November 2026 storage changes: what Microsoft is changing
Three Microsoft announcements change how SharePoint and OneDrive storage is billed and limited, and all three reach general availability or take effect from November 2026. Two are pay-as-you-go billing options, MC1330893 for SharePoint and MC1477185 for OneDrive. The third, MC1465765, removes the legacy OneDrive allowance above 5 TB for the tenants it reaches.
The two billing options are opt-in, and nothing happens unless an administrator switches them on. The third is not optional for the tenants it applies to. That difference is why they need to be read together: one of them creates a way to keep exceeding a quota, and another takes away the old way of having a higher one.
| Message Center ID | What changes | Default | Who it affects | Timing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MC1330893 | Pay-as-you-go billing for SharePoint storage above the included tenant quota | Off, opt-in | Tenants over their SharePoint quota. Not available to education tenants | Public preview completed June 2026. General availability worldwide from early November to the end of November 2026 |
| MC1477185 | Pay-as-you-go billing for OneDrive storage above licensed quotas, enabled account by account | Opt-in | Tenants with OneDrive accounts near or over their licensed quota | Public preview available now. General availability across Worldwide, GCC, GCC High and DoD from early November to early December 2026 |
| MC1465765 | Legacy OneDrive quota increases above 5 TB removed, with quotas aligned to the licence | Not optional | Organisations with Microsoft 365 or Office 365 E3 or E5 users whose OneDrive quota was raised above the 5 TB entitlement | Rolling out from November 2026, completing February 2027 |
Microsoft moved the MC1330893 general availability dates after announcing it: the start went from September to early November, and the completion from the end of October to the end of November.
MC1465765 was reported as a notice sent to the affected tenants, and it does not appear in the public Message Center archive. A tenant that did not receive it may not be affected, but the reporting step below is the way to be sure.
MC1330893: pay-as-you-go for SharePoint storage
Microsoft's post says administrators can enable pay-as-you-go SharePoint storage billing in the Microsoft 365 admin center, and that storage used above the included tenant quota is then billed automatically based on consumption. Microsoft's overview of its pay-as-you-go services describes it as letting organisations "continue using SharePoint storage beyond their tenant quota, with charges based on actual storage overage consumption."
What the post says about how it works:
- It is opt-in and off by default.
- It is based on the tenant quota: storage used above the tenant's included quota is what gets billed.
- It needs an Azure subscription and billing permissions to be in place.
- There is no impact to users.
- It is not currently available to education tenants.
The actions Microsoft recommends are to review current SharePoint storage under Active sites in the SharePoint admin center, weigh consumption-based billing against buying storage in advance, set up the Azure subscription and check billing permissions, update internal documentation and cost-management processes, and tell finance and procurement that charging is usage-based.
The post does not state a price, so confirm the rate with Microsoft before enabling it. Before deciding whether to pay for overage, it helps to know which sites are over and what is inside them. Active sites shows totals per site; SharePoint Storage Explorer, a free Windows tool, reports storage by site, library, folder and file. For how SharePoint storage is pooled and what the add-on costs today, see SharePoint storage pricing and buying more SharePoint storage.
MC1477185: pay-as-you-go for OneDrive storage
MC1477185 says administrators "will be able to control which accounts are enabled to use a pay-as-you-go model to provide additional OneDrive storage beyond their licensed storage quotas", and that "accounts enabled for storage consumption above their licensed storage quotas will be billed automatically based on usage". It applies account by account, not across the whole tenant. It is opt-in, and Microsoft states that no action is required if you do not wish to use it.
Public preview is available now, and general availability follows from early November to early December 2026 across Worldwide, GCC, GCC High and DoD.
Microsoft's recommended actions are to identify OneDrive accounts approaching or exceeding their licensed quotas, evaluate whether pay-as-you-go is appropriate for your organisation, and selectively enable it on the accounts you choose.
The post does not say where in the admin center the option is enabled, and it does not describe the billing set-up. Check the admin center when it reaches your tenant rather than assuming it matches the SharePoint option.
MC1465765: the end of the OneDrive allowance above 5 TB
This is the change that is not optional. As reported, Microsoft is removing legacy quota increases from affected users and aligning their OneDrive quotas with the storage their current licences provide.
- Who it reaches: organisations with Microsoft 365 or Office 365 E3 or E5 users whose OneDrive quota was previously increased above the 5 TB licence entitlement. Tenants that used the older support-approved expansion, which allowed quotas of up to 25 TB, are the ones reported to have received it.
- What happens: if a user's current storage exceeds the resulting quota, their OneDrive may become read-only until the overage is resolved.
- When: rolling out from November 2026 and completing in February 2027.
The three options reported for an affected user are to reduce their storage below 5 TB, to buy a OneDrive storage add-on, or to use OneDrive pay-as-you-go once it is available. That last option is MC1477185, which is why the two announcements arrive together.
To find the users affected, run a usage report and filter for anyone above 5 TB of used storage. Reports of the notice point to a reporting script in the PnP GitHub repository, run as .\Get-OneDriveStorageReport.ps1 -ExportPath "<YourExportPath>\OneDriveStorageReport.csv". The Get-SPOSite cmdlet and the usage data in Microsoft Graph give the same figures.
How this differs from MC1310684
MC1310684, covered in OneDrive quota enforcement, is a separate change: a bug fix, from July 2026, that stops admin-set quotas exceeding what a user's licence entitles them to. MC1465765 removes the legacy 5 TB allowance specifically. A tenant can be affected by both.
What to do before November
- List the OneDrive users above 5 TB of used storage with the report above.
- List the SharePoint sites near or over quota, using Active sites in the SharePoint admin center, and use the free SharePoint Storage Explorer to see what is inside them down to library, folder and file.
- Decide for each: reduce, buy, or pay as you go. For pay-as-you-go, also decide who is allowed to enable it, since MC1477185 works account by account.
- Confirm the Azure subscription and billing permissions before enabling SharePoint pay-as-you-go.
- Tell finance and procurement that charges under both options are usage-based.
- Check what deleting actually frees. Version history, the two-stage recycle bin and the Preservation Hold Library all hold space after files are deleted. SharePoint storage full or almost full explains each, and see what is using your SharePoint storage breaks usage down by site, library and file.
Where Squirrel fits
Pay-as-you-go bills for the bytes above your quota, so reducing the bytes reduces the bill. That is the only point where archiving enters this, and it is narrower than it sounds. If you are working out where a site's storage sits, start with the free SharePoint Storage Explorer, then look at what can be archived.
Squirrel archives inactive files from SharePoint document libraries into your own Azure storage and leaves a pointer page in place, so a user restores a file in one click. Archiving reduces bytes, not item counts, so it does nothing for a limit on the number of items. Squirrel archives SharePoint document libraries and not OneDrive, so it is relevant to MC1330893 and not to MC1477185 or MC1465765.
For OneDrive, see OneDrive archiving, which covers the options and where Microsoft 365 Archive does not reach.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to turn on pay-as-you-go storage?
No. MC1330893 is opt-in and off by default. For OneDrive, MC1477185 states that no action is required if you do not wish to use pay-as-you-go storage.
What happens if I do nothing?
Nothing changes for either billing option. MC1465765 is different: for affected tenants, users whose usage exceeds the resulting quota may become read-only until the overage is resolved.
When do these changes start?
SharePoint pay-as-you-go reaches general availability from early to the end of November 2026. OneDrive pay-as-you-go reaches general availability from early November to early December 2026. The removal of the legacy allowance rolls out from November 2026 and completes in February 2027.
Is SharePoint pay-as-you-go tenant-wide?
Yes. It applies to storage above the included tenant quota. OneDrive pay-as-you-go is enabled per account.
Is SharePoint pay-as-you-go available to education tenants?
Not currently, according to MC1330893.
What does pay-as-you-go cost?
The Message Center posts do not state a price. Confirm the rate with Microsoft before enabling it.
Is this the same as the July 2026 OneDrive quota change?
No. That was MC1310684, a separate fix aligning quotas with licences. See OneDrive quota enforcement.
Related reading
- OneDrive quota enforcement (MC1310684) - the July 2026 change and the read-only state.
- SharePoint storage full or almost full - why deleting files does not always free space.
- Buy more SharePoint storage - the add-on, and what each option costs.
- SharePoint storage pricing - the pooled allowance and the add-on rate.
- Find over-quota OneDrives and SharePoint sites - PowerShell for the affected list.
- SharePoint Storage Explorer - free tool that reports storage by site, library, folder and file.
- OneDrive archiving - the options, and the gaps.
Mark Smith co-founded SmiKar Software in 2015 and has spent the past decade helping organisations solve Microsoft 365 data management challenges. He works with the SmiKar team to build solutions for SharePoint archiving, storage optimisation, governance and compliance, supporting customers from growing businesses through to Fortune 500 enterprises.
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