Microsoft is testing a free, ad-supported version of Office, featuring Word, PowerPoint, and Excel — but with several catches.

If you’ve messed around with Microsoft’s “free” Office web app, you’ve quickly discovered that it stinks, for one important reason: You can’t actually create documents. A new, free, ad-supported local version of Office changes all that,

Microsoft released a free version of Office with ads and limitations. A 15-second video ad is played in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint every few hours, alongside a permanent sidebar ad. It cannot save documents locally,

Microsoft has quietly launched a new version of Microsoft Office for Windows that can be used to edit documents for free, no Microsoft 365 subscription or Office license key required.