Microsoft Visio & Project 2021 Pro Keys

What is included in Microsoft Visio & Project 2021 Pro?

Visio Professional 2021 – Templates for flowcharts, networks, org charts, UML.
Data-linked shapes – Shapes linked to Excel or SQL data.
Project Professional 2021 – Scheduling with dependencies, baselines and resource assignment.
Team Planner – Resource view exclusive to Project Professional.
Timeline exchange – Visio imports and exports Project MPP files.
Important – Neither includes Word, Excel or web apps.

Microsoft Visio Professional 2021 in detail
Full description of the diagramming application, its templates and the drawing types reserved for the Professional edition

Microsoft Project Professional 2021 in detail
Full description of the scheduling application, its views and reports and what separates it from Project Standard 2021

Why buy Visio Professional 2021 and Project Professional 2021 together?

This pair goes on one Windows workstation where the same person keeps the schedule and draws the processes around it: Visio's Timeline and Gantt Chart templates read .mpp files directly, and Microsoft states plainly that Project has to be installed on the machine before that import or export can run at all. In the other direction, Project's Visual Reports open as PivotDiagrams in Visio when Visio sits on the same PC, so the schedule data leaves Project as a drawing instead of a table.

Timeline import – Visio builds a timeline from an .mpp file.
Feature requires both – That import is unavailable without Project installed.
Gantt import – Visio Gantt charts read Microsoft Project files.
Export back – Visio timelines can be saved as Project files.
Visual reports – Project data opens as Visio PivotDiagrams.
Combined price – Lower than the two keys bought separately.

Do Visio Professional 2021 and Project Professional 2021 work together on the same PC?

Yes, and Microsoft documents the combination. Both are supported on Windows 11 and Windows 10, both belong to the 2021 generation with version number 16.0, and both install through Click-to-Run, which is the pairing Microsoft lists as supported when Office, Project and Visio share a computer. The one condition is the build: all Microsoft Office family products on a machine must be either 32-bit or 64-bit, so a 32-bit Visio cannot sit next to a 64-bit Project or a 64-bit Office. If a PC already runs Office 2021 in 32-bit form, both keys in this bundle have to be installed as 32-bit as well.

Windows compatibility with Office - supported Windows and Windows Server versions for Office 2010 to Office 2024
To check which Windows versions each Office generation is supported on, read our overview:

In which order should the two products be installed?

Either order works, because neither product is a prerequisite for the other's setup. What matters is what is already on the machine: if an older Microsoft Office family product is present, install the older one first and the 2021 products afterwards, and make sure every installed product uses the same 32-bit or 64-bit build. Getting that wrong produces the "Office (64-bit or 32-bit) couldn't be installed" error, and the fix is to uninstall the product with the wrong build rather than to repair anything. Install both before you start moving data between them, since Visio's timeline import only appears as a working option once Project is on the same PC.

What can you do with both installed that neither product does alone?

You can move a schedule out of Project and into a drawing, and back again. In Visio you open the Timeline template, choose Import Data, point the wizard at an .mpp file and pick which task types to bring across; Microsoft notes that Project must be installed for this to work. The Gantt Chart template has its own import that reads a Microsoft Project File the same way, and a finished Visio timeline can be exported as a Project file. From the Project side, Report > Visual Reports offers Visio templates alongside the Excel ones, and choosing a Visio report opens the data as a PivotDiagram.

Who is this bundle best suited for?

It fits the machine of the person who has to present a schedule to people who will never open Project. The concrete case is the milestone timeline for a steering meeting: the plan stays in Project where the dependencies and baselines live, and the drawing that goes into the meeting is generated in Visio from the same .mpp file, so the two do not drift apart the way a hand-drawn slide does. If the schedule never leaves the project team, or if the diagrams being drawn are network and process diagrams with no connection to a plan, that argument does not apply and the two products are simply two separate tools that happen to be bought at once.

When is it better to buy the two products separately?

Whenever you already own one half, or only need the lower edition of one of them. A PC that already has a 2021-generation Visio installed needs only the Project key, and the reverse is equally true. If nobody links shapes to Excel or SQL Server data and nobody draws UML or database models, Visio Standard 2021 covers the diagramming side, including the Timeline and Gantt Chart templates that do the Project import, so the Professional edition is not what makes the combination work. And if no one manages resources across a team, Project Standard 2021 handles task scheduling without Team Planner.

Compare Office versions from 2010 to 2024 without a subscription
For an overview of the one-time purchase versions and which suits your system, read our comparison:

What is not included in this bundle?

Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, because Visio and Project are separate products and are not part of any Office suite or Microsoft 365 plan. That has one practical consequence: the Excel half of Project's Visual Reports needs Excel on the machine, and this bundle does not provide it. Both products are Windows desktop applications with no macOS version, the Visio web app requires an eligible Microsoft 365 or SharePoint subscription rather than a one-time purchase, and editing a Visio Visual inside Power BI requires Visio Plan 1 or Visio Plan 2. Connecting Project Professional to Project Server or Project Online also needs its own server licence or subscription, which is not part of this purchase.

Microsoft Office - Full Comparison of all Versions from 2010 to 2024 – Which Programmes are Included?
To see which applications each Office edition actually contains, read our comparison:

Frequently asked questions about Microsoft Visio & Project 2021 Pro

Does Visio Professional 2021 already contain Microsoft Project?

No. Visio can draw a Gantt chart and a timeline, but it has no scheduling engine behind them, so dates do not recalculate when a dependency moves. That calculation is what Project does, which is why the .mpp import exists in Visio in the first place.

Can the two products be used independently of each other?

Yes. Each installs and runs on its own, and neither needs the other to open its own files. Only the cross-product features are conditional: Visio's timeline import and export require Project on the machine, and Project's Visio visual reports require Visio.

Would Visio Standard 2021 be enough for the Project import?

Yes, for that specific feature. Microsoft lists the timeline import and export for Visio Standard 2021 as well as Visio Professional 2021. The Professional edition is what adds data-linked shapes and the additional drawing types such as UML and database models.

Can the Visio diagrams be used in Power BI with this licence?

No. Microsoft requires a Visio Plan 1 or Visio Plan 2 subscription to edit a Visio Visual in Power BI, and a one-time purchase of Visio Professional 2021 does not include either plan. The diagrams themselves can still be exported as images and used anywhere.