Keep seeing obstructing "Upgrade Plan" banner despite active 365 Personal Subscription!

Hello

Do you mean this banner?

If so, it has nothing to do with your alumni account. This banner is on all personal subscriptions. I have it too. Unfortunately there's no way to remove it and it is by design.

I am afraid you would want to leave a feedback via feedback portal. https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/ It is completely out of community's control to change this, but if you leave the feedback at the portal, at least the info gets to the product team.

Hello @FGS

Yes, the old .edu work/school account could be contributing, particularly if Windows or the Microsoft 365 apps are still using it as an identity. Microsoft notes that signing into Windows with a work or school account can also sign that account into Microsoft 365/Office automatically.

Since you've confirmed that your Microsoft 365 Personal subscription is active, I'd first check which account Office is actually using for licensing.

Open Word or Excel → File → Account and look under Product Information. Confirm that it shows Microsoft 365 and that the account associated with the license is the personal Microsoft account that owns your Microsoft 365 Personal subscription.

Then select Update License. Microsoft provides this option to refresh the licensing entitlement on the device and notes that signing in with the wrong account can prevent the correct license from refreshing.

I would then check:

Windows Settings → Accounts → Access work or school

If the old university account is still connected and you no longer need the institution to manage or authenticate this PC, you can consider disconnecting it. Be careful if the device still depends on that account for university resources, OneDrive, email, or device management.

Also check Settings → Accounts → Email & accounts and remove the old .edu account from Accounts used by other apps if it's no longer required.

Afterward:

1. Sign out of all accounts in Word/Excel.
2. Close all Microsoft 365 applications.
3. Reopen Word.
4. Sign in only with the Microsoft account that owns the active Microsoft 365 Personal subscription.
5. Go to File → Account → Update License.
6. Restart the Office applications.

Closing all Office applications matters because Microsoft notes that a complete sign-out isn't finalized until the Office apps are closed.

If the Upgrade Plan banner continues even though File → Account → Product Information correctly identifies Microsoft 365 Personal as activated, I wouldn't purchase or upgrade anything yet. At that point, the banner may be caused by stale licensing/account state rather than an actual subscription problem.

It would be useful if you could share a screenshot of File → Account → Product Information with your email address/license identifiers obscured. That should tell us whether Office is activating against your Personal subscription or still using your former university identity.

Sharing these references with you:

Microsoft - Update License in Microsoft 365 apps

Microsoft - Subscription notices in Microsoft 365 apps

Microsoft - Sign out of Office/Microsoft 365

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