Short answer: Our Office 2024 review verdict: worth buying if you want the core apps on one PC or Mac without a subscription. It adds new spreadsheet functions, PowerPoint Cameo and better Outlook search. There's no Copilot and no new features after release.
Our Office 2024 review in one line: we’d call it a solid, sensible upgrade for anyone who wants Office without a subscription. Any Office 2024 review should start where a small office starts: two questions about every new release. What changes on Monday morning? And the cost over five years? Both below.
Released on October 1, 2024, Microsoft Office 2024 brings a cleaner look and a handful of useful additions. It doesn’t have Copilot or the monthly feature drops of Microsoft 365.
The suite sticks to the pay-once model. Below: what’s new, how it compares, and who should buy it.
| Point | What to know |
|---|---|
| Status | The current perpetual Office for Windows and Mac |
| Apps | Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook in Home & Business |
| Biggest additions | A new default theme; Excel’s IMAGE function and 14 text and array functions; PowerPoint Cameo and Recording Studio; improved Outlook search |
| Not included | Copilot, Publisher, and new features after release |
| Updates | Security fixes keep coming |
Our Office 2024 review verdict
Yes, it’s worth buying if you want the core apps on one PC or Mac without paying every year.
The new Excel and PowerPoint features are practical. We’d skip it only if you need Copilot, cloud-heavy teamwork or installs on many devices.
Our scorecard below rests on Microsoft’s documented feature list. It also reflects how the suite fits a typical home or small-office setup.
| Area | Verdict |
|---|---|
| New features | Modest but useful: Excel functions, Cameo, Outlook search, ODF 1.4 |
| Long-term cost | One payment; no renewals |
| AI features | Not included; Copilot is for Microsoft 365 subscribers |
| Platforms | Windows 10, Windows 11 and recent macOS versions |
| Best for | Households, freelancers and small offices with stable needs |
What’s new in Office 2024
The full list is on Microsoft’s What’s new in Office 2024 and Office LTSC 2024 page. Here’s what each app gets.
| App | Additions |
|---|---|
| All apps | A new default Office theme; OpenDocument Format 1.4 across Word, Excel and PowerPoint |
| Excel | The IMAGE function, dynamic charts, 14 text and array functions, faster multi-workbook calculation |
| PowerPoint | Cameo, Recording Studio and closed captions |
| Word | Session recovery |
| Outlook | Better search and meeting options |
| OneNote | Improved inking, listed for OneNote LTSC 2024 |
Excel 2024
Excel gets the most practical upgrades.
| Addition | What it does |
|---|---|
| Dynamic charts | Dynamic arrays arrived in Office 2021; now they feed charts that grow automatically when a formula spills more rows |
| IMAGE function | Places pictures inside cells |
| Fourteen text and array functions | TEXTSPLIT, TEXTBEFORE, TEXTAFTER, VSTACK, HSTACK, CHOOSECOLS, TAKE and others replace many clunky helper columns |
| Multi-workbook calculation | Big workbooks with independent calculations lag less when several are open |
Some older reviews say dynamic arrays are new in Office 2024. They aren’t. Dynamic arrays and XLOOKUP shipped in Office 2021. New in 2024: charts that follow dynamic arrays, plus the extra functions.
PowerPoint 2024
PowerPoint is the fun one. Cameo drops your live camera feed straight into a slide. You can size and style it like any picture.
That’s handy for recorded lessons or remote pitches.
Recording Studio records a presentation with voice, ink and video. It exports the result as a video file.
You can add closed captions to video and audio. Microsoft Stream videos hosted on SharePoint can be embedded too.
Word 2024
Word’s changes are quieter, as is typically the case with Word.
Session recovery reopens the documents you had open when Word closes unexpectedly. For anyone who works with long reports, that can save an afternoon.
- Comments gain a Like reaction.
- A blue dot marks new replies.
- Accessibility tools are improved.
- Word can now save in ODF 1.4.
The other apps
| App | Change |
|---|---|
| Outlook 2024 on Windows | Better search suggestions across mail, attachments, contacts and calendar; meeting options such as automatically shortening meetings to leave breaks |
| Outlook 2024 on Mac | Scheduled sending and the Focused Inbox |
| OneNote | Faster ink and more pen options on the Draw tab |
| Access, in Office LTSC Professional Plus 2024 | A Dataverse connector for Power Platform |
Design and file formats
The new default theme follows Microsoft’s Fluent Design. Rounded corners, a calmer palette, and Aptos as the default font in place of Calibri.
In most cases nothing moves far enough to retrain staff. The ribbon stays fully customizable.
On a Mac, Continuity Camera can insert a photo from an iPhone or iPad straight into a document.
Office 2024 review: compared with Office 2021
The new suite is the 2021 one plus three years of feature updates from Microsoft 365, with a refreshed look.
| Feature | Office 2021 | Office 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Release date | October 5, 2021 | October 1, 2024 |
| Dynamic arrays, XLOOKUP | Yes | Yes, plus dynamic charts |
| IMAGE function, 14 new text and array functions | No | Yes |
| PowerPoint Cameo, Recording Studio video export | No | Yes |
| Word session recovery | No | Yes |
| Default font | Calibri | Aptos |
| Publisher | Included in some editions | Not included |
For the app-by-app list, see our Office 2021 vs 2024 comparison.
Office 2024 review: compared with Microsoft 365
| Item | Office 2024 | Microsoft 365 |
|---|---|---|
| Payment | One-time purchase | Subscription |
| Features | Stay fixed | Added monthly |
| Copilot | No | Included |
| OneDrive storage | Only the basic free storage | 1 TB |
| Devices | One PC or Mac | Several devices |
For one PC or Mac with stable needs, we’d call Office 2024 the economical choice. Microsoft 365 suits people who need its cloud and AI extras.
The math is usually the point for small offices. A perpetual license is paid once. A subscription bills you every year for as long as you use it.
Collaboration still works. You can co-author files stored in OneDrive or SharePoint. You just don’t get the newest cloud-only tools.
Our Microsoft 365 vs Office 2024 guide runs through the trade-offs in detail.
Which edition to choose
| Edition | Apps | Commercial use | Devices |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office Home 2024 | Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote | No | 1 PC or Mac |
| Office Home & Business 2024 | Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook | Yes | 1 PC or Mac |
| Office LTSC Professional Plus 2024 | Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access | Yes | Per volume license, Windows |
- Personal use with the four core apps: Office Home 2024.
- You need Outlook or use the suite for work: Office Home & Business 2024. It includes commercial use rights.
- An organization deploying many PCs: Office LTSC Professional Plus 2024, a volume edition that adds Access.
Torn between the two consumer editions? Our Office 2024 Home vs Home & Business guide settles it.
It usually comes out in favor of Home & Business for anyone who runs a business email.
Need a key? Our Microsoft Office Home and Business 2024 key comes as a genuine license for PC or Mac. We email it instantly after payment.
Office Home 2024 review: the edition most people buy
Most buyers end up here, so it gets its own verdict. Four apps, one computer, no work use. For a household or a student that’s usually all of it.
| Office Home 2024 | What you get |
|---|---|
| Apps | Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote |
| Missing | Outlook, Access, Publisher, Copilot |
| Use | Personal, non-commercial |
| Devices | One PC or one Mac |
| Updates | Security updates, no new features |
Our take on Home: good value for homework, budgets and the odd presentation. Every 2024 feature in Excel and PowerPoint is there. Outlook isn’t. That’s the line that sends people to Home & Business.
One small catch when you read Microsoft’s feature list. A few items carry an LTSC label there, and Microsoft says those are for commercial customers only. The new OneNote Draw tab tools, for one. So we’d read that page with the label in mind. Home gets the spreadsheet and slide changes, not every line.
Freelancer, or sending invoices from the same PC? Then skip Home. The Home vs Home & Business guide shows what the extra money buys.
On Windows and on the Mac
The suite runs on Windows 10 and Windows 11 and on recent macOS versions. On Apple silicon Macs it runs natively.
Setup goes through Microsoft’s Click-to-Run installer, from your Microsoft account.
Any PC or Mac that runs a current operating system comfortably will normally run it. The apps are the same 64-bit builds Microsoft 365 uses.
Documents keep their formatting when they move between Windows and Mac. Veteran users will appreciate that.
Touch and pen input work well on Windows tablets. The Mac version handles trackpad gestures and Retina displays.
On a Mac, we’d keep the suite updated through Microsoft AutoUpdate. Microsoft describes the Mac version in its overview of Office for Mac.
Before buying, check your machine against our Office 2024 system requirements guide.
Set the suite up with the Microsoft account you plan to keep. The license is tied to that account. That makes a reinstall on a new PC much simpler later.
Office 2024 review: pros and cons
On the plus side: a single payment, full offline use and practical additions in two apps. The cons follow from the fixed, one-device model.
| What we like | What we don’t |
|---|---|
| Pay once and use it for years, with no renewal date to forget | No Copilot or other AI features from Microsoft 365 |
| Works fully offline when the internet takes a day off | Features are frozen at release; new tools only come with the next version |
| Security updates | Consumer editions cover one PC or Mac |
| Practical new Excel functions and PowerPoint Cameo | Only the basic free OneDrive storage |
| A familiar interface with almost no learning curve | Publisher is gone, so legacy .pub files need another app |
For stable, single-PC users the pros generally win.
Who should buy it, and who should skip it
It suits anyone who wants reliable Office apps on one computer at a predictable cost.
| It makes the most sense for | Why |
|---|---|
| People tired of subscription fees | One payment |
| Users with stable document needs | The feature set doesn’t change under them |
| Single-computer households and small businesses | One license, one PC or Mac |
| Anyone who prefers local files to cloud-first workflows | Full offline use |
| Owners of Office 2016, 2019 or 2021 | The current perpetual version |
| Students and freelancers | A predictable cost |
We’d skip it if your team depends on Copilot or uses Office on many devices. The same goes if you need the newest cloud collaboration features every month.
Microsoft has delivered a standalone suite that doesn’t feel like a second-class citizen next to its subscription sibling.
It doesn’t try to be everything. What it does, it does well.
For many households and small businesses, that’s exactly the point. Software you buy once and use on your own terms.
Common mistakes when buying Office 2024
- Expecting Copilot in the box. It belongs to Microsoft 365.
- Thinking dynamic arrays are new. They shipped in 2021.
- Buying Office Home for business email. Outlook comes with Home & Business.
- Planning to share one license across several computers. Consumer editions cover one.
- Counting on Publisher. It isn’t in any 2024 suite.
- Setting up with a throwaway account. The license stays tied to it.
Terms used on this page
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Perpetual license | You pay once and keep that version |
| Cameo | A live camera feed inside a slide |
| Recording Studio | PowerPoint’s tool for recording a presentation as video |
| Session recovery | Word reopens your documents after an unexpected close |
| Dynamic arrays | Formulas that spill results into many cells |
| ODF 1.4 | A version of the OpenDocument file format |
| Aptos | The new default font |
| Click-to-Run | Microsoft’s streaming installer |
| Copilot | Microsoft’s AI assistant, part of Microsoft 365 subscriptions |
Typical Office 2024 buyer situations
Looking for Copilot
No Copilot button in the 2024 apps. That’s by design. The apps work as described, and AI stays a subscription feature.
Business email on Office Home
Office Home has no Outlook. That app comes with Home & Business. The edition choice should come before the purchase.
A second laptop
Same license on a desktop and a laptop? Not with this one. A consumer license covers one computer. The second machine needs its own.
Old Publisher files
A flyer in Publisher format won’t open in the new suite. No 2024 app reads it. It has to be converted on a PC that still has Publisher.
Aptos instead of Calibri
New documents suddenly start in Aptos. Nothing is wrong. The default font changed from Calibri, and you can set it back.
FAQ
Is Office 2024 worth it over Office 2021?
Yes. It adds new Excel functions and PowerPoint Cameo. Word gets session recovery.
Does Office 2024 include Copilot?
No. Copilot and other AI features are part of Microsoft 365 subscriptions. The 2024 suite keeps the features it shipped with and gets only security and quality updates.
Can I install Office 2024 on more than one computer?
The two consumer editions are each licensed for one PC or Mac. Volume editions such as Office LTSC Professional Plus 2024 follow the terms of the volume license.
Does Office 2024 work on a Mac?
Yes. The consumer editions run on PC or Mac, natively on Apple silicon. Microsoft supports Office for Mac on the three most recent macOS versions. We'd keep it updated through Microsoft AutoUpdate.
Is Publisher included in Office 2024?
No. Publisher isn't part of any Office 2024 suite. We'd convert old Publisher files on a PC that still has the app.
Is Office Home 2024 worth it?
For personal use on one PC or Mac, yes. Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote with every 2024 addition. No Outlook and no work use, so freelancers take Home & Business.