Finding your Office product key: what is possible and what is not

If you want to reinstall Office, you will often start by looking for the key on your own PC. Since Office 2013, however, you can only read out an Office product key partially: Windows only stores the last five characters in readable form. Here you will find out what can be displayed on the PC, where to find the full key and how to keep it to hand in future.

Key points at a glance

• With Office 2016, 2019, 2021 and 2024, only the last five characters of the key can be displayed on the PC.
• To do this, use the Microsoft script ospp.vbs with the parameter /dstatus.
• You will find the full key in your delivery email, on the invoice or in your customer account with the seller.
• Key finder programs from the web generally do not return a usable key for current Office versions.

Why the Office key cannot be read out in full

With older Office versions, the product key was stored in encrypted form in the Windows registry and could be recovered with a little effort. Microsoft changed this with Office 2013. The system now only keeps the information it needs for the licence check, which includes the last five characters of the key.

The full 25-character key cannot be restored from this data. This is intentional: it is meant to prevent keys from simply being copied from one PC and passed on. For you, this means that keeping the key safe is your responsibility.

Difference from Windows

Windows is a different matter. On many pre-built PCs, a key is stored in the motherboard firmware, which you can read out using PowerShell, and the licence is often digitally linked to the hardware. Our article Finding your Windows product key explains how this works. There is no such route for Office.

Finding your Office product key: the last five characters with OSPP.VBS

Even though the full key cannot be retrieved, the last five characters are useful. They show which key is installed and can be compared with your records. For this purpose, Microsoft supplies the script ospp.vbs, which is located in the Office16 folder for Office 2016 to 2024.

1. Click Start, type "cmd" and select Run as administrator.
2. Change to the Office folder.
3. Retrieve the licence status.

cd "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16"

cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus

If the command prompt reports that the path does not exist, try C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16. For a 32-bit installation, the folder is under C:\Program Files (x86) instead of C:\Program Files.

How to read the output

The script lists a block of several lines for each installed licence. Three details are particularly important:

If several blocks are shown, other keys have already been installed on the PC, for example from an earlier Office version or a trial version. This explains some activation problems.

Removing an incorrect key

If you find a key that does not match your records, you can remove it using the last five characters. Replace XXXXX with the characters shown:

cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:XXXXX

Then enter your correct key in an Office program under File, Account and Change Product Key. Our guide Installing and activating Office shows the further activation steps.

Where to find the full key

As the PC does not reveal the whole key, you need to turn to your purchase records. These sources are worth checking:

• Delivery email: For an online purchase, this is the most reliable source. Search your mailbox for the seller's name, for "product key" or for the product name, and also check your spam folder.
• Customer account with the seller: Many shops also show purchased keys in the customer account. At Keychannel you will find your orders, including keys, in your customer account.
• Invoice or order confirmation: Depending on the seller, the key may be printed on it directly, or at least the order number with which support can help you.
• Card or sticker: With boxed versions, the key is usually included on a card.

What about the Microsoft account?

Editions such as Office Home or Microsoft 365 are linked to a Microsoft account. With those, you simply reinstall Office after signing in and no longer need the key. Office Professional Plus and Standard, on the other hand, are activated directly with the key and do not appear in the Microsoft account.

Why key finder programs usually do not help

There are free programs on the web that claim to read product keys from the registry. They work in some cases for Windows and very old Office versions. With current Office versions, they generally only show an unusable string of characters or nothing at all, because the full key is simply not stored.

There is also a security risk: download offers repeatedly include packages containing adware or malware. If you still want to try such programs, only download them from the developer's website. But keep your expectations realistic.

If the key can no longer be found

If the email has been deleted and there is no customer account, the seller is your last resort. The order can usually be identified using the order number, the invoice or the email address used for the purchase. Keychannel customers should contact Keychannel support for this.

Incidentally, as long as Office remains activated on your PC, you do not need the key. It is only requested again when you reinstall. If your Office dates from before 2021, it is worth checking the end of support before reinstalling. Office 2016 and 2019 have not received security updates since October 2025.