Cancelling Microsoft 365 is simple. The real question is what happens to your files afterwards, because Microsoft gives you 1TB of OneDrive storage with your subscription. If you're using most of that, you'll need to download your files before your storage drops back to 5GB.
How to cancel
- Go to account.microsoft.com/services and sign in
- Find your Microsoft 365 subscription
- Click Manage
- Click Cancel (or Turn off recurring billing if you want to keep access until the end of your paid period without auto-renewing)
- Follow the prompts and confirm
"Turn off recurring billing" and "Cancel" do different things. Turning off recurring billing lets you use the subscription until it expires naturally. Cancelling ends it and may trigger a prorated refund (see below).
Cancel if you subscribed through Apple
- Open Settings on your iPhone > tap your name > Subscriptions
- Find Microsoft 365 and tap Cancel Subscription
After your subscription expires, you can still open and view your files, but Word, Excel, and PowerPoint switch to read-only mode on desktop. You can still edit files using the free web versions at office.com. OneDrive storage drops from 1TB to 5GB. If you're over 5GB, Microsoft won't delete your files immediately, but you won't be able to upload or sync new ones until you're under the limit. You have a grace period to download or delete files.
Current pricing (AUD)
| Plan | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Personal (1 person) | $12.00/mo | $109.00/yr (~$9.08/mo) |
| Family (up to 6 people) | $16.00/mo | $149.00/yr (~$12.42/mo) |
Both plans include: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, 1TB OneDrive per person, and Microsoft Copilot access. The Family plan gives each person their own 1TB.
Refund policy
Microsoft offers prorated refunds if you cancel an annual subscription partway through. This is unusually generous for software subscriptions. If you paid $109 for the year and cancel after 6 months, you'll get roughly half back. Monthly plans simply stop at the end of the current billing cycle.
Do you actually need Microsoft 365?
Probably not, unless you need 1TB of cloud storage or use advanced Excel features.
Free alternatives that handle most tasks:
- Microsoft Office Online (office.com) is free and runs Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in your browser with full editing
- Google Docs, Sheets, Slides are free and arguably better for collaboration
- LibreOffice is free, open-source, and works offline on your computer
- Apple iWork (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) is free on Mac and iPhone
The most common reason to keep Microsoft 365 is the 1TB OneDrive storage, not the apps themselves. If you're using OneDrive heavily, compare it against Google Drive (15GB free, $2.49/mo for 100GB) or iCloud+ ($1.49/mo for 50GB).
Microsoft 365 sorted. But software subscriptions tend to pile up quietly. When did you last check what else is recurring?
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See what you're paying forChris Raad
Chris is the founder of Subtracker. He built this tool after experiencing the pain of discovering thousands of dollars in unused SaaS sprawl just before tax time.