Microsoft to Eliminate Reactivation Fees for Archived SharePoint Sites

Microsoft is making a cost-saving change for organizations using SharePoint Online by eliminating the reactivation fee for archived sites in the Microsoft 365 Archive. This update will roll out globally to all commercial customers by the end of March.

What is Microsoft 365 Archive?

Microsoft 365 Archive launched in May 2024 to help organizations manage and store inactive SharePoint sites and data efficiently. This feature moves inactive data to a cold storage tier, which significantly reduces storage costs while maintaining searchability, security, and compliance standards. It preserves all metadata and permissions to ensure that achieved data can be easily reactivated when needed. Administrators can manage Microsoft 365 Archive through the SharePoint admin center.

Microsoft currently charges a reactivation fee of $0.60 per GB to move archived SharePoint sites from cold storage to hot storage. Reactivating a site that has been archived for more than a week typically takes around 24 hours. This fee was introduced to cover the costs of handling large data volumes and to promote efficient storage use.

What are the key changes?

Starting March 31, Microsoft will remove the reactivation fee for SharePoint sites and content stored in the Microsoft 365 Archive. Organizations will only pay a monthly storage fee of $0.05 per GB, but only if their archived data exceeds their unused SharePoint Online storage quota. This means some organizations may use the service at no additional cost, depending on their available storage.

“There will be a restriction against re-archiving content for four months after it has been reactivated. This is to prevent constant movement of content in and out of the archive tier. When file-level archive is launched, it will also conform to the same free reactivation with limited re-archiving timelines,” Microsoft explained.

No impact on archived OneDrive accounts

Microsoft plans to begin rolling out this change to commercial customers in early March, with the general availability expected for all Microsoft 365 tenants by March 31. However, keep in mind that this change doesn’t apply to archived OneDrive for Business accounts.

Last month, Microsoft began automatically archiving OneDrive accounts that have been unlicensed for over 90 days. These accounts can store large amounts of data, affecting an organization’s overall storage capacity. Administrators can track and manage unlicensed OneDrive for Business accounts using reports in the SharePoint Admin Center.