Office 365 A1 Plus Retirement: What You Need to Know and How to Navigate It
- Updated: Sept. 2, 2025
- Read time: 3 mins
In this article...
- Why Microsoft is retiring Office 365 A1 Plus
- What’s changing for students and faculty
- Key dates and the phased removal timeline
- Storage limits with A1, A3 and A5 licenses
- Steps schools should take to stay compliant
- How HBS can help you choose the right licensing mix
If your school is still running on A1 Plus, the countdown is officially over. After more than a year of extensions, Microsoft has started removing these licenses from tenants as of Tuesday, September 2, 2025.
That means the program that gave faculty and students free desktop versions of Office apps is finally being phased out — for good this time.
What’s Changed with A1 Plus?
Microsoft originally planned to retire Office 365 A1 Plus by the end of 2024. Then they pushed it back to early 2025. But as of this September rollout, there are no more extensions coming. Between now and the end of 2025, Microsoft will remove A1 Plus from all tenants in phases.
Here’s the tricky part: there’s no way to know exactly when your tenant will be affected. One day you could still be running Word and Excel desktop applications, and the next, those licenses are gone.
What Happens Without A1 Plus?
If you have Office 365 A1 for students or Office 365 A1 for faculty, you’ll still have access to the core Office apps—but only as web versions.
- No more desktop installations of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Outlook under A1 Plus.
- Web apps only, running in a browser.
- New storage limits: education tenants now get 100TB of pooled storage across OneDrive, SharePoint and Exchange, with A1 users capped at 100GB per user.
For many schools, that’s a major shift in how day-to-day work and learning get done.
Why Did Microsoft Retire A1 Plus?
When Microsoft introduced A1 Plus back in 2015, it was designed to help schools make the leap to the cloud. The problem? The program ballooned far beyond its original intent. Too many schools ended up using it in ways that made them technically non-compliant.
This retirement is Microsoft’s way of reining things in—and competing more directly with Google in the education space.
What You Need to Do Next
If your faculty or students still rely on the desktop versions of Office, now’s the time to plan your move. Some things to consider:
- Licensing mix: Do you need to upgrade some users to A3 or A5 while keeping others on A1?
- Budget: Paid licenses are often a new line item for schools that leaned on A1 Plus.
- Compliance: This is a great opportunity to review all of your Microsoft licensing and make sure nothing else is out of alignment.
And because Microsoft is rolling out removals in phases, you don’t want to wait until access disappears to figure out a solution.
How HBS Can Help With the Office 365 A1 Plus Retirement
We’ve helped schools across the country navigate this exact challenge. Our team can:
- Assess your entire Microsoft environment and identify gaps.
- Recommend the right licensing mix for faculty and students.
- Build a roadmap that fits your budget and keeps you compliant.
If you’d like to discuss your options for getting the full Office suite where it’s still needed, reach out to HBS. We’ll walk you through the choices and help you make the smartest decision for your school.
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