How to share Microsoft 365 Family subscription with other people

You can share your Microsoft 365 subscription with up to five additional people and here's how.

Microsoft 365 Family share settings
Microsoft 365 Family share settings
  • To share a Microsoft 365 Family with others, open your Microsoft account > Services & subscriptions > Manage > Share your subscription with up to five others, click “Share,” choose “Email invite,” and confirm the email of the person to invite.
  • To stop sharing a Microsoft 365 subscription, open your Microsoft account > Services & subscriptions > Manage > Share your subscription with up to five others, click “Share subscription,” and click the “Stop sharing” for the person you want to remove.

When you subscribe to a Microsoft 365 Family plan, it’s possible to share the benefits with up to five other people with devices running Windows 11, 10, macOS, as well as iOS and Android, and in this guide, I will show you the steps to complete this process.  

After noticing that my OneDrive was maxed out using the free tier, I decided to join the Microsoft 365 Family plan. I could have chosen the “Personal” plan, but I purchased the “Family” plan to share the benefits with family and friends. However, since sharing the subscription wasn’t obvious, I decided to create a guide to outline the steps to share and stop sharing the subscription. 

The Microsoft 365 Family subscription offers 1TB of OneDrive in addition to whatever amount is already available in the account. The service also comes with the premium version of Outlook without ads, 100GB of email storage, enhanced security, and more. Also, it gives you access to install the latest version of Office apps on up to five devices for each member.  

Furthermore, it includes premium access to many other services and applications, such as Microsoft Editor (similar to Grammarly), Microsoft Defender mobile app, full access to the video editing app known as Clipchamp, and more. 

In this guide, I’ll teach you how to share and stop sharing a Microsoft 365 subscription on Windows 11, 10, macOS, iOS, and Android.

Share Microsoft 365 subscription benefits

To share a Microsoft 365 subscription with other people, use these steps:

  1. Open your Microsoft account.

  2. Sign in with your credentials (as necessary).

  3. Click the Services & subscriptions tab.

  4. Click the Manage option for the “Microsoft 365 Family” setting.

  5. Click the “Share your subscription with up to five others” option.

    Share your subscription with up to five others

  6. Click the Share button for the “Share subscription” setting.

    Microsoft 365 Family share subscription

  7. Click the Email invite option.

    Quick note: You can also use the “Create link” option and share the link to invite another person.
  8. Confirm the email of the person to share the Microsoft 365 Family membership. 

    Microsoft 365 Family invite option

  9. Click the Invite button. 

Once you complete the steps, the other person will receive an email on your behave that they must accept by clicking the “Join now” button in the email and once again the “Join now” button in their Microsoft account to become a member of your family group and have access to the 1TB of OneDrive storage, Office apps, and all the different perks.

In the “Share subscription” section, you can also view the number of people sharing the service and the remaining licenses. If you need to free up a license, you will need to stop sharing the benefits with some of the people in your circle before continuing to share.

Stop sharing Microsoft 365 subscription benefits

To stop sharing a Microsoft 365 subscription with other people, use these steps:

  1. Open your Microsoft account.

  2. Sign in with your credentials (as necessary).

  3. Click the Services & subscriptions tab.

  4. Click the “Share subscription” setting.

  5. Click the Manage option for the “Microsoft 365 Family” setting.

  6. Click the “Share your subscription with up to five others” option.

    Share your subscription with up to five others

  7. Click the Stop sharing option for the person to remove from the subscription under the “Microsoft family” section.

    Microsoft 365 Family stop sharing

After you complete the steps, you may need to repeat the instructions to remove other people from the Microsoft 365 Family subscription. As you stop sharing the subscription, the person will immediately lose access to the benefits, including the additional 1TB of OneDrive storage, Outlook premium, and access to the suite of Office apps.  

At this point, the OneDrive storage will roll back to the free tier, but the user will have a grace period to download their files. Also, the suite of Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) will become diactivated, but the apps will remain installed on the computer. If the person isn’t planning to use the apps, they can use these instructions to uninstall the apps

About the author

Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 14 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].