OEM, Retail or Volume licence — what is the difference

When you are looking for a Windows or Office licence, you will come across three words: Retail, OEM and Volume. The difference between them is not in the software itself — that is one and the same — but in what it allows you to do with it. That difference also determines the price.

Retail licence

This is the licence Microsoft sells to the end user — in a box or as a digital key.

• Transferable — you can remove it from one computer and activate it on another.
• Not tied to the motherboard — it survives a hardware change.
• Full support from Microsoft.

All the licences we offer at Litsenzi.bg are of this type.

OEM licence

OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer — a licence that computer manufacturers pre-install on new machines.

• Not transferable — it is tied to the motherboard on which it was originally activated.
• Cheaper — which is why it comes on new laptops.
• Support comes from the manufacturer of the computer, not from Microsoft.

If you replace the motherboard, the OEM licence usually stops working. This is the most common reason people look for a new licence after a repair.

Volume (corporate) licence

A licence that organisations buy as a package for many machines under an agreement with Microsoft. It is often activated through the organisation's own server on its network.

For a home user this matters for one reason: some of the very cheap keys online are exactly these — corporate keys taken out of their context. They may work for a while and be blocked later.

How to check which licence you have

Open the command prompt as an administrator and enter:

slmgr /dli

In the “Description” field you will see the channel — RETAIL, OEM or VOLUME_MAK. This is the quickest way to check what you actually bought.

Which type to choose

If you are buying a new ready-built computer, you normally get OEM and there is nothing to decide.

If you are reinstalling the system, building a machine yourself or plan to change hardware over the years, choose Retail. The difference in price pays for itself the first time you change computer.

For a company with more machines it is worth discussing a quote — write to us at info@litsenzi.bg.

Related questions

For transferring a licence between computers, see our separate article. For the legal side of reselling licences in the EU, see this page.