Microsoft's Office LTSC 2024 begins rolling out

Mary Jo Foley is the Editor in Chief at Directions on Microsoft. Before joining Directions, Mary Jo has worked as... more

Microsoft announced plans in March for Office Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) 2024. On September 16, a bit earlier than many expected, Microsoft began making Office LTSC 2024 available for purchase by existing commercial and government volume-licensed customers. Microsoft will make Office LTSC available for purchase by all customers, including consumers, beginning October 1.

Office LTSC 2024, because it is an on-premises product, does not include cloud functionality around collaboration, automation, cloud-backed security and compliance, and Copilot capabilities.

It is an updated bundle of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneDrive, OneNote and Access (which is available on Windows only). Microsoft also is making new on-premises version of Project and Visio available starting today. Office LTSC 2024 will not ship with Microsoft Publisher, which is being retired, or with the Microsoft Teams app, which is available to download separately. The Office LTSC 2024 apps can be installed on one PC (running Windows 10, Windows 10 LTSC or Windows 11) or Mac, and support for Web apps is not included.

Five years of mainstream support only

As an LTSC product, Office LTSC 2024 gets security updates only, not new features as they become available. The product is covered under device-based licensing only. Microsoft will provide support for Office LTSC 2024 for five years only (with no Extended support available) and can be used alongside Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise in hybrid environments.

Previously, Microsoft execs said the 16- and 32-bit Office LTSC 2024 versions — Office LTSC Professional Plus, Office LTSC Standard, as well as the individual apps in the suite — will be up to 10 percent more expensive than the 2021 version. Microsoft is not planning to increase the price for the consumer Office 2024 release, officials said.

Microsoft officials have said there will be at least one more perpetual/non-subscription release of Office after Office LTSC 2024. If the company sticks to its current cadence, that release could be available around 2027.