Your options to retrieve the account and password you use to sign in and install or reinstall Microsoft 365, or to manage your Microsoft 365 subscription vary depending if your product is a Microsoft 365 for home or Microsoft 365 for business product.

Tip: If you purchased Office through a company benefit, see Microsoft 365 through the Microsoft Workplace Discount Program. Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 for home

If your Microsoft 365 product is one of the following, you have a Microsoft 365 for home product. This can be a subscription, or a one-time purchase of Microsoft 365 Office, or individual Microsoft 365 application. These products are usually associated with a personal Microsoft account.

Microsoft 365 subscriptions: The following products include the fully installed Microsoft 365 applications.

  Microsoft 365 Family   Microsoft 365 Personal

Office 2021, Office 2019, or  Office 2016 versions available as one-time purchases: The following products include the fully installed Office applications.

  Office Home & Student   Office Home & Business   Office Professional

Stand-alone Office 2021, Office 2019, or Office 2016 apps available as one-time purchases

  Word   Excel   PowerPoint   OneNote*   Outlook   Access   Publisher   Project   Visio

Tip: *The desktop version of OneNote is only available in Microsoft 365, Office 2021, and Office 2016 versions. In Office 2019, OneNote for Windows 10 is the default OneNote experience. See the FAQ.

Microsoft 365 for business

If your Microsoft 365 product is one of the following, you have a Microsoft 365 for business product. These products are usually associated with a work or school account, and your Microsoft 365 license (if your subscription has one) came from the organization where you work or go to school.  

Microsoft 365 Subscriptions: The following products include the fully installed Microsoft 365 applications.

  Microsoft 365 Apps for business   Microsoft 365 Business Standard

  Office 365 A5

  Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise   Office 365 Enterprise E3   Office 365 Enterprise E4   Office 365 Enterprise E5

  Microsoft 365 Business Standard (Nonprofit)   Office 365 Nonprofit E3   Office 365 Nonprofit E5

  Office 365 U.S. Government Community G3   Office 365 U.S. Government Community G5

  Project Online Professional   Project Online Premium

Visio Online Plan 2

Microsoft 365 Subscriptions without fully installed Office applications:

Tip: With these Microsoft 365 subscriptions, there are no desktop applications to download and install, but in most cases, you can still access and use online versions of Office apps in your web browser. See Free Office on the web.

  Microsoft 365 Business Basic   Office 365 Enterprise E1   Office 365 A1   Microsoft 365 Business Basic (Nonprofit)   Office 365 Nonprofit E1   Office 365 U.S. Government G1   Project Online Essentials   Visio Online Plan 1

Volume license versions of Office LTSC 2021, Office 2019, or Office 2016

  Office Professional Plus

The account you associated with your Microsoft 365 for home product is the same email you used when you bought or activated Microsoft 365 the first time, or what you use to sign in and install or manage Microsoft 365 from your account portal.

For help with this username or password, select from the options below:

Still need help?

Call support If none of these options help and you still can't remember your Microsoft account, see When you can't sign in to your Microsoft account for additional things to try.

Your work or school account is the email account your organization assigned to you. If you were also assigned a Microsoft 365 license, it will be associated with this account.

For help with the username or password, or to manage your work or school account, select from the options below:

Contact your admin for your username and password

Contact your admin who can retrieve the username and reset the password for your work or school account.

Open Word, Excel, or PowerPoint app to see your username

If you have Microsoft 365 or Office 2016 or newer installed, in most cases you can view the work or school account associated with Office by opening a desktop application like Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.

  1. Open an app such as Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.

  2. Select File. If you didn't open an existing document, you may need to create a new document to see the File menu.

  3. From the navigation on the left, select Account.

  4. Under Product Information is the name of your product and the name of the account the product is licensed to.

    A screenshot showing a user account in Excel.

Manage your account

You know your username, but forgot the password and need to reset it

If your admin has given you permission to reset your password go to, passwordreset.microsoftonline.com/. Contact your admin if you don't have permission to change your password.

If your admin has given you permission to reset your password go to, passwordreset.activedirectory.windowsazure.cn/. Contact your admin if you don't have permission to change your password.

If your admin has given you permission to reset your password go to, passwordreset.microsoftonline.com/. Contact your admin if you don't have permission to change your password. 

You know your password, but you want to change it

You can only do this if your admin has given you permission to update your password in Microsoft 365.

  1. Go to www.microsoft365.com/signin and sign in with your work or school account username and existing password.

    Go to login.partner.microsoftonline.cn and sign in with your work or school account username and existing password.

    Go to portal.office.de and sign in with your work or school account username and existing password.

  2. Go to Settings Settings: update your profile, install software and connect it to the cloud > Change your password.

    Screenshot of Settings and Change password in Microsoft 365

    You'll only see this option if your admin has given you permission to reset your password. Contact your admin if you don't have permission to change your password.

  3. Make your changes and click Save.

Sign in to Microsoft 365

The sign in location for Microsoft 365 is, www.microsoft365.com/signin.

The sign in location for Office 365 operated by 21Vianet in China is, login.partner.microsoftonline.cn/.

The sign in location for Office 365 Germany is, portal.office.de.

If you're signing in to the correct location, but still can't remember your username and password, contact your admin.

Sign in with a personal account instead of a work or school account

If you're trying to sign in with your personal Microsoft account, but you're already signed in with your work or school account, you need to sign out and then sign in with the correct Microsoft account (or vice versa).

Another option is to open a private browsing session in a new browser window. (Search your browser's help if you don't know how to do this.) When you open a private browsing session your browsing data such as history, temporary internet files, and cookies isn't saved, so you can sign in with a different account.

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