for a total of 7, counting the up to 5 PCs as well…

        Sure, it’s not for everyone but heavy users, businesses or employee of businesses, big families, etc. it can have its appeal… and pretty flexible as long as you don’t have specific usage limitations to deal with like commercial vs personal usages…

        1. Exactly. I mean its by far not the worst deal out there. And with Unlimited storage I would consider it (if I didn’t already get it from work)
          Subject: Re: New comment posted on Microsoft Office 365 users now get unlimited cloud storage

  2. Ok, who here has more than 1TB of Data… that they would entrust Microsoft with. Also, the time it would take to upload or download over 1TB is rediculous with a typical private internet connection.

    This sounds more like a gimmick than anything to me for private/home use, and i’m pretty sure business lincenses wouldn’t be priced all that “mindbogglingly competitve” like this sounds if you would re-apropriate it as a business class offsite backup.

    Besides the point really, but my personal stance on the matter is that software subscriptions are bullshit. If you don’t plan on just using the software for a very limited time, buying software outright will generally turn out to be cheaper in the long run. I can understand subscriptions to media services like for books/audiobooks, music or movies/tv series, but software, especially the kind that enables productive work would cut off access to your own data if subscriptions ran out. If you then argue that there is alternative software available to open your files with, i’d ask the question why you didn’t go with that software in the first place then.

    The transition from selling software to selling services makes a whole lot of sense from a business standpoint, but for the private customer it only takes away rights and locks you into an ecosystem. It’s the same with game publishers who require allways on internet connectivity for singleplayer games.

    A lot of windows tablets come with either an office 2013 license or a 1 year subscription to Office 365.
    While Office 365 will give you access to fully featured versions of Office Programs for 365 days, the Offline Versions will typically last you 5-10 years at the same retail price, this is why i personally regard the Office Subscription at a $0 Value.

    It was rumored that microsoft was working on a cloud based windows os that would require a subscription to use, and as soon as that arrives on the scene, it will mark the last time i use one of their products.

    1. MSFT has been shifting some of its software licenses to just last the life of the machine on which it is first installed. Assuming they don’t too tightly control the definition of a machine, I could probably get 5-10 years out of that, but not everyone could.

      1. Two key points there:
        assuming and assuming that Microsoft WON’T be heavy handed.

      2. Not on Microsoft Products but other Software i had such rediculous hardware key bullshit happen that the only way to get any real use out of them required installing them in VMWare Images that were edited to allways present the 100% exact same hardware down to the MAC Address to the Guest OS regardless of the Host Computer.

        Also the only reason to use MS Office anymore is for compatiblity of Exel (or Word) files with excessive amounts of scripting and/or macros you get sent that won’t work right on LibreOffice or similar.

        At this point i only really use Windows for 2 use cases anymore.
        1) High End PC Gaming
        2) Missioncritical Software which absolutely has to run in a 100% supported environment for ensurance reasons. If anything fucks up and miscalculations, datacorruption or dataloss were to happen, it can’t under any circumstances be because of emulation like using it in a Wine derivative on Linux or in a VM.

    2. Taking away rights?
      Locking into an ecosystem?
      Yep, sounds about right.
      It IS bullshit. 100 percent.

    3. if you can backup your files, then it sounds good. you get unlimited storage for $100 a year, that’s very good if true.

    4. If you are a Home user why do you need the full fledged Office ? Office online is good enough for most people . And why are you complaining if you can still buy office outright?

      Microsoft is working on modern office which should ship with all windows version so people can do basic stuffs you want more PAY.

      If you have your own company will you give most of your products for free without heavy adds?

      1. In the FOSS (Free and open-source software) Scene you infact DO give away your products for free without heavy adds. What you’re selling there is support to the software, not the software itself.

    5. Let’s see, for $10 a month I get to use Microsoft Word on our household’s Windows desktop, Mac Mini, and two iPads. Plus, we always have the most up-to-date version of Word which isn’t essential but is nice. We are both writers, and I’ve tried LibreOffice and Google Docs, and that’s just doesn’t cut it, unfortunately. Also, the storage space is nice, not that I will ever need that much.

      So for *me* a subscription service is much preferable. I don’t mind it. I pay for Netflix and Hulu Plus each month and that’s just for entertainment. $10 for work doesn’t bother me.

      1. Writers tend to write books. If you write books professionally, that usually means these books will cost money, which means usage of Word to do so would constitute commercial use.

        If i take a look at:
        https://www.microsoft.com/OEM/en/licensing/productlicensing/Pages/office-2013-licensing-packaging.aspx

        I can see that Office 365 Home, Personal and even University all do not allow commercial use, which means that using any of these Editions for that purpose isn’t much different from using a pirated copy of Office 2013 to do so.

        I do understand that Office 365 offers convenience and short term affordability. If there were no arguments for its usage, noone would use it and it would be a commercial failure.

        The point i was making is that unlimited as opposed to 1TB of storage for non-commercial usage is a marketing gimmick with little to no true value to the target audience.

        The whole following section was prefaced by “Besides the point really, but” and talked about my personal opinion. It is inarguable that software subscriptions do take rights away from the user and that they do lock you into an ecosystem if you want to be able to keep using the content you created with the software.

        If for you that is an acceptable tradeoff for the conveniances provided, that is fine by me. Not everything is for everyone, and this is a thing that just isn’t for me.

  3. Can someone please provide a licensing link? I’m interested in the restrictions on business (SOHO) use.

      1. Don’t worry. My guess is that this is a temporary anti-competitive practice meant to kill off growingly popular Office alternatives. Once they’re slapped down this unlimited storage could disappear over night. One can only wonder where the regulators are though. Deep in Microsoft’s pockets?

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