Microsoft Office 2021 (third release codenamed Office 16) is a version of the

Microsoft Office Microsoft Office, MS Office, or simply Office, is an office suite and family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. The first version of the Office suite, announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at CO ...

suite of applications for the

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

s. It was released on October 5, 2021. Office 2021 is compatible with

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...

v1809 and

Windows Server 2019 Windows Server 2019 is the twelfth major version of the Windows NT operating system produced by Microsoft to be released under the Windows Server brand name. It is the second version of the server operating system based on the Windows 10 plat ...

through

Windows 11 Windows 11 is a version of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system, released on October 5, 2021, as the successor to Windows 10 (2015). It is available as a free upgrade for devices running Windows 10 that meet the #System requirements, Windo ...

v24H2 and

Windows Server 2025 Windows Server 2025 is the fourteenth and current major version of the Windows NT operating system produced by Microsoft to be released under the Windows Server brand name. It was released on November 1, 2024. Microsoft announced that the su ...

. It is also compatible with

macOS Catalina macOS Catalina (version 10.15) is the sixteenth software versioning, major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop operating system for Macintosh computers. It is the successor to macOS Mojave and was announced at WWDC 2019 on June 3, 2019 and ...

through

macOS Sequoia macOS Sequoia (version 15) is the twenty-first and current major release of Apple Inc., Apple's macOS operating system, the successor to macOS Sonoma. It was announced at Worldwide Developers Conference#2024, WWDC 2024 on June 10, 2024. In li ...

. Its successor,

Microsoft Office 2024 Microsoft Office, MS Office, or simply Office, is an office suite and family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. The first version of the Office suite, announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COM ...

was released on October 1, 2024. Office 2021 retains the same major version number of 16 that previous versions of Office had. It introduces new dynamic arrays, XLOOKUP features for Excel, full dark-mode support in Windows and performance improvements. Support for retail versions of Office 2021 will end on October 13, 2026; unlike older versions of Office, there is no extended support period.

Development

The office suite updates include better support for the

OASIS In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment OpenDocument The Open Document Format for Office Applications (ODF), also known as OpenDocument, standardized as ISO 26300, is an open file format for word processor, word processing documents, spreadsheets, Presentation program, presentations and ...

file format. The version update adds features to the LET function, has better search for XMATCH function, dynamic arrays, XLOOKUP. It enhances Ink for Translate in

Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager software system from Microsoft, available as a part of the Microsoft 365 software suites. Primarily popular as an email client for businesses, Outlook also includes functions such as Calendari ...

and PowerPoint.

Editions

Office 2021

* Home & Student: Home & Student includes the core applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. This edition can be installed either on PC or on Mac. * Home & Business: Home & Business includes the core applications and Outlook. This edition can be installed either on PC or on Mac. * Professional: Professional includes the core applications, as well as Outlook, Publisher, and Access. This edition is exclusive for PC only. * Professional Plus: Professional Plus includes the core applications, as well as Outlook, Publisher, Access, and Teams (replacement of previous Skype for Business). This edition is exclusive for PC only. Office 2021 supports installation by using a product key to associate with a Microsoft Account (MSA), then by activation.

Office LTSC 2021

''Volume licensing perpetual branch of Microsoft Office, 3 editions were released:'' * Standard for Mac: Standard for Mac includes the core applications as well as Outlook. It is only available for

Apple Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

computers. * Standard: Standard includes the core applications, as well as Outlook and Publisher. It is only available for

PCs. * Professional Plus: Professional Plus includes the core applications, as well as Outlook, Publisher, Access, and Teams. It is only available for

PCs.

Default font change

Midway through the life cycle of Office 2021, after two years of evaluating five newly commissioned fonts in July the default font across all Office applications was changed to Aptos. This marked the first time since 16 years that Microsoft had changed the default fonts.

User interface

The default interface, when the Office theme set to Use system setting, dark gray, black, or white, shows a Mica background (whence the name) across the top of each screen; the application icon is in the top left corner. When Colorful is selected (must be done manually), a band in the application color shows across the top of each screen; this is called the Metro background.

Version history (Windows)

Retail

Volume licensed

References

{{Authority control 2021 software

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Office 2021 Office suites for Windows