Microsoft’s subscription-free, ‘perpetual’ Office LTSC 2024 to ship this year

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

In 2021, Microsoft officials said to expect at least one more subscription-free, “perpetual” version of Office beyond Office LTSC 2021. Last week, they made it official by announcing that a commercial preview of Office Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) 2024 would be available in April and reach general availability before the end of calendar 2024.

Microsoft officials pre-announced a few more related tidbits last week, as well. Microsoft also is planning to deliver a consumer-focused Office 2024 perpetual product this year. The Office LTSC 2024 versions — Office LTSC Professional Plus, Standard, and Embedded, 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 and will share a list of new features closer to general availability.

In addition, Microsoft is committing to yet another perpetual Office release after the 2024 one, likely around 2027, if Microsoft sticks to its current Office development schedule.

Office LTSC 2024 will be covered under a device-based perpetual license and supported for five years. Office 2024 for consumers also will get five years of support. Both Office LTSC 2024 and Office 2024 will be available as Windows and Mac apps. In addition to supporting Windows 11, Office LTSC 20204 will work on Windows 10 and Windows 10 LTSC devices (other than Arm devices, which will require Windows 11).

Only a subset of features and no M365 Copilot

The Office LTSC 2024 release, as is typical with perpetual releases, will include only a subset of the functionality in the Microsoft 365 apps. This particular release will include new meeting creation options and search enhancements in Outlook; “dozens” of new Excel features and functions including Dynamic Charts and Arrays; and improved performance, security, and accessibility, Microsoft officials said. Office 2024 LTSC and Office 2024 will not support any features that require cloud connectivity, which means no Microsoft 365 Copilot and other integrated AI-related services will work with this release.

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. Microsoft did not call out Outlook in its post on Office 2024, but we do know that the new Outlook for Windows, currently in preview, is going to support perpetual Office through at least 2029.

Just a reminder: Microsoft does not advocate that customers deploy LTSC Windows and Office releases to avoid regular feature updates. LTSC is designed for “regulated devices that cannot accept feature updates for years at a time, process control devices on the manufacturing floor that are not connected to the internet, and specialty systems like medical testing equipment that run embedded apps that must stay locked in time,” officials reiterated.