You can’t, but you kinda can.
There’s a fair amount of confusion around Microsoft Office apps, including Microsoft Word. There are free editions, there are paid editions, and there are free alternatives.
Unfortunately, what most people are asking about is not free.
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Downloading Word for free
You can’t download Microsoft Word for free; you need to purchase either a Microsoft 365 subscription or Office 2021 software. Free alternatives include Microsoft Office Online, LibreOffice, OpenOffice, and Google Docs, though they may have occasional compatibility issues with Word documents.
Download-and-install is not free
If you want to download Microsoft Word and install it on your PC, paid options are the only legal option. There are two: a Microsoft 365 subscription, or a one-time purchase of Microsoft Office 2021.
Quoting Microsoft:
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Is a Microsoft 365 Subscription Worth It?
Before you dismiss it because it's a subscription, take a look and do the math. Microsoft 365 might be surprisingly affordable for you.Office 2021 is sold as a one-time purchase, which means you pay a single, up-front cost to get Office apps for one computer. One-time purchases are available for both PCs and Macs. However, there are no upgrade options, which means if you plan to upgrade to the next major release, you’ll have to buy it at full price.
Microsoft 365 is a subscription that includes the most collaborative, up-to-date features in one seamless, integrated experience. Microsoft 365 includes the robust Office desktop apps that you’re familiar with, like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. You also get extra online storage and cloud-connected features that let you collaborate on files in real time. With a subscription, you’ll always have the latest features, fixes, and security updates along with ongoing tech support at no extra cost. You can choose to pay for your subscription on a monthly or yearly basis, and the Microsoft 365 Family plan lets you share your subscription with your family for up to 6 people, and use your apps on multiple PCs, Macs, tablets, and phones.
I believe that Microsoft 365 is a bargain and is the correct choice for most.
You can purchase and download it from microsoft.com.
Online-only is free
Microsoft makes an online version of Word and other Office apps available at office.com. These are free to use.
While not as full-featured as their installable counterparts, this version of Microsoft Word is completely free. All you need is a Microsoft account to sign in. Documents you create are compatible with the Microsoft Word desktop version and can be seamlessly exchanged with anyone else using either version of Word.
This is a great solution if Microsoft 365 isn’t in your budget, Word is something you need to use infrequently, or you don’t need all the advanced features the paid software offers.
No software download is required.
Many alternatives are free
There are many alternatives to Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office overall that are completely free. Alternativeto.net has a lengthy list.
The most commonly mentioned alternatives include Libre Office, Apache Open Office, and Google Docs.
Many, like LibreOffice and Open Office, are programs you can download and install on your PC. They’re available for most platforms and are naturally compatible with their cross-platform counterparts.
Some, like Google Docs, are online only. This is similar to the free Microsoft online offering.
The most common issue with these alternatives is compatibility. While they support most of the features offered in Microsoft Word, and you can exchange documents between them and Microsoft Word, documents rarely look exactly the same after transferring from one to the other. If that kind of interoperability isn’t an issue for you — perhaps you just need a good word processor at home — then these are excellent free alternatives.
Do this
If you truly need the download-and-install desktop version of Microsoft Word, you must purchase a copy.
However, if your needs are more flexible — if online-only is an option or you don’t need to be concerned about exchanging documents with Microsoft Word users while retaining fidelity — then there are many free alternatives.
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If you want a full-featured office suite with most of the capabilities of MS Office, Libre (or Open) Office might be what you need, as long as you have no problem with layout compatibility. You can set the default to save in MS Office format.
If you need format compatibility, MS Office Online is a better option. Or you can use both Libre Office when you need more features and MS Office Online when you need compatibility. They both can work on the same files.
I use both but I mainly use MS 365. I share it with family members so it comes to about $20 a year for each person who can in turn each use it on 5 computers each in addition to 5 device. Each of the 6 users gets 1TB online OneDrive storage.
The debacle affecting world wide IT systems highlights the dangers of relying on online services. Before I retired the global company I worked for relied on online software licences so they could use them 24/7. Suspect they will be unable to work for part of today.
For stand alone systems it is clearly safer to use software installed on your PC (such as Office 21). Then you can carry on working if you do not need to get anything from the web.
I have gone one further and use Linux as my prime operating system.