SharePoint Online Free Trial: Step‑by‑Step Guide to Create a Microsoft 365 Tenant

In this guide, you’ll learn how to quickly get a SharePoint Online trial using Microsoft 365, what has changed recently with free developer tenants, and how to avoid surprises like unwanted charges or losing data.

We’ll keep it simple and practical, just like a colleague walking you through the steps on a screen share.

You’ll see:

• The current options to try SharePoint Online
• A step‑by‑step walkthrough using a Microsoft 365 business trial
• What you need (email, card, phone) and what you don’t
• Limits, duration, and what happens after the trial
• Tips for students, SharePoint developers, and small businesses

Current Ways to Get a SharePoint Online Trial

Today, you can get to SharePoint Online in a few main ways.

1. Microsoft 365 Business trial (recommended for most people)
   • 1‑month free trial of a business plan (for example, Business Premium or Business Standard, depending on availability in your region).
   • Includes SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Exchange, Teams, and Office apps.
   • Requires a work email and usually a credit card for verification.
2. Microsoft 365 Family / Personal trial (home use)
   • A one‑month trial that focuses on Office apps and OneDrive.
   • Good for learning Office, but not ideal if you want admin control or a proper SharePoint tenant.
3. Developer / test tenants (what changed)
   • Earlier, you could sign up for a free Microsoft 365 E5 developer tenant that renewed every 3 months if used actively.
   • Now Microsoft has restricted this: new free E5 dev tenants are no longer available to everyone, and are limited to specific programs (for example, Visual Studio Enterprise subscribers or certain partners).
   • If you already have an active E5 dev subscription, you can keep using it; new users are advised to use a single‑license paid plan for testing.

So practically, if you just want to try SharePoint Online, the most realistic path now is a Microsoft 365 business trial that includes SharePoint.

Check out SharePoint Server Subscription Edition

Prerequisites and Things to Know Before You Start

Before you jump into the wizard, it helps to know what you’ll be asked for and what the trial includes.

What you’ll typically need

• A work or school–style email address (something like you@yourcompany.com, not Gmail/Outlook.com in many regions).
• A mobile number for verification (you can usually choose “Text me” or “Call me”).
• A credit card for the trial (used for identity and billing verification, but not charged until the trial ends, if you don’t cancel).

What you get in the trial

Exact details depend on the plan, but a business trial that includes SharePoint typically gives you:

• SharePoint Online (team sites, communication sites, document libraries)
• OneDrive for Business (around 1 TB per user on common plans)
• Exchange Online (mailboxes)
• Microsoft Teams
• Office apps (web and sometimes desktop, depending on plan)

Trial duration and limits

• Trial length is usually 1 month for business plans.
• Some tenants let you extend the trial once, giving you a bit more time, but that often requires a card and may vary by offer.
• Storage and user limits are enough for testing, not for long‑term production use.

Create a SharePoint Online Trial Tenant – Step‑by‑Step

In this section, we’ll walk through creating a Microsoft 365 business trial that includes SharePoint Online. The screenshots I have shared here may change slightly over time, but the flow stays similar.

Step 1: Choose a Microsoft 365 Business Trial

1. Go to the official Microsoft 365 business plans page for your region.
2. Switch to the For business tab.
3. Look for a plan that clearly lists SharePoint in its services (for example, “Business Standard” or “Business Premium”, depending on what Microsoft currently exposes in your region).
4. Click Try free for one month on that plan. Here is a screenshot for your reference.

Tip: If your only goal is to test SharePoint + Teams + basic Office, pick the plan that includes those but doesn’t overshoot your needs. You can always change plans later in a paid subscription.

Step 2: Enter Your Work Email

1. On the first screen, enter your work or school email address.
2. Microsoft will check whether this email is already part of an existing Microsoft 365 tenant.
3. If it’s not, you’ll see an option to create a new account and tenant. Click Next to proceed.

If you don’t have a custom domain yet, don’t worry. You can still create a tenant with an onmicrosoft.com domain and attach a custom domain later.

Step 3: Set Up Your Organization Profile

1. On the setup page, you’ll be asked for:
   • First name, last name
   • Business phone number
   • Company name
   • Company size
   • Country or region
2. Fill in the details and accept Microsoft’s agreements as needed.
3. Click Next to continue.

NOTE:

Be sure to include an accessible and active Business phone number.

Here is a screenshot for your reference.

Step 4: Verify Your Identity (Phone Verification)

1. Choose how you want to verify: Text me or Call me.
2. Enter your mobile number and click Send verification code.
3. Enter the code you receive and click Verify.

If you don’t receive the code, wait for a bit, double‑check the number, and try again. Some corporate SIMs block such messages, so a personal number often works better.

You can see a screenshot below for your reference.

• Here, I’ve used the text method to confirm that a code would be sent to your mobile number. Enter the verification code and click on Verify.

Step 5: Create Your Admin Account and Tenant Name

1. You’ll now choose:
   • User name (for example, admin or your first name)
   • Tenant name (this becomes part of your default domain, like contosotest.onmicrosoft.com)
2. Enter and confirm your password.
3. Click Next and wait while Microsoft creates the tenant and admin account.

You can see exactly how it appears for me, like in the screenshot below:

• You’ll usually see a message asking you not to close or refresh while the tenant is being created. Like below screenshot.

Step 6: Quantity and Payment Details

Even though this is a trial, Microsoft usually asks for payment details.

1. On the Quantity and payment screen, choose how many user licenses you want for the trial (for basic testing, a small number is fine).
2. Click Add payment method.
3. Enter your card details (card number, CVV, expiry month/year, and billing address).
4. Click Save.

The card is there so that the subscription can continue smoothly after the trial if you don’t cancel. The card is not charged during the trial, but if you forget to cancel, it will automatically convert to a paid subscription. Here is a screenshot for your reference.

• You can see the card details page like below:

Step 7: Review and Confirm

1. On the Review and confirm screen, you may be asked for tax information (for example, PAN/GST in India).
2. Enter the requested tax ID fields where applicable and click Save.
3. Once everything is valid, the Start trial button becomes active. Click Start trial.

After this, your Microsoft 365 tenant is ready, and your trial starts.

• You can see that the Start trial button will be active once you save this info. Click on Start trial.

Step 8: Go to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center

1. You’ll see a confirmation page thanking you for choosing the trial and showing quick links to start.
2. Click Start using Microsoft 365 (wording can differ slightly).
3. Sign in with the admin account you just created if prompted.

You’ll land on the Microsoft 365 admin center, where you can manage users, licenses, and services like SharePoint, Teams, and Exchange.

You can also see the login page.

• Once everything is done, you can see the Microsoft 365 admin center as shown below. Here, you can carry out any tasks for your business, including:
  • By clicking the + Add user button over here, you can add a new user if you wish to.
  • Use the Reset password option if you want to change the password for your account.
  • Attach a custom domain for email and SharePoint

Step 9: Open SharePoint Online

You can reach SharePoint from multiple URLs.

• Main Microsoft 365 portal: https://portal.office.com or https://office.com – sign in and click the SharePoint tile in the app launcher.
• Microsoft 365 admin portal: https://admin.microsoft.com – then open the app launcher and choose SharePoint.
• Direct SharePoint admin center: https://<tenant-name>-admin.sharepoint.com.
• SharePoint home: https://<tenant-name>.sharepoint.com.

Once you open SharePoint:

• You can also use the following URL to access your SharePoint Online Admin Center page.

https://<Your tenant name>-admin.sharepoint.com/

Example: https://tsinfotechnologies787-admin.sharepoint.com/

• You can use the following URL to access the SharePoint Homepage of your organization:

https://<Your tenant name>.sharepoint.com/

Example: https://tsinfotechnologies787.sharepoint.com/

See how the SharePoint Home page appears in the screenshot below.

The above steps explain how to get the SharePoint free trial from Microsoft 365 Business Premium Plan.

Check out 10 SharePoint Mistakes That Cost Companies Thousands Dollars

How Long Can You Use the Trial and What Happens After?

It’s important to plan what happens after your trial ends so you don’t lose data or get charged unexpectedly.

Typical timeline

• Trial starts as soon as the tenant is provisioned.
• Duration is usually 30 days.
• In some cases, you might see an option to extend the trial once, which gives you about 60 days total, but this depends on Microsoft’s current offer and may require a valid card.

What happens to your SharePoint data?

• If you convert to a paid subscription, your sites and data stay the same, and you can keep using them.
• If you don’t convert and let the trial expire, the tenant enters a grace period during which you may still be able to recover data for a while, but you should not rely on this for important content.

If this is only for training, keep copies of important demo files outside the tenant as well.

Check out Check if SharePoint Site Already Exists in Power Automate

How to Cancel the Microsoft 365 Trial (So You Don’t Get Charged)

If you’re using a card and you know you don’t want to continue, it’s best to cancel before the trial end date.

Here’s the quick process:

1. Sign in as the global admin and go to the Microsoft 365 admin center (https://admin.microsoft.com).
2. In the left navigation, go to Billing → Your products or Subscriptions (the exact name may differ).
3. Select your trial subscription (for example, “Microsoft 365 Business Premium trial”).
4. Look for Cancel subscription or a cancel icon and click it.
5. Choose a reason, confirm the cancellation, and complete the process. Here is a screenshot for your reference.

After canceling, the subscription status will change to something like Disabled or Canceled, and Microsoft will not charge your card after the trial.

• Once the subscription has been canceled, you can see that its status has changed to Disabled, as shown below.

What About the Old “Unlimited” or E5 Developer Trials?

You’ll still find many blog posts and videos that talk about:

• Free E5 developer tenants that auto‑renew every 90 days
• “Unlimited trial” using the Microsoft 365 Developer Program

These used to be a great way for developers to get a full E5 tenant with SharePoint, Teams, and more for testing.

However, Microsoft has updated the program:

• New free E5 dev tenants are no longer available to everyone.
• Only specific groups (such as Visual Studio Enterprise subscribers or some partner programs) can still get them.
• Microsoft now recommends using a single paid license for testing if you don’t qualify for the developer benefit.

Practical Tips for Different Use Cases

Here are some quick suggestions you can fold into your article to make it more useful for different reader types.

If you’re a student or learning SharePoint

• Use a Microsoft 365 business trial to get a full tenant instead of just a personal Office trial.
• Treat it as a sandbox: create sites, lists, libraries, test permissions, and practice with Power Automate and Power Apps if included.
• Keep your own backup of important notes and demo files outside the tenant.

If you’re a SharePoint developer

• Use the trial tenant to test SPFx, customizations, and app registrations.
• If your organization is in a Microsoft partner program or you have Visual Studio Enterprise, check if you qualify for a dev subscription.
• Document your tenant name, admin URL, and test accounts so you don’t lose track.

If you’re an IT admin or small business owner

• Use the trial to validate:
  • Site structure (departments, projects, communication sites)
  • Basic governance (who can create sites, sharing settings, external access)
  • Integration with Teams and email
• Before the trial ends, decide whether you will:
  • Convert to a paid subscription and keep this tenant
  • Cancel the trial and start over later with a clean tenant

Conclusion

If you’ve followed the steps in this guide, you now have a working SharePoint Online trial tenant that you can safely use for learning, testing, or demos. You can spin up sites, play with lists and libraries, and see how it fits your real‑world scenarios before committing to a paid plan.

Just remember to note your trial end date, cancel in time if you don’t plan to continue, and keep backups of anything important. That way, you get the full benefit of the trial without any surprises later.

FAQs – SharePoint Online Free Trial

You may also like the following tutorials:

• Difference Between Team Site and Communication Site in SharePoint
• Restrict User Access to Specific Document Libraries in SharePoint
• SharePoint Online vs. SharePoint On-Premise
• Create a Dropdown Navigation in SharePoint