Did you know, Office 2024 launched yesterday!

That’s right, if you want a perpetual license (1 time purchase rather than the MS365 Subscription model) of the latest and greatest version of Office then 2024 is now on the market.

Here’s Microsoft’s official announcement:

Office 2024 for consumers available October 1 | Microsoft 365 Blog

Office 2024 includes updated, locked-in-time versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook for PC and Mac. Learn more.

Microsoft Office Suites

You can purchase Office in 2 different editions:

• Office Home 2024 ($149.99 USD)
  
  

  Office Home 2024

  
  
• Office Home & Business 2024 ($249.99 USD)
  
  

  Buy Office Home & Business 2024 (PC or Mac) - Download & Pricing | Microsoft Store

  Buy Office Home & Business 2024 for Windows or Mac. A one-time purchase gets you apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, featuring security updates.

Where’s Access In All Of This?

Sadly, I can find no mention of Microsoft Access anywhere! So God only knows if it is included in either of the above editions. After consulting:

Compare All Microsoft 365 Plans (Formerly Office 365) - Microsoft Store

Find the right Microsoft 365 Family or Personal plan for all your devices. Includes AI-powered Office apps, 1 TB of cloud storage, and premium mobile features.

we see that Access is NOT included in Office Home 2024!

Furthermore, I have yet to find any source that indicates Microsoft Access is included in Office Home & Business 2024 either! Actually its’ webpage states “Classic 2024 desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote” with no mention of Access anywhere on the page. Furthermore, prompting CoPilot, it too responded: “No, Office Home & Business 2024 does not include Microsoft Access. This version includes the classic 2024 desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. If you need Access, you might want to consider other versions like Office LTSC Professional Plus or a Microsoft 365 subscription.” Moreover, if you review the original announcement page, there is absolutely no mention of Access and they specifically solely mention: “Office 2024 includes updated, locked-in-time versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook1 for PC and Mac.”

So, as it stands at first glance, unless someone from Microsoft formally states publicly otherwise, neither consumer edition actually includes Microsoft Access. How very sad!

LTSC Edition to the Rescue!  Maybe?

The solution, should Microsoft Access be important to you, would seem to be in purchasing Office LTSC Professional Plus 2024 as elaborated in:

Compare desktop productivity suites available through volume licensing

Office Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) 2024 provides an incremental upgrade for customers who cannot yet move to the cloud.

but this is “for businesses with five or more users …” and pricing can only be obtained by contacting the Microsoft Sales team.
 

Individual Standalone Applications

You can also just purchase individual applications if required, such as:

• Microsoft Access 2024 ($179.99 USD)
  
  Access
• Microsoft Excel 2024 ($179.99 USD)
  
  Excel
• Microsoft PowerPoint 2024 ($179.99 USD)
  
  PowerPoint
• Microsoft Outlook 2024 ($179.99 USD)
  
  Outlook
• Microsoft Word 2024 ($179.99 USD)
  
  Word
• …

The links provided above are US based, so be sure to switch countries to reflect pricing in your area.
 

Overview of Office 2024 Improvements

If you’re looking for a breakdown of the improvements you’ll see in Office 2024, then take a look at:

What’s new in Office 2024 and Office LTSC 2024 - Microsoft Support

​​​​​​​In Office 2024 and Office LTSC 2024, you'll find several new features including several new functions in Excel, improved accessibility, better session recovery in Word, new capabilities in Access​​​​​​​, and a new and more modern design that brings Office 2024 together.

For Access specifically, review:

What’s new in Access 2024 - Microsoft Support

Access 2024 lets you build and share a database quickly and efficiently. You supply the information and Access does the rest, making it easy to create and structure your data. Reports and queries put your data into the format you want, so your applications consistently look great.

Summary

For those of you needing Microsoft Access, based on available information:

• Office Home 2024 does NOT include Access
• Office Home & Business 2024 does NOT include Access

(just confirmed by the Dev Team)

• Office LTSC Standard 2024 does NOT include Access
• Office LTSC Standard for Mac 2024 does NOT include Access (obviously as there has never been a version of Access for Mac)

• Office LTSC Professional 2024 DOES include Access

Price wise, for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and/or OneNote, you’re much better of buying one of the suites typically!

When it comes to Access specifically, buying the standalone version may be your only real option as there is no consumer edition with it included.