Change your Office product key
Applies To
OneNote for Microsoft 365 Visio Plan 2 OneNote for Microsoft 365 for Mac Excel 2024 Word 2024 Outlook 2024 PowerPoint 2024 Access 2024 OneNote 2024 Project Professional 2024 Project Standard 2024 Visio Standard 2024 Office 2024 Excel 2024 for Mac OneNote 2024 for Mac Excel 2021 Word 2021 Outlook 2021 PowerPoint 2021 Access 2021 Project Professional 2021 Project Standard 2021 Publisher 2021 Visio Professional 2021 Visio Standard 2021 Office 2021 OneNote 2021 Excel 2021 for Mac OneNote 2021 for Mac Excel 2019 Word 2019 Outlook 2019 PowerPoint 2019 Access 2019 Project Professional 2019 Project Standard 2019 Publisher 2019 Visio Professional 2019 Visio Standard 2019 Office 2019 Excel 2016 Word 2016 Outlook 2016 PowerPoint 2016 Access 2016 OneNote 2016 Project Professional 2016 Project Standard 2016 Publisher 2016 Visio Professional 2016 Visio Standard 2016 Office 2016This article applies to Office Home & Business, Office Professional, and individually purchased Office apps. To switch an Office install to or from Microsoft 365, see Switch your Office license.
Change the product key for your version
How you change the product key depends on your version of Office. Select your Office version from the tabs below.
Best practice for multiple versions of Office
If you bought multiple copies of Office and used the same Install button to install Office on multiple PCs, activation fails on the other PCs. This happens because each Install button is associated with a unique product key that can only be installed on one PC. To fix this, you can change the product key for the other PCs where you installed Office.
Note: After you change your product key, we recommend that you create a list to manage the product keys that you've installed. To learn how, see Manage multiple one-time-purchase Office installs that use the same Microsoft account.
Most versions of Office 2024, Office 2021, and Office 2019 don’t include a product key and you only need to sign in with the account already linked to your Office license.
If your version did include a product key, follow the steps under the 2016 tab.
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On the device where you want to change the key, open any Office app, select the File menu and then select Account near the bottom of the menu.
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Under Product Information, select the Switch License button.
If there is no Switch License button, you may need to install Office updates.
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Do one of the following:
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If you're signed in, select Use a different account, and then select Enter product key instead.
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If you're not signed in, select Enter product key instead.
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Enter your Office 2016 product key, and then select Install this product instead.
If your product key is new, follow the prompts to complete the redemption process.
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Office begins the update process. Close all Office apps to finish the process.
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Sign in to your Subscriptions page with the email and password associated with the Microsoft account that was used to install Office.
After you sign in, you should see a list of Office products that are associated with your Microsoft account.
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For the first product that's listed on the page, select View product key. Copy or write down the product key. This is likely the product key that was used multiple times to install Office.
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Select View product key for the remaining Office products and copy or write them down. These are likely the keys that you'll use to replace the key that was used multiple times.
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On a PC where Office activation is failing, open the Command Prompt as described below:
Windows 10 and Windows 8.1
Windows 7
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Select the Start button
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Type Command Prompt.
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Right-click the Command Prompt icon, and select Run as administrator.
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Select the Start button
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Right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.
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From the drop-down list below, select your Office version and Windows version (32-bit or 64-bit) and run the commands as described.
Tip: If you get an Input Error: Can not find script file... message, it means that you used the wrong command. Don’t worry, running the wrong command won’t hurt anything. Double-check your Office and Windows versions and try a different command.
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Copy the following command, paste the command into the Command Prompt window, and then press Enter.
cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.VBS" /dstatus
The command prompt displays the last five characters of the product key that was used to install Office on the PC. Our example below uses XXXXX to represent these characters.
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Copy the following command, paste the command into the Command Prompt window, and replace XXXXX with the last 5 digits of the product key that was shown in the previous step. Press Enter to remove the product key.
cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.VBS" /unpkey:XXXXX
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Copy the following command, paste the command into the Command Prompt window, and replace XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX with an unused product key from your list. Press Enter to change the key.
cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.VBS" /inpkey:XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
Tip: If you get an Input Error: Can not find script file... message, it means that you used the wrong command. Don’t worry, running the wrong command won’t hurt anything. Double-check your Office and Windows versions and try a different command.
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Copy the following command, paste the command into the Command Prompt window, and then press Enter.
cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.VBS" /dstatus
The command prompt displays the last five characters of the product key that was used to install Office on the PC. Our example below uses XXXXX to represent these characters.
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Copy the following command, paste the command into the Command Prompt window, and replace XXXXX with the last 5 digits of the product key that was shown in the previous step. Press Enter to remove the product key.
cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.VBS" /unpkey:XXXXX
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Copy the following command, paste the command into the Command Prompt window, and replace XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX with an unused product key from your list. Press Enter to change the key.
cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.VBS" /inpkey:XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
Tip: If you get an Input Error: Can not find script file... message, it means that you used the wrong command. Don’t worry, running the wrong command won’t hurt anything. Double-check your Office and Windows versions and try a different command.
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Copy the following command, paste the command into the Command Prompt window, and then press Enter.
cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.VBS" /dstatus
The command prompt displays the last five characters of the product key that was used to install Office on the PC. Our example below uses XXXXX to represent these characters.
-
Copy the following command, paste the command into the Command Prompt window, and replace XXXXX with the last 5 digits of the product key that was shown in the previous step. Press Enter to remove the product key.
cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.VBS" /unpkey:XXXXX
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Copy the following command, paste the command into the Command Prompt window, and replace XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX with an unused product key from your list. Press Enter to change the key.
cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.VBS" /inpkey:XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
Tip: If you get an Input Error: Can not find script file... message, it means that you used the wrong command. Don’t worry, running the wrong command won’t hurt anything. Double-check your Office and Windows versions and try a different command.
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Copy the following command, paste the command into the Command Prompt window, and then press Enter.
cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\OSPP.VBS" /dstatus
The command prompt displays the last five characters of the product key that was used to install Office on the PC. Our example below uses XXXXX to represent these characters.
-
Copy the following command, paste the command into the Command Prompt window, and replace XXXXX with the last 5 digits of the product key that was shown in the previous step. Press Enter to remove the product key.
cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\OSPP.VBS" /unpkey:XXXXX
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Copy the following command, paste the command into the Command Prompt window, and replace XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX with an unused product key from your list. Press Enter to change the key.
cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\OSPP.VBS" /inpkey:XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
Tip: If you get an Input Error: Can not find script file... message, it means that you used the wrong command. Don’t worry, running the wrong command won’t hurt anything. Double-check your Office and Windows versions and try a different command.
-
Copy the following command, paste the command into the Command Prompt window, and then press Enter.
cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\OSPP.VBS" /dstatus
The command prompt displays the last five characters of the product key that was used to install Office on the PC. Our example below uses XXXXX to represent these characters.
-
Copy the following command, paste the command into the Command Prompt window, and replace XXXXX with the last 5 digits of the product key that was shown in the previous step. Press Enter to remove the product key.
cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\OSPP.VBS" /unpkey:XXXXX
-
Copy the following command, paste the command into the Command Prompt window, and replace XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX with an unused product key from your list. Press Enter to change the key.
cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\OSPP.VBS" /inpkey:XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
Tip: If you get an Input Error: Can not find script file... message, it means that you used the wrong command. Don’t worry, running the wrong command won’t hurt anything. Double-check your Office and Windows versions and try a different command.
-
Copy the following command, paste the command into the Command Prompt window, and then press Enter.
cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\OSPP.VBS" /dstatus
The command prompt displays the last five characters of the product key that was used to install Office on the PC. Our example below uses XXXXX to represent these characters.
-
Copy the following command, paste the command into the Command Prompt window, and replace XXXXX with the last 5 digits of the product key that was shown in the previous step. Press Enter to remove the product key.
cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.VBS" /unpkey:XXXXX
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Copy the following command, paste the command into the Command Prompt window, and replace XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX with an unused product key from your list. Press Enter to change the key.
cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\OSPP.VBS" /inpkey:XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
Tips:
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The default installation for Office is 32-bit but if your PC has more than 4 GB of RAM, you probably have 64-bit Windows.
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If you don't know which Office version is installed, see What version of Office am I using? To check whether Windows is installed as 32 or 64 bits, see Which Windows operating system am I running?
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Now start an Office app, such as Word, and select Next to activate Office over the Internet.
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Repeat this process for each PC where activation is failing.
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