OneDrive above 5 TB: what goes read-only from November 2026, and what the $0.20 meter costs

For years the answer to "this user's OneDrive is full at 5 TB" was a support request. Once the drive was 90% full, an admin ran a diagnostic and Microsoft raised the limit, as far as 25 TB. Those raised limits are being taken back. Since July 2026 OneDrive enforces each user's quota by licence, and between November 2026 and February 2027 Microsoft removes the old increases above 5 TB for E3 and E5 users. A drive that is over its new limit goes read-only. This article covers who is affected, what read-only means for the person using the drive, why deleting files often does not fix it, and what the two paid ways out cost.

Two changes, and only one of them is on Learn

Licence-based enforcement. Microsoft's FAQ on Learn says the rollout began on 1 July 2026 and was expected to finish by mid-July, announced as Message Center post MC1310684. Its position is that a user's maximum OneDrive size was always set by the licence, that the only users affected are those configured above their licensed entitlement, and that a drive whose usage exceeds the licensed quota becomes read-only. Government clouds are out of scope for now.

Removal of the increases above 5 TB. This one is not on Learn. It was announced in Message Center post MC1465765 in September 2026, and Office 365 for IT Pros reports that the post went only to affected tenants and does not appear on the sites that mirror Message Center. We have not read it first-hand. As reported by Topedia and Office 365 for IT Pros, it covers Microsoft 365 and Office 365 E3 and E5 users whose quota was raised in the past: the legacy increases are removed and the configured quota is aligned with what the current licence provides, in a rollout from November 2026 to February 2027. A drive whose usage is above the new quota may become read-only until the overage is resolved. Topedia also reports a statement from Microsoft support that the request to go from 5 TB to 25 TB is no longer available for E3 and E5.

What each licence allows

Three settings interact, and since July the licence wins. The licence sets the ceiling. The tenant default (SharePoint admin centre, Settings, OneDrive storage limit) and a per-user limit can sit anywhere at or below it. A per-user limit set above the licence ceiling, which is what a legacy 25 TB increase is, is the thing enforcement removes. Lower limits set by an admin are kept.

The ceiling also moves with the licence. Learn says a licence change updates the user's storage within 24 hours of their next visit to OneDrive, and the FAQ says a user who no longer holds a qualifying licence is adjusted to the entitlement of the one they have. A move from E3 to a Business plan takes the ceiling from 5 TB to 1 TB, and a 3 TB drive becomes read-only without anyone touching a quota.

What read-only means for the user

Per the FAQ, the user cannot add new files or edit existing ones, and can still download and delete. Topedia's account of the Message Center post adds that upload and sync stop as well. The first symptom is rarely a quota message that somebody reads. Expect a sync client reporting errors, an Office file that will not save back, and, where Desktop and Documents are backed up to OneDrive, new work that exists only on the laptop. Tell the affected people before the change does.

Why deleting files often does not bring the drive back

The quota counts more than the files a user can see. The FAQ puts it in one line: version history, recycle bins and Preservation Hold libraries are all part of the usage figure. Each of the three can keep a drive over the line after its owner has deleted terabytes.

• Recycle bins. A deleted file passes through the first-stage and second-stage recycle bins for up to 93 days in total, and it counts the whole time. Usage drops when the bins are emptied, not when the file is deleted.
• Versions. Every previous version is stored and counted, and the long-standing default keeps 500 major versions. A drive of large, frequently saved files (video projects, PST files, CAD models) can carry more version data than live data. Lowering the version limit does not trim what already exists; the version-trimming article covers what does.
• Preservation Hold. If a retention policy or retention label covers the OneDrive, a file the user deletes is first copied into the hidden Preservation Hold library, and Learn states that this library is included in the storage quota. On such an account the user cannot delete their way out. The bytes move from the visible library to the hold library and the total stays where it was until the retention period ends, the clean-up job runs (Learn allows up to 37 days for that), and the copy then spends up to 93 days in the second-stage recycle bin.

Find the accounts in five minutes

You are looking for two groups: drives whose usage is above 5 TB (these go read-only), and drives whose configured limit is above 5 TB while usage is still under it (these lose headroom, and nothing breaks yet).

Connect-SPOService -Url https://TENANT-admin.sharepoint.com

$fiveTB = 5242880   # 5 TB in MB, the unit Get-SPOSite reports

Get-SPOSite -IncludePersonalSite $true -Limit All -Filter "Url -like '-my.sharepoint.com/personal/'" |
  Where-Object { $_.StorageUsageCurrent -gt $fiveTB -or $_.StorageQuota -gt $fiveTB } |
  Sort-Object StorageUsageCurrent -Descending |
  Select-Object Owner, Url, StorageUsageCurrent, StorageQuota, LockState

SharePoint Online Management Shell, SharePoint administrator, nothing written. On Business plans or mixed licensing, run it again with the threshold at 1 TB (1,048,576 MB) and compare each result with its owner's licence.

Microsoft's FAQ links a PnP sample, "Identify OneDrive Users Over License-Based Storage Quota", that does the licence comparison for you through Microsoft Graph. It is read-only, the Global Reader role is enough, and it exports expected quota, current quota and storage used per account. Two things to know before relying on it. Its default mode reads the usage reports, so it stops if your tenant conceals user names in reports, and its figures are a day or two old. And its README says the Enterprise tier is never flagged as over quota, because the script treats usage above 5 TB on those licences as a legitimate increase. That is the population MC1465765 is about, so for this question ignore the OverQuota column and filter the storage-used and current-quota columns at 5 TB yourself.

Pool storage does not help here

A user's OneDrive limit and the SharePoint tenant pool are separate accounts. The FAQ is explicit that storage added to the shared pool does not let an individual user go past their per-user entitlement, so Office 365 Extra File Storage and pay-as-you-go SharePoint Storage do nothing for a read-only OneDrive. What raises one user's limit is a higher licence, a OneDrive Extra Storage capacity pack, or the OneDrive meter.

Learn is not consistent on a related point. The same FAQ says OneDrive usage still counts toward the tenant-wide pool, while the SharePoint limits page says the pool figure does not include the OneDrive created for each licensed user. For commercial tenants we follow the limits page, as in the pool article. Education tenants manage one pooled allowance across OneDrive, SharePoint and Exchange, which is where the FAQ's sentence fits.

The ways out, and what each costs

Prices are Microsoft's public US list figures on Learn at the time of writing; check the admin centre for your agreement and currency.

The meter, worked through

Quotas are in binary units. Learn's own conversion table puts 5 TB at 5,242,880 MB, which is 5,120 GB. The overage is usage minus 5,120 GB, at $0.20 per GB per month.

• The per-user limit is your spending cap. The meter applies only to accounts whose limit you raise, and only up to that limit. Set an 8 TB drive to 8.5 TB rather than to 25,600 GB and the most it can cost is 3,584 GB × $0.20 = $716.80 a month.
• It is metered by the day. The invoice line is per GB per day, so you pay for the overage that exists each day rather than for a fixed block. Create an Azure budget with alerts when you connect billing; Learn documents this for pay-as-you-go services.
• Disconnecting brings enforcement back. Learn says that if pay-as-you-go is disconnected while accounts are over their licensed quota, quota enforcement resumes. The health of that Azure subscription becomes something those users depend on.
• It does not draw down an Azure commitment. The pay-as-you-go pricing page says these meters do not count toward a Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment.

Pack or meter? One terabyte of standing overage costs $204.80 a month on the meter. A 1 TB pack that costs less than that in your admin centre wins for a user who will stay over all year. The meter wins when the overage is temporary or shrinking, because a pack is paid in full whether it is used or not. Learn gives pack sizes up to 6 TB and a 25 TB per-user ceiling but does not spell out whether packs can be combined on one user, so confirm that at purchase before planning a 12 TB drive on packs.

A sequence for October

1. Run the list. Separate "usage above 5 TB" from "limit above 5 TB, usage under".
2. For each drive over 5 TB, find out what is in it. Shared and departmental data belongs on a site, and that conversation takes longer than the migration.
3. Check whether the account is under a retention policy before promising that deletion will fix it. If it is, neither deleting nor moving out is likely to reduce usage inside the window.
4. Decide per account: shrink, move, pack, or meter with a limit set just above current usage.
5. If any account needs the meter, connect pay-as-you-go billing now, while it is a calm change: Azure subscription, resource group, a budget with alerts.
6. Tell the affected users what read-only will look like and what you have decided for their drive.
7. Re-run the list monthly until the end of February 2027. The rollout is staged, and a drive at 4.9 TB today is next month's ticket.

If the drives above 5 TB came from a standalone OneDrive Plan 2 licence rather than E3 or E5, the retirement timetable applies on top of this one: see the Plan 2 retirement article.

Disclosure: StorageScout is our product. Prices are Microsoft's public US list prices as documented on Microsoft Learn at the time of writing; your agreement, region and currency may differ. The November 2026 to February 2027 dates come from a Message Center post we have not read first-hand; they are reported by the two sources named below. StorageScout is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft.

Sources

• OneDrive for Business storage quota enforcement: FAQ — licence-based enforcement from 1 July 2026, read-only behaviour, what counts toward usage, Education entitlements, government out of scope, pool vs per-user storage, capacity packs
• OneDrive service description — storage limit per plan, supported uses
• Add more OneDrive and SharePoint storage — Microsoft 365 OneDrive Storage prerequisites, 25,600 GB maximum, disconnect behaviour; OneDrive Extra Storage pack sizes and rules
• Pay-as-you-go pricing — Storage services — $0.20/GB/month OneDrive and SharePoint storage, $0.05/GB/month Archive, daily invoice rate, Azure Consumption Commitment note
• Change a specific user's OneDrive storage space — per-user limits, limits above the licence with pay-as-you-go, MB to TB conversion table
• Set the default storage space for OneDrive users — tenant default, 24-hour update after a licence change, read-only warning
• Check OneDrive site eligibility for increased storage — the historical 5 TB to 25 TB request process, still published on 6 October 2026
• Learn about retention for SharePoint and OneDrive and Learn about retention policies and retention labels — Preservation Hold library behaviour on delete, its place in the storage quota, 37-day clean-up, 93-day recycle bin
• SharePoint and OneDrive unmanaged device access controls — the Get-SPOSite -IncludePersonalSite filter for all OneDrive accounts
• SharePoint limits — pool formula; pool figure not including each licensed user's OneDrive
• PnP script sample: Identify OneDrive Users Over License-Based Storage Quota — read-only Graph report, scan modes, Enterprise tier never flagged
• Message Center MC1477185 (22 September 2026), read via mc.merill.net — pay-as-you-go OneDrive storage, general availability early November to early December 2026
• Message Center MC1465765 (September 2026), reported by Topedia and Office 365 for IT Pros — removal of legacy OneDrive quota increases above 5 TB for E3/E5, November 2026 to February 2027