Microsoft’s new free student plan will exclude school email and Teams

Schools using Microsoft’s free education plans for student email and Teams will need paid student licences to keep those services under changes announced on 5 November 2026. The transition will happen at each institution’s first contract renewal or extension on or after 1 January 2028. Current agreements remain valid for their existing terms.

Microsoft logo. Editorial graphic: EdEvents News.

The free Office 365 A1 plan currently provides online Word, Excel and PowerPoint, school email, Teams and file storage. The separate Student Use Benefit provides free student licences when schools buy qualifying licences for their staff. Both arrangements are being retired.

The replacement free student plan, A0, will include installed and online Office apps, OneDrive file storage and Minecraft Education, but exclude school email, Teams and SharePoint sites. To qualify, students must actively use Windows devices for education, and their school must cover all teaching staff with qualifying paid licences. The allowance is up to 20 eligible students per paid staff licence.

Microsoft will also remove the automatic 100 terabytes (TB) of shared storage provided to each institution. Future capacity will depend on the number and type of paid licences. Schools exceeding their new allowance may need to buy extra storage or reduce or archive their files. Free A0 accounts will use the school’s shared storage without adding capacity.

Microsoft says list prices for existing staff plans will stay the same, but total bills will depend on the student licences and storage needed. A separate change starts at renewals or extensions from 1 May 2027, replacing different academic volume-purchase price bands with a single price for each online service.

Sources: Microsoft announcement · Microsoft education licensing guidance