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.

Allow office 2021 installer makes changes to your device
Allow office 2021 installer makes changes to your device
Installing Microsoft Office 2021
Installing Microsoft Office 2021

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.

Skip Office 2021 product key option
Skip Office 2021 product key option

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.

Accept the license agreement of Office 2021
Accept the license agreement of Office 2021

Activate Office 2021 for FREE using KMS client key

Method 1: Running CMD commands manually

Running commands manually to activate Office 2021

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.

Run cmd program with admin rights
Run cmd program with admin rights

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.

Open location of Office 2021 installed
Open location of Office 2021 installed

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.

Install KMS volume licenses of Office 2021
Install KMS volume licenses of Office 2021

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

Use act command to activate Office 2021
Use act command to activate Office 2021

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>
Office 2021 activation successful
Office 2021 activation successful

Congratulations! The activation was completed successfully.

Method 2: Using my pre-written batch script

How to activate Office 2021 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
Create a new text document
Create a new text document

Step 2.2: Save this text file as a cmd file. (Eg. 1click.cmd).

Save text file as a cmd script
Save text file as a cmd script
Name the activation script
Name the activation script

Step 2.3: Run the cmd file in admin mode.

Run the activation script as admin
Run the activation script as admin
Allow the activation script to make changes to your PC
Allow the activation script to make changes to your PC
Activate Office 2021 using guang's pre written batch script
Activate Office 2021 using my pre written batch script

Step 2.4: Check the activation status again.

Office 2021 activation successful
Office 2021 activation successful

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!

5/5 - (614 votes)

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685 Comments

  1. Hello Sir.
    I have a problem with error 0xC004F074, i tried and still trying to run “act” again but still can’t get rid of the error. Please help. Thank you.

  2. Hi sir Guang.

    Thank you very much, I have already installed Office 2021. Just have a concern about this:

    “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.”

    Is it to say that we can only use this for about 6 months and it will be deactivated after the said period? What is the meaning that it can be renewed automatically?

    Also, do we need to disable the Office Updates?

    Thank you very much for the help.

  3. 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.<< So does one need to do anything to renew or it is automatically done in the background?
    Thanks

    1. ERROR CODE: 0x80080005
      ERROR DESCRIPTION: Run the following: cscript ospp.vbs /ddescr:0x80080005

      —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
      ERROR CODE: 0x80080005
      ERROR DESCRIPTION: Run the following: cscript ospp.vbs /ddescr:0x80080005
      —————————————
      —————————————
      —Exiting—————————–

  4. Worked well, easy instructions, and a hassle-free experience even if you know little about computers. This one is specially easy since all you need to do is copy and paste the commands one by one, of course letting the first command to finish before entering the next one. All in all, I’m really happy i found this website and this guide l**o, saves me a bunch of headache in the future. Thanks!

    1. P.S. make sure to uninstall any old existing Office products in your system, they might behave in unexpected ways.

  5. Hey i have a doubt,
    Why are u providing it for free? it’s a bulk activation method. How will u recover the cost??
    And when i checked it in Virus Total website it told it’s a malware.
    What’s ur explanation

  6. Tried all the steps below for 21. Removed all keys

    I can run office 2021 but I get the genuine message

    I even tried the uninstall command which used to work for 2019

    OfficeC2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.13801.20266

    anyone know how to get rid of this message?

  7. Getting error
    ‘The connection to my KMS server failed! Trying to connect to another one…
    Please wait… ‘
    please help

  8. Hi,
    I am not sure whether mine is considered activated.
    Upon opening the Word, it pop up saying that my license is not genuine but at the Product Information from Account, it shows “Product Activated”.

  9. Hey
    I recently purchased a new laptop with office pre-installed, but I forgot my microsoft password and I even tried recovery but it is not possible. Is there some way to c***k this and change the password? Please help me.

  10. Hello Guang,
    many thanks for your work !

    I have a question about your script and your statement:

    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.

    The script itself does not renew the activation automatically, right ?

    You would have to integrate the batch file into a schedule somehow, right ?

    Best regards,
    Tom

  11. This is working – 5 June 2022

    Step 1. Go to Office directory:
    One of these will work depending on where the office is installed.

    cd /d %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Office\Office16
    cd /d %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office16

    Step 2. Check for any old licenses using the below command. This will show the last 5 digits of license/s if any (e.g 6MWKP).

    “cscript.exe ospp.vbs /dstatus”

    Step 3. Remove any old licenses:
    “cscript.exe ospp.vbs /unpkey:6MWKP”

    Rerun Step 1 to see if there are any other licenses. Else remove them using Step 2, replacing just the 5 digits of the license in it.

    Step 4. Install Office License
    for /f %x in (‘dir /b ..\root\Licenses16\ProPlus2021VL_KMS*.xrm-ms’) do cscript ospp.vbs /inslic:”..\root\Licenses16\%x”

    Step 5. Activate your Office using the KMS key

    cscript ospp.vbs /setprt:1688
    cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:6F7TH >nul
    cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:FXYTK-NJJ8C-GB6DW-3DYQT-6F7TH
    cscript ospp.vbs /sethst:kms9.msguides.com
    cscript ospp.vbs /act
    cscript ospp.vbs /sethst:s8.uk.to

    Now open office applications. Dont open then till you finish doing Step 5 completely.
    This works perfectly!

    1. Still not working. Still getting this when opening any Office Application “GET GENUINE OFFICE Your license isn’t genuine, and you may be a victim of counterfeiting. Avoid interruption and keep your files safe with genuine Office today.”

  12. It’s working when using this:

    cscript ospp.vbs /setprt:1688
    cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:6F7TH >nul
    cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:FXYTK-NJJ8C-GB6DW-3DYQT-6F7TH
    cscript ospp.vbs /sethst:kms9.msguides.com
    cscript ospp.vbs /act

    But when opening Excel, I get this error. “GET GENUINE OFFICE Your license isn’t genuine, and you may be a victim of counterfeiting. Avoid interruption and keep your files safe with genuine Office today.

    How to fix this guys?

  13. THIS IS WORKING, PASTE AS IT IS IN ADMINISTRATOR CMD 😉

    cd /d %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Office\Office16
    cd /d %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office16

    for /f %x in (‘dir /b ..\root\Licenses16\ProPlus2021VL_KMS*.xrm-ms’) do cscript ospp.vbs /inslic:”..\root\Licenses16\%x”

    cscript ospp.vbs /setprt:1688
    cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:6F7TH >nul
    cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:FXYTK-NJJ8C-GB6DW-3DYQT-6F7TH
    cscript ospp.vbs /sethst:kms9.msguides.com
    cscript ospp.vbs /act

    1. Not working. Error after opening any Microsoft Office App “GET GENUINE OFFICE Your license isn’t genuine, and you may be a victim of counterfeiting. Avoid interruption and keep your files safe with genuine Office today”

  14. I’m doing it as follows:
    I activate it using the kms9.msguides.com server but then, before opening the office, I use the command “cscript ospp.vbs /sethst:s8.uk.to” again because the message of non-genuine software is by KMS server account configured. This has worked fine for me, both to enable and not to display the non-genuine software message. As the activation is valid for 180 days, until then I hope that the s8 server has already started working again.

    1. when you activated office with the kms9, did you close it? or when you see that it was active you put in “cscript ospp.vbs /sethst:s8.uk.to”??

    2. Thanks, this trick works.
      Activate by setting the server to “kms9.msguides.com” and BEFORE opening any office application change the server back to “s8.uk.to”

  15. I feel like this is the work of a Windows update or something, none of the hosts seem to work. Kms9 and kms8 say activation successful then you open the program and it still says its not genuine

  16. This will work for now.

    cscript ospp.vbs /setprt:1688
    cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:6F7TH >nul
    cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:FXYTK-NJJ8C-GB6DW-3DYQT-6F7TH
    cscript ospp.vbs /sethst:kms9.msguides.com
    cscript ospp.vbs /act

    Thanks to Anthony HM

  17. As s8 and s9 server are not available, does anyone has alternative working KMS server to activate Office 2021? I also tried kms.msguides.com and kms8.msguides.com servers and also are not working, I received the error code 0xC004F074.

  18. Neither of these methods are working for me, I tried the “act” command several times for the first one and kept getting the same error code (tried using a different network but it didn’t make a difference), and the second method just kept trying to connect to different KMS servers and eventually gave up. I’m running Windows 11, is there a new method to get it work on this?

      1. Server Monitor: 1% CPU, 26% RAM, 30% Disk.
        kms.msguides.com OK
        but kmsServer S8 & s9, response:

        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.
        To view the activation event history run: cscript ospp.vbs /dhistorykms
        NOTICE: A KB article has been detected for activation failure: 0xC004F074