Purchasing Minecraft: Education Edition for Homeschooling & Family use

Homeschools, families, and other organizations can purchase and manage Minecraft: Education Edition through our commercial offer. This guide will walk you through the process of setting up an account for your homeschool group or organization, and help clear up confusion that users typically see along the way.

Due to the business focused system that Minecraft: Education Edition lies within, the setup experience may be different from other products you're used to, for example other Minecraft versions. 

Here is an overview of everything you'll need to do to gain access to Minecraft: Education Edition through our commercial offer:

1. Create a Microsoft 365 Admin Center account and organization
   • Use your info where it asks for company/business info/name
   • Create an @domain for your new account and email - Remember what you choose!
   • Create an administrator email and password for the organization 
2. Purchase Minecraft: Education Edition licenses
3. Create users in the Admin Center 
4. Assign Minecraft: Education Edition licenses to users
   • Users won't be able to log in until this is done!

1. Create a Microsoft 365 Admin Center account and organization

Your Microsoft 365 Admin Center account grants you access to purchase licenses and manage the users that will access Minecraft: Education Edition. It is free to set up an account and does not obligate you to any subscriptions or purchases unless you specifically authorize them.

1. Navigate to the Minecraft: Education Edition account setup and purchase page
2. Enter the email you'd like to use as a backup for account recovery purposes
3. Fill out the sections with your information.
   • For Business phone number, put in your phone number. 
   • For Company Name, enter what you'd like to call your homeschool group
4. Verify phone number 
5. Create an @domain for your account and organization
   • These always end with .onmicrosoft.com , but you get to create the first part of the @domain
   • It is very important to remember the full domain you create here, you'll need it to sign into the Admin Center
6. Create a username and password for your admin email/account. 
   • Remember the username and password as well to login to the Admin Center later

Great job! Next, you'll move on to the actual purchasing of the Minecraft: Education Edition licenses!

2. First-time purchase Minecraft: Education Edition licenses

1. Select number of Minecraft: Education Edition licenses you'd like to purchase. 
   • Licenses are $12 per user per year
2. Add payment info
3. Confirm purchase!

Congratulations! You've now purchased a Minecraft: Education Edition subscription! There are just a few last steps before you can log into the app.

3. Create users to assign the Minecraft: Education Edition licenses to

Before you or people in your homeschool group can log in, you'll first need to create an account for them within your new Microsoft 365 organization and assign a user to it! 

1. After selecting Get Started and logging into the Microsoft Admin Center with the Microsoft 365 account you purchased under, select Users in the left navigational menu. Then in the drop down menu select Active Users.  
2. The Active Users screen is where you can find any existing users. Starting off, you'll only see your administration account here. To create a new user, select Add a user in the center horizontal menu on this page.
3. In the pop up page, you'll need to fill out some basic information for this new user, including a username they'll use to login to their account (and Minecraft: Education Edition). If you'd like to create a password instead of generating a random one, uncheck Automatically create a password and fill that in. When you're done, select Next at the bottom of the page. 
4. Here, you can skip having to manually assign licenses later by ensuring Assign user a product license and selecting Minecraft: Education Edition below under Apps. Select Next to continue.
5. On the following page, you can add Administrative permissions or profile info, which is all optional. Hit Next to continue.  
6. Review the info on the final page and if everything looks correct select Finish adding on the bottom of the page!

Result: If you opted to assign this new user a Minecraft: Education Edition license, they should be able to login using the email and password you created here! If you opted not to yet, continue in the following section to manually assign a Minecraft: Education Edition license.  

4. Assign users Minecraft: Education Edition licenses

Assigning licenses to existing users is also done in the Microsoft Admin Center.

1. To assign an existing user a Minecraft: Education Edition license once it is purchased, select Billing on the left navigational menu in Microsoft Admin Center and then select Your products in the dropdown.
2. You should see Minecraft: Education Edition listed under your products, click on the name to open a new page.
3. From this new page, select Assign licenses under the Licenses assigned from all subscriptions section.  
4. Here you'll see your various users listed. Select Assign licenses in the horizontal menu above the users.
5. In the pop up window, enter the name of the user you'd like to assign a license to.
6. Once you've selected the correct user, under Turn apps and services on or off, ensure Minecraft: Education Edition is checked. Then select Assign.

Result: This user should now be able to sign into the Minecraft: Education Edition app.  

Purchase additional licenses

Follow these steps if you already have a Microsoft 365 Admin Center account and have purchased at least one Minecraft: Education Edition license.

1. Sign in to your Microsoft 365 account.
2. From the left-hand menu, select Billing > Your products.
3. Select Minecraft: Education Edition > Buy licenses.
4. From the Buy licenses menu, select the quantity and click Save.