Office 2022: Why It Doesn’t Exist and the Real Office Versions

Office 2022 doesn’t exist: Microsoft never released an Office version with that name. The perpetual release that came out in late 2021 is called Office 2021, and the next one is Office 2024. We’d bet a search for Office 2022 means one of those two, or the Microsoft 365 subscription.

Office 2022 doesn’t exist: the short story

Microsoft ships a one-time Office every few years. Office 2016, then Office 2019. After that, a long gap. People expected the next one in 2022 and started calling it that before it had a name.

Then Microsoft picked the year of release instead. Office 2021 it was. So no box, no installer and no key was ever sold as Office 2022 by Microsoft. Not for Windows, not for Mac.

Where the Office 2022 name came from

Back in 2020 and early 2021, Microsoft confirmed one more perpetual release for Windows and Mac. Tech sites guessed the name. Several went with “2022”. Releases had come about three years apart, after all, and we’d have guessed the same.

The guess stuck in search. Microsoft’s own blog post from September 2021 settled it, though. It announced Office LTSC for volume customers and set Office 2021 for consumers on October 5, 2021. Nothing called 2022 in it.

Then came a rename that did happen in 2022. Late that year. The Office start app, Microsoft announced, would become the Microsoft 365 app. “Office is becoming Microsoft 365”, said the headlines. Plenty of people read a new Office into that. It wasn’t one. Word stayed Word, and Office 2021 stayed Office 2021. Renamed again since. Now it’s the Microsoft Copilot app, per Microsoft’s note on the app transition.

One more source of confusion: Microsoft does publish pages like “January 2022 updates for Microsoft Office”. Those are monthly patches. A patch with 2022 in the title isn’t a product.

The real Office versions, in release order

Here’s the lineup that actually exists on the desktop, oldest at the top:

• Office 2016. Still found on older office PCs.
• Office 2019. The first volume release installed with Click-to-Run instead of MSI.
• Office 2021 and Office LTSC 2021. The release people call 2022.
• Office 2024 and Office LTSC 2024. The newest one-time purchase.
• Microsoft 365. A subscription with no year in its name at all.

A fun detail from Microsoft’s IT docs: every release from 2016 to LTSC 2024 reports major version 16.0. So the About box won’t help. In our guide to Microsoft Office versions we show how to check which one you have, and the full Office version list covers every release.

Release dates of the real versions

A Microsoft Office 2022 release date, then. There isn’t one. These are the dates that do exist:

See the gap? Late 2021, then late 2024. Nothing in 2022 or 2023. The 2021 dates come straight from Microsoft’s launch post linked above.

So “Office 2022 vs 2021” has a short answer. Same product. Anything sold as 2022 is either Office 2021 with a wrong label or not Office at all. A real comparison is 2021 against 2024, and that one we’ve written up.

Office 2021: the version people mean by Office 2022

Consumers got two boxed editions on October 5, 2021, according to Microsoft’s launch post:

• Office Home and Student 2021, the four core apps for PC and Mac.
• Office Home and Business 2021, which adds Outlook and the right to use it for business.

Companies got Office LTSC Professional Plus 2021 and Office LTSC Standard 2021 through volume licensing. Professional Plus is the big one. It adds Access and Publisher on Windows.

New in 2021? Plenty in Excel. XLOOKUP, dynamic arrays, LET and XMATCH all arrived for one-time buyers here. Word got Dark Mode and Line Focus. PowerPoint got Record Slide Show. We’d call it the release that finally caught up with what subscribers had for a while. The Office 2019 vs 2021 comparison lists the rest.

Office 2021 still installs and activates today. A real 2021 key works with Microsoft’s own installer. How that goes step by step is in how to activate Office 2021.

Office 2024 and Office LTSC 2024

The next perpetual release after 2021 is 2024. Not 2022, not 2023. Volume customers got Office LTSC 2024 first, then the consumer editions followed in October 2024.

Some practical differences matter if you came here looking for “the 2022 one”:

• Publisher is gone from Office LTSC 2024.
• Teams isn’t preinstalled any more and comes as a separate download.
• Files in OpenDocument format save as ODF 1.4 by default.
• Office LTSC 2024 needs Windows 11 or one of the newer LTSC and Server releases.

We compare the two in detail in Office 2021 vs 2024. Short version: same idea, newer features, fewer apps in the volume suite.

Microsoft 365, the one without a year

Lots of “Office 2022” searches come from people who just want the newest Office. That’s Microsoft 365. New features all the time. No year needed in the name.

The catch is the subscription. Stop paying and the desktop apps stop editing. A one-time version keeps working. Our page on what Microsoft 365 is covers the plans, and Microsoft 365 vs Office 2024 does the cost math.

Office 2022 downloads and keys: what they really are

Search for an Office 2022 download and you’ll see repos and “full version” pages. Microsoft never made that product. So none of those files came from Microsoft. Repacked installers, often with something bundled in that tampers with licensing. We’d stay away, since malware rides along with them more often than not and the license is fake either way.

The same goes for an “Office 2022 product key” on a marketplace. Read the listing carefully. Most likely a 2021 key under a wrong name. Or a seller who doesn’t know what they’re selling.

The legit routes are boring, and that’s fine:

• Install a 2021 or 2024 key from Microsoft’s own setup page or image.
• Use the free web apps in a browser, covered in our Microsoft Office free download guide.
• Pick a Microsoft 365 plan if you want updates.

Microsoft’s Office images for each real version are listed on our Office ISO download page. All of them point to Microsoft’s own servers.

Which real version to pick instead

Depends on the PC and how you like to pay. Our take:

• Windows 10 PC, one-time payment, full suite: Office 2021 Professional Plus.
• Windows 11 PC or a Mac, one-time payment: an Office 2024 edition.
• Several people or devices, always the latest: Microsoft 365.

Wondering if a perpetual license really lasts? Our Office lifetime license guide answers that. For the full suite on one PC, our Office 2021 Professional Plus key is a one-time purchase that comes instant to email. Need Mac too? Look at Office Home and Business 2024 instead.