Microsoft 365 Storage Limits

Storage in Outlook, OneDrive, and MS Office Apps

Outlook Email Storage Limits

Your Limit: 50 Gigabytes (GB)

This is the total space you have for all your emails and attachments. For comparison, 50 GB can hold roughly 10,000 to 50,000 emails depending on how many large attachments they have.

What Happens When I Get Close?

You will receive warnings as you approach the limit. If you exceed it, you may no longer be able to send or receive new emails until you free up space.

Storage Saving Tricks for Your Mailbox

The biggest thing that fills up your mailbox is large attachments (like big videos or many high-resolution photos).

  • Check for Large Emails: Use the search or filter tools in Outlook to find the largest emails in your inbox, sent items, and deleted items folders. You can usually sort by size! Delete the entire email (not just the attachment) to free up space.
  • Empty Your Deleted Items (Trash): When you delete an email, it moves to your "Deleted Items" folder and still counts against your 50 GB limit until you empty that folder. Make it a habit to right-click and empty it regularly.
  • Avoid Sending Large Attachments: Instead of attaching a file, save it to OneDrive (see below) and then share a link to the file in your email. This saves space in your mailbox and the recipient's mailbox.

 

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Standards

OneDrive Storage Limit

 OneDrive is your personal cloud storage where you can save work files, project drafts, and documents. This is where you should save files that are too big for email attachments.

Your Limit: 50 Gigabytes (GB): This is the total space you have for all the files and folders you save in your OneDrive.

Storage Saving Tricks for OneDrive

  • Empty the OneDrive Recycle Bin: Just like email, when you delete a file from OneDrive, it goes into a Recycle Bin and still counts against your limit for a period of time. You need to empty the OneDrive Recycle Bin on the website to permanently free up the space.
  • Don't Keep Personal Photos/Videos: OneDrive is for work and school files. Avoid storing large personal photo and video collections here, as they use your limited workspace very quickly.
  • Use SharePoint/Shared Drives for Team Files: If you are working on a shared project, store the files in a shared team space (like a SharePoint site or a Microsoft Teams channel) instead of your personal OneDrive. This way, the file counts against the team's storage, not your personal 50 GB.