How can I buy Office 365 without Copilot

Hello,

I am trying to buy a personal 365 subscription for my mother.

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Is it possible to buy a personal 365 plan without copilot? Or is that option only available when you're changing a pre-existing plan?

Does your mother actually need all of Microsoft Office?

Libre Office is free and very similar to the Microsoft Word, Excel, etc.

One Drive has become intrusive, and there are other options for cloud storage out there.

I'd evaluate her needs before subscribing --for example, if she's retired, or doesn't use the Office suite so much, something like Libre Office will work fine.

I'm migrating things out of One Drive and preparing to end my Microsoft subscription because they have forced Copilot on subscribers without asking, and they forced a price increase for that unwanted Copilot service.

Copilot is intrusive and unwanted --- much worse than "Clippy" from years ago. Much worse.

I downloaded all the files right after cancelling and it wasn't until yesterday that they downgraded me and all family accounts to the free 5 gb version. I think the files remain there in a read only mode for a month or so but since we cant upload anything and also because we wont receive any new emails until we either resubscribe or delete the files to bring the total storage below 5 gb, I went ahead and deleted them myself so now all emails are working. I had also stopped receiving emails since yesterday but thats good now that I'm below 5 gb. Yes Libre Office, I'm actually amazed at how well that works, just a slight learning curve but an awesome alternative.

Now I'm waiting for my bank to confirm the charge has been refunded since I cancelled after they had charged the new price and Microsoft did issue a refund right away, says it takes 3-5 business days. Will check tomorrow.

The reasons that I kept my Microsoft Office 365 subscription:

The price was reasonable

1 TB of cloud storage

MS suite (word, excel)

But with Copilot and the price increase, I'm using Libre Office and looking for other cloud storage.

The reasons for having my subscription don't apply anymore, Co-pilot is intrusive, and I refuse to pay extra for that.

It's a shame -- I'd keep my subscription if they hadn't "improved" it.

Mine ends in September, so I'm giving it some time to see if anything improves... though I may just cancel if nothing improves. (looking at you, Copilot)

I downloaded all the files right after cancelling and it wasn't until yesterday that they downgraded me and all family accounts to the free 5 gb version. I think the files remain there in a read only mode for a month or so but since we cant upload anything and also because we wont receive any new emails until we either resubscribe or delete the files to bring the total storage below 5 gb,

Good to know. So it's probably best to download everything before cancelling to avoid any storage-limit issues.

Yes thank you! It's absolutely ridiculous that Microsoft are doing this, and more than likely getting away with it. They hadn't increased my subscription fee yet, but my wife got her price hiked up. I'll be showing her how to do this.