How to cancel Microsoft 365

This one cancels from your account page in a couple of minutes, with nobody to talk to.

The catch

Two things about Microsoft 365 catch people out. Annual subscriptions bought directly from Microsoft can be refunded on a pro rata basis for the unused months, which is unusually generous and means cancelling immediately is the right move rather than waiting out the term. But a subscription bought through a retailer, a product key, Apple, Google or a device bundle does not cancel at Microsoft at all. And on a Family plan, only the subscription owner can cancel. The five people sharing it can only remove themselves.

Cancel Microsoft 365 step by step

Go to account.microsoft.com/services/microsoft365 and sign in
Select Cancel subscription (or Upgrade or Cancel)
Review the cancellation page
Select I don't want my subscription to confirm

Open the Microsoft 365 cancellation page Their help page

After you cancel Microsoft 365

OneDrive is where the damage happens, and it is worth handling before anything else. Storage drops from one terabyte to the free five gigabytes when the subscription ends. Anything above that limit becomes read only for around a year and is then deleted. If you are storing more than five gigabytes, download it or move it to another service before the period runs out rather than trusting the grace period.

The desktop applications keep opening after the subscription lapses but enter a reduced mode where you can read and print documents and can no longer create or edit them. Your files stay on your disk in their normal formats, and the free web versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint keep working with full editing, which is a real fallback for occasional use rather than a token one.

Outlook.com email keeps working on the free tier, though the ad free inbox and the custom domain feature go. On a Family plan the other five people lose their benefits at the same moment you do, so tell them before you cancel rather than after.

Cheaper than cancelling

If you would rather keep Microsoft 365 than lose it, there is a cheaper way to have the same thing.

Pay yearly
Roughly 17 percent less than what you pay now
The same subscription, billed once a year.
Assumes if you pay monthly today.
Where to change it
Share a family plan
Roughly 45 percent less than what you pay now
The same subscription, split across a household.
Assumes if you split it with two or more people.
Where to change it

Estimates, not quotes. The figures are a share of what you already pay, because a ratio survives currency and region and goes stale slower than a fixed price.

Every subscription with a cheaper plan

Worth knowing

If Microsoft 365 was purchased via an in-app subscription on iOS, it may be Apple-billed and must be cancelled through Apple Settings / StoreKit manage subscriptions instead. Business subscriptions are cancelled in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Questions people ask about cancelling Microsoft 365

Can I get a refund on Microsoft 365?

Often yes, which is unusual. Annual subscriptions bought directly from Microsoft can be refunded pro rata for the unused months, so cancelling straight away is better than waiting for the term to end. Purchases through retailers follow that seller's policy.

What happens to my OneDrive files?

Storage falls from one terabyte to five gigabytes. Anything over the limit becomes read only for roughly a year and is then deleted. Download or move what you need before the subscription ends rather than relying on that grace period.

Can I still use Word and Excel after cancelling?

The desktop apps enter a reduced mode where you can view and print but not edit or create. Your files stay on your disk untouched, and the free web versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint still allow full editing for lighter use.

What happens to the other people on my Family plan?

They lose their benefits at the same moment you do, including their own terabyte of OneDrive storage. Only the subscription owner can cancel, so if you are the owner, warn the other five people before rather than after.

Written and checked by a person, 1 September 2026.

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