Microsoft storage FAQs

Free users without a Microsoft 365 subscription

You have 5 GB of free cloud storage with your Microsoft account shared across your files and photos in OneDrive, attachments in Outlook.com and your Microsoft 365 apps. You also get 15 GB of free Outlook.com email storage which is separate from your Microsoft cloud storage.

You will only need to buy more storage if you want to use more than the free storage allocation.

Microsoft 365 subscribers

If you are already a Microsoft 365 Personal & Family subscription holder, you can add even more file storage to the 1 TB already included with your Microsoft 365 subscription. Only the subscription account holder can extend their storage. Extend your OneDrive.

You will only need to buy more storage if you want to use more than the included storage allocation.

Consumer mailbox limits are capped at 100 GB. If you need more mailbox space, see our Enterprise plans.

If you bought additional storage, but you cannot see it, follow these steps.

1. Go to Manage storage, refresh the page, and check if the additional storage is visible. You may need to wait 2 hours before changes to your storage show.

2. If not, sign in to your Microsoft Account purchase history, and see if the order is there.  

3. If it isn't visible, check your credit card, or payment provider to see if the purchase went through.

If you have a Microsoft 365 Basic or Microsoft 365 Personal subscription, no.

If you have a Microsoft 365 Family subscription, yes! You can share your subscription storage with up to 5 other people. Each person you share with gets 1 TB storage. Each person can share folders, so that you can all benefit from your maximum storage.

Read How to reduce your cloud storage for more tips on how to clean up your email, remove files and reduce your storage.

If you cancel a Microsoft 365 Basic or Microsoft 365 Personal subscription, your storage allowance will revert to 5GB of cloud storage, which includes your OneDrive and Outlook.com attachments, and 15GB of Outlook.com storage. If you cancel a Microsoft 365 Family subscription, all the people you shared your subscription with will also have their storage allowances reduced.

If you or people you shared a subscription with have used more than the free allowances, you won’t be able to upload, edit, or sync new files (such as Camera Roll) to your OneDrive, and you will not be able to send or receive email in Outlook.com.

OneDrive100 GB plans have been upgraded to a Microsoft 365 Basic subscription.

This gives you an ad-free mailbox and access to support experts for no extra charge. This is valid for the same period as your existing OneDrive subscription.

Learn more about Microsoft 365 Basic.

You may see an "Account frozen" or "Error code 0x8004def7" if you have exceeded your storage allowance and/or haven't signed in for a long time. Don’t worry, your files are still there. You just need to get back under your Microsoft storage quota to get access to your files again. Learn more.

Cloud storage

Your Microsoft storage quota applies to your personal Microsoft account and includes:

• OneDrive files and photos, for example files you store, upload or sync from your computer or mobile device, such as mobile camera roll, screenshots and other files and photos which have been saved to your OneDrive.

• Items in your OneDrive Recycle Bin.

• Outlook.com attachments and email in-line images.

• Microsoft Teams message attachments & recordings.

• Loop meeting notes and Ideas files.

• Images that are part of your Designer projects.

Mailbox storage

Your Outlook.com email storage quota includes the following:

• Emails associated with your Microsoft account (Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live or MSN).

• Outlook.com attachments and email in-line images.

• Calendar items.

• Contacts.

• Deleted messages.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Microsoft storage includes all your documents, files, photos and videos stored across free Microsoft 365 apps and services, including Outlook.com attachments.

We will still allow Outlook.com users to keep their existing free 15GB email storage limit that they can use in Outlook.com only. We didn’t want to reduce that limit for users. 

Additionally, we also wanted to minimize disruption to our existing Outlook.com customers by keeping that storage limit the same. Microsoft Storage provides a simple way for people to see how they're using storage across all the growing apps and experiences included in Microsoft 365.  

Any emails sent to you are returned to the sender. Once you free up storage space, or buy more storage, the sender will need to resend the email. 

This message means you have exceeded your cloud storage quota. 

If you exceed your Microsoft storage:

• You won’t be able to upload, edit, or sync new files (such as Camera Roll) to your OneDrive. Your existing files will remain but will be read-only.

• You will not be able to send or receive email in Outlook.com, even if you have not exceeded your email storage quota.

• You will not be able to send or receive any Microsoft Teams messages which contain attachments.

• After 6 months, we may delete your OneDrive and all files within it. Once deleted, these files are non-recoverable.

If you exceed your email storage:

• You will not be able to send or receive email in Outlook.com. 

  Note: Any emails sent to you are returned to the sender. Once you get back under your storage quota, the sender will need to resend the email. 

To get back under your storage quota:

• If you are a free user, you can buy a subscription, to increase your mailbox quota or free up storage space.

• If you are already a Microsoft 365 subscriber, consumer mailbox limits are capped at 50 GB. To get back under your storage quota, you need to free up storage space. If you need more than 50 GB mailbox, see our Enterprise plans.