How to Check If Microsoft Office Product Key is Genuine Or Not

Microsoft Office is the world’s best-known suite of office software, consisting of multiple applications for editing text, creating spreadsheets, designing digital presentations, managing databases, and more. If you’ve ever done a presentation or an essay for school or for work, there are high chances you did it using one of the Microsoft Office applications.

Microsoft Office can be extremely expensive per license, which prompts users to look for other, cheaper sources of Office product keys apart from Microsoft Store. Some of these sources might not be trustworthy - how to know the key you’re buying is legit?

Types of Microsoft Office Product Keys

First, let’s briefly talk about the different types of product keys available for Microsoft Office, and most other Microsoft products like Windows. There are two commonly bought types of product keys: OEM and Retail.

OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer, which simply means that this copy of Microsoft Office was pre-installed and activated on a desktop or laptop that included Windows. While OEM product keys are usually the same as Retail versions in how they work, you might not receive support help for an OEM version. Buying an unused OEM key can be much cheaper than buying a retail copy, but these are non-transferable to another computer.

Retail versions are most often sold online from Microsoft Store, or in physical locations in a standard software box. These are often much more expensive than OEM product keys but are generally safer to use and more reliable - especially when bought from Microsoft directly. They can also be transferred between computers.

There is also a third type of product key - a VL or Volume product key. These are usually sold separately for large businesses or government institutions, and allow organizations to activate multiple Windows copies using a single product key. 

How to Check If Your Microsoft Office Key is Genuine?

If you haven’t activated your Office copy yet, you can check whether it is genuine or not by simply downloading Microsoft Office from the official Microsoft website and trying to activate the product with it. If it isn’t genuine, the product will not activate and a prompt will tell you that the key is not valid.

You can also try contacting Microsoft support directly to ask them whether your key is valid or not. A Microsoft support technician will verify your key and tell you whether it was obtained through legit means or not. You can also find out how many times your key has been used for activation and whether it is an OEM, Retail, or Volume copy.

If you’re using a physical copy of Microsoft Office, you can simply compare the key you’re trying to use (or the key that has been already activated on your device) with the key found on the box. 

How to Buy Legit Microsoft Office 2019 Key?

If you’re looking for Office 2019 keys, it’s best to buy them from a reliable source. You might want to skip Amazon or eBay auctions and offers since many used and stolen copies of product keys are sold on these platforms. Before purchasing any software, always do your research about the seller and make sure they have plenty of positive reviews.

Microsoft Store offers only original keys, but they can be extremely pricey. Instead, you can purchase your product key from an online reseller, which guarantees a safe shopping experience and the highest quality products, with more than 2500 positive customer reviews and a 5.0 TrustMate score.