Get Office 2021 for FREE without a product key
As you know, in the past fourteen years, all Microsoft Office version numbers were named according to a simple arithmetic sequence that has a difference of 3 between each one since Office 2007. Notwithstanding the rule, a new version of Microsoft productivity suite was released on October 5th succeeding Office 2019 and its official name is Office 2021, not Office 2022. Surely you will be curious to know what is new in this version that makes them change the naming convention of their product. Is it worth upgrading your old productivity suite? Let’s make it clear right now.
What’s new in Office 2021
There are quite a few new features added to this 2021 version. You will have a new dark mode, realtime co-authoring, editing tools, functions, motion graphics, improved features, and so much more. Just check out the official article here for more details. Now I am still using Office 2019 because new things in version 2021 are not enough to convince me to upgrade to it. Perhaps I will consider it again in the future but not now.
Download and install Office 2021
First, make sure that the operating system version you are running is Windows 10 or later before you get started. There is no way to install Office 2021 on Windows 8 or earlier.
Just go here to get the official download link from Microsoft. The size of the IMG file is 4.2 GB. Double click on the file to mount it to a virtual drive on your PC once the download is complete. Then follow the instructions of the Setup Wizard to install Office 2021 on your Windows.
This might take a while, please wait.
After the installation completes, just open an Office app to verify some basic information. Just skip the product key option by clicking the X button at the top right corner.
As you can see in the screenshot below, I installed Office Professional Plus 2021 on my PC successfully and the trial license will expire in 7 days.
Activate Office 2021 for FREE using KMS client key
Method 1: Running CMD commands manually
Step 1.1: Open cmd program with administrator rights.
First, you need to open cmd in the admin mode, then run all commands below one by one.
Step 1.2: Get into the Office directory in cmd.
cd /d %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Office\Office16
cd /d %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office16
If you install your Office in the ProgramFiles folder, the Office directory depends on the architecture of your OS. If you are not sure of this issue, just run both of the commands above. One of them will be not executed and an error message will be printed on the screen.
Step 1.3: Install Office 2021 volume license.
for /f %x in ('dir /b ..\root\Licenses16\ProPlus2021VL_KMS*.xrm-ms') do cscript ospp.vbs /inslic:"..\root\Licenses16\%x"
This step is required. You can not install the KMS client product key of Office without a volume license.
Step 1.4: Activate your Office using the KMS key.
Make sure your device is connected to the internet, then run the following commands.
cscript ospp.vbs /setprt:1688
cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:6F7TH >nul
cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:FXYTK-NJJ8C-GB6DW-3DYQT-6F7TH
cscript ospp.vbs /sethst:107.175.77.7
cscript ospp.vbs /act
If you see the error 0xC004F074, it means that your internet connection is unstable or the server is busy. Please make sure your device is online and try the command “act” again until you succeed.
Here is all the text you will get in the command prompt window.
C:\Windows\system32>cd /d %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Office\Office16
The system cannot find the path specified.
C:\Windows\system32>cd /d %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office16
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>for /f %x in ('dir /b ..\root\Licenses16\ProPlus2021VL_KMS*.xrm-ms') do cscript ospp.vbs /inslic:"..\root\Licenses16\%x"
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>cscript ospp.vbs /inslic:"..\root\Licenses16\ProPlus2021VL_KMS_Client_AE-ppd.xrm-ms"
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.812
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
---Processing--------------------------
---------------------------------------
Installing Office license: ..\root\licenses16\proplus2021vl_kms_client_ae-ppd.xrm-ms
Office license installed successfully.
---------------------------------------
---Exiting-----------------------------
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>cscript ospp.vbs /inslic:"..\root\Licenses16\ProPlus2021VL_KMS_Client_AE-ul-oob.xrm-ms"
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.812
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
---Processing--------------------------
---------------------------------------
Installing Office license: ..\root\licenses16\proplus2021vl_kms_client_ae-ul-oob.xrm-ms
Office license installed successfully.
---------------------------------------
---Exiting-----------------------------
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>cscript ospp.vbs /inslic:"..\root\Licenses16\ProPlus2021VL_KMS_Client_AE-ul.xrm-ms"
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.812
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
---Processing--------------------------
---------------------------------------
Installing Office license: ..\root\licenses16\proplus2021vl_kms_client_ae-ul.xrm-ms
Office license installed successfully.
---------------------------------------
---Exiting-----------------------------
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>cscript ospp.vbs /setprt:1688
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.812
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
---Processing--------------------------
---------------------------------------
Successfully applied setting.
---------------------------------------
---Exiting-----------------------------
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:6F7TH >nul
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:FXYTK-NJJ8C-GB6DW-3DYQT-6F7TH
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.812
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
---Processing--------------------------
---------------------------------------
<Product key installation successful>
---------------------------------------
---Exiting-----------------------------
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>cscript ospp.vbs /sethst:107.175.77.7
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.812
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
---Processing--------------------------
---------------------------------------
Successfully applied setting.
---------------------------------------
---Exiting-----------------------------
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>cscript ospp.vbs /act
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.812
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
---Processing--------------------------
---------------------------------------
Installed product key detected - attempting to activate the following product:
SKU ID: cd18ecc0-466a-45d4-8d2e-8c4fa48ae591
LICENSE NAME: Office 21, Office21ProPlus2021R_Grace edition
LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 21, RETAIL(Grace) channel
Last 5 characters of installed product key: PG343
ERROR CODE: 0xC004F017
ERROR DESCRIPTION: The Software Licensing Service reported that the license is not installed.
---------------------------------------
Installed product key detected - attempting to activate the following product:
SKU ID: fbdb3e18-a8ef-4fb3-9183-dffd60bd0984
LICENSE NAME: Office 21, Office21ProPlus2021VL_KMS_Client_AE edition
LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 21, VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel
Last 5 characters of installed product key: 6F7TH
<Product activation successful>
---------------------------------------
---------------------------------------
---Exiting-----------------------------
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>
Congratulations! The activation was completed successfully.
Method 2: Using my pre-written batch script
This one is not recommended anymore due to the new update of Microsoft.
Step 2.1: Copy the script code below into a new text document.
@echo off
title Activate Microsoft Office 2021 (ALL versions) for FREE - MSGuides.com&cls&echo =====================================================================================&echo #Project: Activating Microsoft software products for FREE without additional software&echo =====================================================================================&echo.&echo #Supported products:&echo - Microsoft Office Standard 2021&echo - Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2021&echo.&echo.&(if exist "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office16\ospp.vbs" cd /d "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office16")&(if exist "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Office\Office16\ospp.vbs" cd /d "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Office\Office16")&(for /f %%x in ('dir /b ..\root\Licenses16\ProPlus2021VL_KMS*.xrm-ms') do cscript ospp.vbs /inslic:"..\root\Licenses16\%%x" >nul)&echo.&echo =====================================================================================&echo Activating your product...&cscript //nologo slmgr.vbs /ckms >nul&cscript //nologo ospp.vbs /setprt:1688 >nul&cscript //nologo ospp.vbs /unpkey:6F7TH >nul&set i=1&cscript //nologo ospp.vbs /inpkey:FXYTK-NJJ8C-GB6DW-3DYQT-6F7TH >nul||goto notsupported
:skms
if %i% GTR 10 goto busy
if %i% EQU 1 set KMS=kms7.MSGuides.com
if %i% EQU 2 set KMS=107.175.77.7
if %i% GTR 2 goto ato
cscript //nologo ospp.vbs /sethst:%KMS% >nul
:ato
echo =====================================================================================&echo.&echo.&cscript //nologo ospp.vbs /act | find /i "successful" && (echo.&echo =====================================================================================&echo.&echo #My official blog: MSGuides.com&echo.&echo #How it works: bit.ly/kms-server&echo.&echo #Please feel free to contact me at [email protected] if you have any questions or concerns.&echo.&echo #Please consider supporting this project: donate.msguides.com&echo #Your support is helping me keep my servers running 24/7!&echo.&echo =====================================================================================&choice /n /c YN /m "Would you like to visit my blog [Y,N]?" & if errorlevel 2 exit) || (echo The connection to my KMS server failed! Trying to connect to another one... & echo Please wait... & echo. & echo. & set /a i+=1 & goto skms)
explorer "http://MSGuides.com"&goto halt
:notsupported
echo =====================================================================================&echo.&echo Sorry, your version is not supported.&echo.&goto halt
:busy
echo =====================================================================================&echo.&echo Sorry, the server is busy and can't respond to your request. Please try again.&echo.
:halt
pause >nul
Step 2.2: Save this text file as a cmd file. (Eg. 1click.cmd).
Step 2.3: Run the cmd file in admin mode.
Step 2.4: Check the activation status again.
Done! Your product is activated successfully now.
More information:
Here is the KMS client key of Office 2021: FXYTK-NJJ8C-GB6DW-3DYQT-6F7TH.
The Office 2021 KMS license is valid for 180 days only but it can be renewed automatically so you needn’t worry so much about the period.
If you would have any questions or concerns, please leave your comments. I would be glad to explain in more details. Thank you so much for all your feedback and support!
Çok kolay oldu hiç böyle bir sonuç beklemiyordum.
Gerçekten işe yaradı, çok teşekkür ederim.
very helpful, thankyou for assisting
Thank you so much for this
Thank you for making this available, successfully downloaded Office 2021 for FREE without a product key!!
ERROR DESCRIPTION: The Software Licensing Service reported that the product could not be activated. No Key Management Service (KMS) could be contacted. Please see the Application Event Log for additional information.
=///
CONNECTION TO KMS SERVER FAILED, TRYING TO CONNECT ANOTHER ONE… CONTINUING FOR 1 HOUR
Thank you!
Contrary to the key for office-365 (which was the same as for office-2016), this one worked – combined with the right Office download.
I was a little troubled when Excel 2021 initially didn’t recognise the LET function, but an update solved that problem 🙂
The first time I opened an Office program, Word, it worked. After closing Word and then re-opening it, it was not activated!
same here
Method 1 does not work. Any helps are appreciated.
Thank you….. Always Smile……!
THANK YOU VERY MUCH, GUANG!!! Method 1 works flawlessly.
Thank you so much!!!! you made my day and saved my life :’)
PT: Funcionou usando o primeiro método de ativação
EN: It worked fine using the first activation method
after activation, still ask me to get genuine copy. what to do?
Oh my goodness, thanks a lot. I have been trying the activation for the past two days and all have never been successful, finally have tried the first method and it has worked out.
Thank you very much!
Thanks a lot its working
Consegui ativar o 2016 no Win 10 sem problemas. No Win 11 não consegui ativar nem o 2016 e nem o 2021, de nenhum dos dois modos. Acontece o mesmo com o de um comentário abaixo, do Hinder, em 16 de agosto. Quando abro algum software do Office a primeira vez, aparece “ativado”. Quando vou testar em outro software, já pede a ativação novamente.
Hi. I tried all the methods you posted, it says the connection to my KMS server failed! I’ve got good internet connection. Thanks for your help.
Is there a way to activate on mac book
Just installed. The first time I opened an Office program, Excel, it worked. After closing Excel and then re-opening it, it was not activated!
9:27 PM CDT 8/18/23.
same here 🙁
i can’t activate
Thanks Bro
Bless you
Hi, how do I activate the office for mac?
Thanks
Thanks a lot, It worked. So Grateful to you. It worked for MS Office LTSC Professional Plus 2021.
Thank you. It worked for MS Office LTSC Professional Plus 2021 here too. I hope it is permanent and won’t give me issues later.
Thanks Guang! Using this method has been working fine for years, without any 3rd party software, I guess is the most secure way, so I totally recommend it.
I suggest to clarify some things in this post:
1. Include here a comment to deactivate the “optional connected experiences”
2. Explain what would be the procedure to renew the license after the 180 days
3. Update the activation host “e8.us.to” to a link as with the software download so if something goes wrong with that server, we can try the next.
In any case, thanks again!!!
2. cscript ospp.vbs /act
3. kms8.msguides.com
It worked for over a year but somehow Microsoft has found this h**k and they have a ribbon below the menu saying !Get Genuine Office Your license isn’t genuine but when I go into account it still says activated!!!! bizarre!!
Work 1st time and them not working . Help
Installed, followed manual instructions, updated, product still activated a couple of days later.
Thanks so much.
Great! THX a lot!
Thank you so much ! so grateful
I have tried but it installs office 2016. Is there a way to go to 365?
Actually in control panel it says Microsoft 365 apps for enterprise but when i open word or excel it says office 2016 with the same licence as you mention in your post. Is there a solution.
I had a similar issue when I tried to install 2021 over 2016.
I ended up removing both and starting from scratch and it worked out fine.