Microsoft 365 Personal + Copilot — Free 1 Year for Students (2025)

Microsoft 365 Personal with Copilot: What’s the Deal?

Microsoft is handing eligible students a surprisingly generous window: a full 12-month subscription to Microsoft 365 Personal with Copilot — free. Yes, longer than the usual three-month student trial. This limited-time student offer bundles the full Microsoft 365 productivity suite with premium Microsoft Copilot AI features, multimodal AI tools (think image and video helpers), and 1 TB of OneDrive student storage.

Who Qualifies and Where Is It Available?

The pitch is aimed at students who've finished high school and are actively enrolled in an undergraduate or postgraduate program. If you’re not registered in a recognized degree course, you likely won’t pass the eligibility check. Microsoft’s education sign-up page is live now, and the window to claim the free year closes on November 30 — so don’t sleep on it.

From my experience with university promos, these things often roll out regionally first. If you don’t see the option right away, double-check your institution’s eligibility or try again later. International students: yes, many do qualify — but region availability varies, so verify on the Microsoft Education page.

What’s Included in the Plan?

• Microsoft 365 apps: Full premium versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive — all the basics (and then some) for coursework and collaboration.
• Copilot integration: The Copilot sidebar across apps, plus premium features such as Deep Research, Podcasts, Vision, and expanded usage limits — handy when you’re pushing deadlines.
• Multimodal AI: Image-to-text and video analysis inside Copilot; useful for diagrams, lab photos, or visual assignments.
• Storage: 1 TB of cloud storage shared across Outlook and OneDrive — enough for semester projects, media files, and backups.
• Device access: Sign in on up to five devices simultaneously — laptop, tablet, phone — keeps your workflow moving between classes and late-night study sessions.

Why This Matters to Students

Having Copilot embedded in the full M365 suite rethinks routine student work. Use Copilot to summarize long readings into a neat outline, generate referenced slide content for a presentation, or transcribe a recorded seminar and pull out action items. The Copilot sidebar in Word, PowerPoint and Excel becomes a collaborator, not just a tool.

Here’s a short, practical example: last semester I watched a teammate upload photos of lab results into Copilot Vision, ask it to extract labels and annotate findings, then auto-generate a 7-slide presentation with speaker notes. What normally took the team an afternoon compressed into under an hour. Honestly — it felt like cheating, in the best way.

Limitations and Things to Know

• This subscription is for individual use — it’s not a family plan you can share.
• Education verification is required. Microsoft will check your enrollment — so have your student email or documents ready.
• The offer is time-limited and region-specific; check Microsoft’s sign-up page and the Microsoft Education site for the latest availability details.
• There are usage limits even on student offers — Copilot isn’t infinite. Expect throttles or caps on heavy multimodal tasks.

How to Claim the Free Year

1. Visit Microsoft’s education sign-up page and verify your student status (use your university email or upload proof as requested).
2. Activate the 12-month Microsoft 365 Personal + Copilot subscription before November 30, 2025.
3. Sign in across your devices (up to five) and start exploring Copilot templates and features in Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Teams.

If you want the official fine print, check Microsoft’s announcement and support pages for eligibility, regional availability, and whether the offer auto-renews after 12 months.

• Microsoft — Official Site
• Microsoft Learn — Documentation & Support
• Microsoft Blogs — Announcements
• Microsoft Education — Student Offers

Further Reading and Related Offers

Other companies (Google, OpenAI, Perplexity) have been promoting student-friendly AI tools and discounts, so if Copilot doesn’t match your workflow exactly, compare alternatives. Think about practical questions: Can you use the free Copilot on multiple devices? Are there similar free AI tools for students? How does student pricing compare after the free year ends? These are the sorts of things worth checking before you build a semester’s worth of work around one service.

Key Takeaways

• Free for 12 months: Eligible students can get Microsoft 365 Personal + Copilot free for one year — a meaningful trial of premium AI-assisted workflows.
• Deadline: Claim the offer by November 30, 2025.
• Powerful toolkit: Premium Copilot features, multimodal AI, Copilot Vision, transcription, and 1 TB of OneDrive student storage.
• Verify eligibility: Enrollment in a recognized undergraduate or postgraduate program is required.

Bottom line: if you qualify and you regularly produce documents, slides, or media-heavy assignments, this is a low-risk way to test how AI can speed up real student workflows. Try a short project — maybe a report or slide deck — to discover where Copilot helps and where it still needs human judgment.

One last tip: after activation, explore Copilot templates, try Copilot-driven note summarization on a few lectures, and save drafts to OneDrive — you’ll figure out the limits quickly and end up saving time over the semester.

Learn more in our guide to multimodal AI tools for students.