OneDrive · Billing

Unlicensed OneDrive billing: what Microsoft actually charges, and the decision you must make before day 93

Published 10 September 2026 · 7 min read · All figures from Microsoft Learn, linked at the end

Most of the confusion in the "unlicensed OneDrive archive billing" threads comes from one detail people miss: the storage meter is tenant-wide. You enable billing to get one former employee's files back, and from that month you pay for every archived unlicensed OneDrive in the organization. Here is the timeline, the two meters, the traps, and the three decisions you have per account.

The timeline for one unlicensed account

An account becomes "unlicensed" when the OneDrive license is removed or the user is deleted. From that day, by default:

Two things that surprise people: restoring an unlicensed account from the recycle bin after day 93 archives it straight away, and the day-365 deletion is not stopped by holds unless billing is on.

The two meters

MeterPrice (USD, list)Scope
Reactivation$0.60 per GB reactivated, one-timeThe account you reactivate. Access for 30 days, then it re-archives.
Archive storage$0.05 per GB per month (shows as $0.00167/GB/day)All archived unlicensed OneDrive accounts in the tenant, from the month billing is enabled.

Microsoft's own worked example: 100 unlicensed accounts of 1 TB each, all archived. You need one of them back in December, so you set up billing and reactivate it. Cost: $614.40 once for the reactivation, plus $5,120 per month for the 100 TB of archived storage from that month on.

Billing starts at enablement, not at reactivation. The moment the "Unlicensed OneDrive accounts" billing toggle is on, the storage meter runs on everything archived and older than 93 days — whether or not you ever touch those accounts.

The traps

1. Archived accounts cannot use your spare SharePoint pool

Your tenant's pooled SharePoint storage (1 TB + 10 GB per licensed user, plus any Extra File Storage you bought) does not offset this. Archived unlicensed OneDrive accounts are billed for their full consumed size, even if the pool has terabytes free and even if Microsoft 365 Archive is set up for sites.

2. Retention holds cut both ways

With billing on, archived accounts honor retention policies and litigation holds — which means you pay to store data you are not allowed to delete, and must pay again ($0.60/GB) to read it. With billing off, the same data is deleted at day 365 regardless of the hold. Neither outcome is what most compliance teams assume.

3. Reactivation is a 30-day window

A reactivated account stays active for 30 days, then archives again. Need it longer and you are looking at another reactivation, or at the new Standard storage tier (generally available from October 2026), which lets you set a tenant-wide active period between 93 and 3,650 days and keep specific accounts active past 30 days. Note: during calendar 2026 the reactivation fee is waived when Standard storage is enabled.

4. The pool overage bill is a separate line

Extra SharePoint storage above the pool is a different meter — $0.20/GB/month, whether bought as Extra File Storage or as the newer pay-as-you-go "Microsoft 365 SharePoint Storage". Tenants that are over the pool and have archived unlicensed accounts are paying two storage bills, and the fixes are different.

The three decisions per account — before day 93

Everything above is avoidable if you act while the account is still active. For each unlicensed OneDrive, there are exactly three options:

OptionWhen it fitsCost
RelicenseThe user identity still exists (leave of absence, contractor coming back, wrong license removal). Reassign a license → account reactivates automatically within 48 hours.The license. No reactivation fee, even if billing is not enabled.
Move the content outSomeone else needs the files. Copy them to a SharePoint site or to a licensed user's OneDrive, then let the empty account age out.Admin time. Pool storage for what you move.
DeleteNothing is needed and no hold applies. You can delete from the archived state without reactivating.Nothing. Blocked if the account is on hold — Microsoft returns an error.

The default — do nothing — is the only option that ends in either a deletion you did not choose or a bill you did not plan.

Get the actual numbers first

Every decision above depends on two numbers per account: how big it is and how many days it has been unlicensed. Two ways to get them:

SharePoint admin center → Reports → OneDrive accounts → View more details. It lists every unlicensed account with URL, storage used, unlicensed date, reason, and archive status, and offers a CSV download. The same page has Delete and Reactivate actions.

Script it if you want the list every month without clicking through the admin center. The free StorageScout Lite runs read-only in your tenant via Microsoft Graph and writes an orphaned-onedrives.csv — owner, UPN, account status, storage in GB and last activity for every OneDrive whose owner is deleted or disabled. Nothing leaves the tenant:

Install-Module Microsoft.Graph -Scope CurrentUser
.\StorageScout-Audit.ps1 -Lite

Sort that CSV by StorageGB descending. In practice a handful of accounts hold most of the volume — those are the ones where "move the content out" saves real money, and the long tail is a delete list.

Free: the orphaned-OneDrive list for your tenant, with sizes

StorageScout Lite is a read-only PowerShell audit. No server, no data leaves your tenant. The paid tiers add the dollar-quantified report for version history, recycle bins and pool overage.

Download StorageScout Lite — free See what Solo adds

Disclosure: StorageScout is our product. Prices above are Microsoft's public US list prices as documented on Microsoft Learn at the time of writing; your agreement, region and currency may differ. StorageScout is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft.

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