# Microsoft Outlook

> Microsoft's email and calendar app for desktop, mobile and web

Outlook is Microsoft's email, calendar and contacts app for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and the web. It is free with an Outlook.com address and also connects Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud and work or school accounts in the same app. Paid plans are sold as Microsoft 365 rather than as Outlook on its own: the individual plans remove ads and raise mailbox storage, and the business plans add email at a company's own domain, hosted on Exchange.

- **Category:** Email Apps
- **Made by:** Microsoft
- **Website:** https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/outlook/email-and-calendar-software-microsoft-outlook
- **Runs on:** Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 5, 2026

## Pricing

Microsoft Outlook has a free plan. Paid plans start at $1.99 per month, or $19.99 per year (Microsoft 365 Basic).

- **Pricing model:** Free plan
- **Free plan:** Free Outlook for 1 person: email and calendar on the web, desktop and mobile apps, 15 GB of mailbox storage, 5 GB of cloud storage and core spam filtering. The free inbox shows ads.
- **Free trial:** One-month free trial of the Microsoft 365 business plans, credit card required; Personal and Family also offer a free trial.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Outlook | $0 | For 1 person: email and calendar on web, desktop and mobile, 15 GB of mailbox storage, 5 GB of cloud storage and core spam filtering, with ads. |
| Microsoft 365 Basic | $1.99 per month, or $19.99 per year | For 1 person: ad-free Outlook, 100 GB of mailbox storage, 100 GB of cloud storage and advanced Outlook security features. |
| Business Basic | $7.00 per user / month, paid yearly ($5.40 without Teams) | Custom business email on Exchange for up to 300 users, with the web and mobile versions of Outlook only and 1 TB of cloud storage per user. |
| Microsoft 365 Personal | $9.99 per month, or $99.99 per year | For 1 person on up to 5 devices at once: the Outlook desktop app with Copilot, 1 TB of cloud storage and Microsoft Defender. |
| Microsoft 365 Family | $12.99 per month, or $129.99 per year | The Personal benefits for 1 to 6 people, with 1 TB of cloud storage each. AI features are for the subscription owner only. |
| Business Standard with Copilot | $23.50 per user / month, paid yearly ($20.30 without Teams) | Adds desktop versions of Outlook and the other Office apps, plus Copilot grounded in work data. Business Premium with Copilot is $32.00. |

Read from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/outlook/email-and-calendar-software-microsoft-outlook on Oct 5, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Microsoft Outlook before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **About 16% lower with yearly billing** (Annual discount): Paying yearly costs $19.99 for Microsoft 365 Basic, $99.99 for Personal and $129.99 for Family, against $1.99, $9.99 and $12.99 a month. Source: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/outlook/email-and-calendar-software-microsoft-outlook
- **Students save 50% on Microsoft 365 Personal** (Education): College and university students who verify their status get 50% off Microsoft 365 Personal, which includes the Outlook desktop app with Copilot. Eligibility is re-verified each year. Source: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/college-student-pricing
- **Business Basic free for eligible nonprofits** (Nonprofit): Microsoft lists Business Basic as a grant, free for up to 300 users. Nonprofit staff pricing is $3.50 per user / month for Business Standard and $5.50 for Business Premium, paid yearly. Source: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/nonprofit-plans-and-pricing

## Key features

- **Several accounts in one app:** The desktop and mobile apps take Outlook.com, Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud and other mail services alongside work or school accounts, and switch between them without leaving the app.
- **Focused Inbox, Sweep and snooze:** Focused Inbox and Sweep clear clutter out of the main view. Messages can be snoozed until later or flagged as important.
- **Calendar, contacts and to-do lists:** Email, calendars, contacts and to-do lists sit in one view. Outlook can schedule events, set reminders, and track packages and flights on supported platforms.
- **Copilot in Outlook:** Drafts a message from a prompt, adjusts tone, length and clarity, and summarizes long threads. Included with Microsoft 365 Personal and Family, with usage limits.
- **Mailbox protection:** Outlook scans attachments and links for threats on Microsoft email addresses. Paid plans add mailbox encryption, checks on suspicious links and removal of dangerous attachments.
- **Office files from the inbox:** Open, edit or send Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents from the inbox, and attach OneDrive files as links.

## Good for

- People who want mail, calendar and contacts from several accounts in one app
- Organizations already paying for Microsoft 365 and Exchange email
- Windows users: Microsoft says Outlook is included free with Windows

## Worth knowing

- Free accounts show ads in the inbox; a Microsoft 365 Basic, Personal or Family subscription removes them.
- Business Basic includes only the web and mobile versions of Outlook. Business Standard with Copilot, at $23.50 per user / month, adds the desktop apps.
- On home plans, Copilot in Outlook currently works only with outlook.com, hotmail.com, live.com and msn.com addresses, and only for the subscription owner.
- Microsoft lists Outlook for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and the web. No Linux app is listed.

## What people say

- **App Store rating of the iPhone and iPad app:** 4.8 out of 5 from 9,298,244 ratings in the United States, read Oct 7, 2026. This is the store's rating of the app, not a score from ToolGPA. Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id951937596

Often praised:

- Reviewers who have used the iPhone and iPad app over several years say it has steadily improved and lets them do more from the phone than it used to. (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id951937596)
- Commenters say email and calendar together on Exchange are hard to replace at work, and that other mail apps fall short for them without that support. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46202777, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45985261, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46856346)

Often criticised:

- Reviewers say the phone app leaves out things the desktop and web versions do, such as setting up rules, making subfolders or colour-coding calendar events. (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id951937596)
- Several commenters say desktop Outlook has been neglected in recent years, and two of them single out the Mac version. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47701300, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46682693, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46508992)
- Spam filtering draws complaints, from junk that keeps reaching the inbox to Microsoft's own messages being marked as spam. (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id951937596, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49635192, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45477161)

Based on 10 App Store reviews of the iPhone and iPad app, seven of them more than three years old, and about 20 Hacker News comments from October 2025 to September 2026. These are themes summarised from public reviews and discussions, not ToolGPA's own verdict.

## Works with

Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, iCloud

**Tags:** Email client, Calendar, Inbox filtering, AI features, Tasks

## Alternatives

- [Gmail](https://toolgpa.com/tools/gmail): Google's email service, free for personal use with 15 GB of storage. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/gmail-vs-microsoft-outlook)
- [Thunderbird](https://toolgpa.com/tools/thunderbird): Free, open-source email app for Windows, macOS, Linux and Android. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/microsoft-outlook-vs-thunderbird)
- [Apple Mail](https://toolgpa.com/tools/apple-mail): Free built-in email app for iPhone, iPad and Mac. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/apple-mail-vs-microsoft-outlook)
- [eM Client](https://toolgpa.com/tools/em-client): Desktop email client for Windows and Mac with calendar and chat. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/em-client-vs-microsoft-outlook)
- [Spark Mail](https://toolgpa.com/tools/spark): Email client with a unified smart inbox, AI tools and team features. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/microsoft-outlook-vs-spark)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 5, 2026:

- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/outlook/email-and-calendar-software-microsoft-outlook
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/compare-all-microsoft-365-business-products
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/college-student-pricing
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/nonprofit-plans-and-pricing

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/microsoft-outlook
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).