Is Hotmail Still Active in 2025?
It’s 2025, so is Hotmail still active, or has it been put to rest?
The truth is a bit of both. You can still have a new email address with @hotmail.com as your domain (I will show you proof of this). However, at the same time, you won’t find any hotmail.com login page (unless you use the Wayback Machine).
Let’s do a simple test. Try to type hotmail.com in your browser’s search bar, and see what happens.
You will see that it redirects to “outlook.live.com” (you might see login.live.com flash briefly). This has been happening ever since 2013, when Microsoft decided to merge all of its email services into a single entity under Outlook.
If you worry about your old Hotmail account, this article is for you. Here I will show you:
- Proof that you can still create a new Hotmail account today.
- What happened to Hotmail over the years, using the Wayback Machine?
- A checklist so you can see if your old Hotmail account is still salvageable or not.
Is Hotmail Still Active? Yes! See the Proof
Here we show you the steps for making a brand new email account with @hotmail.com as its domain. Contrary to what you might see elsewhere, this simple activity tells us that yes, it is still possible for you to make/have a Hotmail [dot] com email address.
Step 1. Visit https://signup.live.com/
Step 2. Inside the “Create your Microsoft account” box, type a suitable name.
Step 3. Toggle the dropdown (by default it is set to @outlook.com) and pick @hotmail.com.
Step 4. Complete the rest of the account creation steps, like adding the name and verification.
Once done, you will be allotted a brand new email box and account that has @hotmail.com as its domain. You can send test emails, import your contacts, and set up calendar events.
Basically, everything that you could do with an @outlook account is possible with this new @hotmail account. This activity proves that hotmail.com is still available for use.
Then the question becomes, why do so many users have confusion regarding Hotmail’s availability? Here is my theory.
Why People Ask, Is Hotmail Still Active?
My intuition is that many people who have this query have not used their Hotmail account for some time.
They find their old address on a business card or some other directory and want to see if it’s still active. That’s not surprising; anyone would be curious.
However, those same users may not be aware of Microsoft’s strict account deletion policy, which applies to any and all accounts that are inactive for 2 years or more.
So, when they’re unable to log in to their account, it leads them to falsely believe that Hotmail has stopped working for everyone else on Mac or Windows everyone else as well.
Moreover, misinformation in outdated sites and forum pages doesn’t help one bit. For such users and anyone else reading this blog, I have prepared a timeline on Hotmail to make things clearer. So check it out.
Hotmail’s History from 1996 to the Present Day
Hotmail launched on July 4, 1996. A date deliberately chosen by founders Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith to symbolize “freedom” from traditional ISP-based email.
The initial branding of Hotmail had the letters H, T, M, and L in uppercase (the logo looked like HoTMaiL). This was done to emphasize the core technology being used to provide the service.
Hotmail became so popular so fast that just after a year of its release in 1997, Microsoft acquired it for $400 million.
Also Read: How to delete Hotmail emails
The early 2000s were the peak of Hotmail in terms of the user base, which reached a staggering 300 million.
Microsoft made the first major change to Hotmail in the year 2005 by merging it with its Windows Live Mail service.
However, not many people began asking “Is Hotmail still active?” until 2013. This is when the biggest change came: Microsoft officially transitioned all Hotmail login sites to the new Outlook.com platform.
Now in 2025, Hotmail is fully integrated into the Outlook and the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
Is Hotmail Still Active? Learn to Keep it That Way
Here we have a checklist you must follow if you want to keep your Hotmail account alive.
Sign in to your Hotmail account at least once every 2 years. It can be any Microsoft service (Outlook, XBOX, Teams, etc), then the account stays active.
Also Read: How to archive Hotmail emails directly
Use the Hotmail account to purchase any product or service, or enroll in a M365 subscription/Azure certifications to make it salvageable.
The only case where your Hotmail account stops working is if you have not logged in for more than 2 years or if you have closed it manually.
The major problem with these practices that I just told you about is that your data is still in control of Microsoft’s whims. Although there has been no announcement regarding the possible removal of the Hotmail account, we should prepare nonetheless.
Best Way to Safeguard Your Hotmail Account Forever
Using the SysTools Hotmail Backup Tool, any person, regardless of technical expertise, can build a safe copy of their Hotmail data. The simple script-free GUI of the tool, combined with multiple output options, makes it a must-have for all those who use Hotmail for email communication.
With this tool in your possession, you will never have to ask “Is Hotmail still active?” ever again. If in the future you feel like transitioning away from Hotmail, you can do so without worries, as you have already prepared a backup. Get the demo version today, and follow these steps.
Step 1. Launch the Tool, select Hotmail as the Source, and any one of the four available options as the output. Select the workloads apply a date filter, and press Next.
Step 2. Validate your Hotmail account credentials.
Step 3. Validate output folder location and naming convention.
Step 4. Fetch Workloads
Step 5. Start Backup.
Authors’ Verdict
Now that you have read this blog, is Hotmail still active? It is not a question that you have to worry about anymore. Here, I gave you the steps to make a new Hotmail account. Gave a simple explanation of why so many users are still confused about availability. Explained the evolution of Hotmail from its origin to the modern M365 integration.
On top of that, I gave users an option to use the best available utility for keeping Hotmail data safe.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What is the evidence that Hotmail is still available?
The biggest evidence is that you can create a new Hotmail account for free directly from Microsoft’s platform.
Q. Can I log in to the old Hotmail page I see in the Wayback Machine?
Please don’t try to log in to old iterations of Hotmail or redirected Outlook pages you see on the Wayback Machine. They won’t work and may become a security risk for your account.