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Microsoft Exchange Online Archiving is a Microsoft 365 cloud-based, enterprise-class archiving solution for organizations that have deployed Microsoft Exchange Server 2019, Microsoft Exchange Server 2016, Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, or subscribe to certain Exchange Online or Microsoft 365 plans. Exchange Online Archiving assists organizations with archiving, compliance, regulatory, and Microsoft Purview eDiscovery challenges.
As a Microsoft online service, Exchange Online Archiving is designed to help meet the need for robust security, reliability, and user productivity. For more information about Microsoft 365, including features common to all Microsoft online services, see Microsoft 365 and Office 365 platform service description.
Exchange Online Archiving plans
For detailed plan information on subscriptions that enable users for Exchange Online Archiving, see Exchange Online Archiving.
Exchange Online Archiving is available through the following plans.
| Plan | Description |
|---|---|
| Exchange Online Archiving for Exchange Server | Cloud-based archive for users with primary mailboxes in Exchange Server 2019, Exchange Server 2016, Exchange Server 2013 or later. If you want to add a cloud-based archive to a primary mailbox that's located on an on-premises Exchange server, you need to configure a hybrid deployment. For more information about hybrid deployments, see Exchange Server hybrid deployments. |
| Exchange Online Archiving for Exchange Server (via Enterprise CAL Suite) | Cloud-based archive for users with primary mailboxes in Exchange Server 2019, Exchange Server 2016, Exchange Server 2013 or later. For details, see Client Access Licenses and Management Licenses. |
| Exchange Online Archiving for Exchange Online | Cloud-based archive and in-place hold as an add-on for the following plans1,2,3: • Exchange Online Plan 1 • Exchange Online Kiosk • Microsoft 365 Business Basic • Microsoft 365 Business Standard • Microsoft 365 Business Premium (Exchange Online Archiving is included in plan) • Office 365 E1 • Office 365 A1 • Office 365 G1 • Office 365 F3 • Microsoft 365 F3 Note that the following plans already include archiving and don't require Exchange Online Archiving as an add-on: • Office 365 A3 • Office 365 A5 • Office 365 E3 • Office 365 E5 • Exchange Online Plan 2 • Microsoft 365 E3 • Microsoft 365 E5 • Microsoft 365 F5 Compliance For details on the archiving capabilities of Exchange Online mailboxes, see Archive features in Exchange Online Archiving. |
1 A hybrid deployment isn't required for cloud-only organizations where no mailboxes are located on an on-premises Exchange server. However, if on-premises mailboxes exist, then hybrid deployment is required.
2 For more information, see Exchange Online limits. Exchange Online Archiving for Exchange Online add-on adds auto-expanding archiving and In-Place Hold and Litigation Hold.
3 Includes GCC, GCC-High, and DoD plans for US Government.
Looking for information about all Microsoft 365 plans? Microsoft 365 is available in a variety of plans to best meet the needs of your organization. For information about different plans, including standalone plan options and information on moving from one plan to another, see Office 365 plan options.
For more information about different plans, see the full subscription comparison table.
Tip
You can export, save, and print pages in the service descriptions. Learn how to export content search results.
Feature availability across Exchange Online Archiving plans
The following table lists the major Exchange Online Archiving features available across plans (certain caveats apply). This table may change without notice. For more information, see the footnotes. For the most up-to-date, complete list of features, see Powerful tools to support your enterprise.
| Feature | Exchange Online Archiving for Exchange Server1 | Exchange Online Archiving for Exchange Online2 |
|---|---|---|
| Archive features in Exchange Online Archiving | ||
| Archive mailbox | Yes | Yes |
| Move messages using archive policy | Yes | Yes |
| Import data to the archive | Yes | Yes |
| Deleted item recovery | Yes | Yes |
| Deleted mailbox recovery | Yes | Yes |
| Mailbox backup | Yes | Yes |
| Client features in Exchange Online Archiving | ||
| Outlook3 | Yes | Yes |
| Outlook on the web | Yes | Yes |
| Compliance and security features in Exchange Online Archiving | ||
| Outlook3 | Yes | Yes |
| Outlook on the web | Yes | Yes |
| Retention policies | Yes | Yes |
| In-Place Hold and Litigation Hold6 | Yes | Yes |
| In-Place eDiscovery | Yes | Yes |
| Encryption between on-premises servers and Exchange Online Archiving | Yes | Yes |
| Encrypting between clients and Exchange Online Archiving | Yes | Yes |
| Encryption: S/MIME and PGP | Yes | Yes |
| IRM using Azure Information Protection | No | No4 |
| IRM using Windows Server AD RMS | Yes5 | Yes5 |
| Auditing | Yes | Yes |
1 User mailboxes must reside on Exchange 2013 or later.
2 An Archive Mailbox can be used only to archive mail for a single user or entity for which a license has been applied. Using an Archive Mailbox as a means to store mail from multiple users or entities is prohibited. For example, IT administrators can’t create shared mailboxes and have users copy (through the Cc or Bcc field, or through a transport rule) a shared mailbox for the explicit purpose of archiving.
3 For a list of supported Microsoft Outlook versions, see Client features in Exchange Online Archiving.
4 Azure Information Protection is not included, but can be purchased as a separate add-on and will enable the supported Information Rights Management (IRM) features. Some Azure Information Protection features require a subscription to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise, which is not included with Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Office 365 Enterprise E1, Office 365 Education, or Office 365 Enterprise F3.
5 Windows Server AD RMS is an on-premises server that must be purchased and managed separately in order to enable the supported IRM features.
6 When you put a mailbox on In-Place Hold or Litigation Hold, the hold is placed on both the primary and the archive mailbox.
Licensing terms
For licensing terms and conditions for products and services purchased through Microsoft Commercial Volume Licensing Programs, see the Product Terms site.
Messaging
To keep track of upcoming changes, including new and changed features, planned maintenance, or other important announcements, visit the Message Center. For more information, see Message center.
Accessibility
Microsoft remains committed to the security of your data and the accessibility of our services. For more information, see the Microsoft Trust Center and the Office Accessibility Center.
Learn more
For technical information about Exchange Online Archiving, check out the following resources:
- Learn how to use the Microsoft Purview compliance portal to enable archive mailboxes to support your organization's message retention, eDiscovery, and hold requirements: .
- Learn about the archive features available in Microsoft Exchange Online Archiving: Archive features in Exchange Online Archiving - Service Descriptions.
- Learn how to create an archiving and deletion policy in Microsoft 365 that automatically moves items to a user's archive mailbox: Set up an archive and deletion policy for mailboxes in your organization - Microsoft 365 Compliance.
- To find the Exchange Online limits for a variety of service areas, including address book, mailbox storage, and reporting and message trace limits, see Exchange Online limits - Service Descriptions.
- Administrators can learn about recovery options for deleted messages and high-level methods that Exchange Online uses to protect mailbox data: Back up email in Exchange Online.
- Administrators can search for and recover deleted email messages in a user's mailbox: Recover deleted messages in a user's mailbox in Exchange Online.
Requirements
To use Exchange Online Archiving for Exchange Server, user mailboxes must reside on Exchange Server 2019, Exchange Server 2016, or Exchange Server 2013.
User subscriptions
Each user who accesses the Exchange Online Archiving service must have an Exchange Online Archiving subscription. Each email archive subscription can be used only for storage of one user's messaging data.
Federated identity and single sign-on
Administrators can use a single sign-on approach to authentication with on-premises Active Directory. To achieve this, administrators can configure on-premises Active Directory Federation Services—a Microsoft Windows Server® 2008 service—to federate with the Microsoft Federation Gateway. After Active Directory Federation Services is configured, all users whose identities are based on the federated domain can use their existing corporate logon to automatically authenticate to Office 365.
Archive storage quota
Administrators can't adjust the storage quota. The archiving feature (called auto-expanding archiving) provides additional storage space in archive mailboxes, up to a maximum of 1.5 TB. Each Exchange Online Archiving subscriber initially receives 100 GB of storage in the archive mailbox. When auto-expanding archiving is turned on, additional storage space is automatically added when the 100 GB storage capacity is reached. In Exchange hybrid deployments, auto-expanding archiving is only supported for cloud-based archive mailboxes when the on-premises user's mailbox resides on Exchange Server 2019, Exchange Server 2016, or Exchange Server 2013 SP1 and later.
Auto-expanding archive is only supported for mailboxes used for individual users or shared mailboxes with a growth rate that does not exceed 1 GB per day. Using journaling, transport rules, or auto-forwarding rules to copy messages to Exchange Online Archiving for the purposes of archiving is not permitted. A user's archive mailbox is intended for just that user. Microsoft reserves the right to deny archiving in instances where a user's archive mailbox is used to store archive data for other users or in other cases of inappropriate use.
Auto-expanding archiving
The archiving feature called auto-expanding archiving provides additional storage space in archive mailboxes. Each Exchange Online Archiving subscriber initially receives 100 GB of storage in the archive mailbox. When auto-expanding archiving is turned on, additional storage space is automatically added when the 100 GB storage capacity is reached. This incremental addition of storage space continues until the archive storage reaches 1.5 TB. In Exchange hybrid deployments, auto-expanding archiving is only supported for cloud-based archive mailboxes when the on-premises user's mailbox resides on Exchange Server 2019, Exchange Server 2016, or Exchange Server 2013 (SP1 or later). For more information, see Overview of auto-expanding archiving.
Important
Administrators can't adjust the storage quota.
Auto-expanding archiving is not supported for mailboxes residing on Exchange Server 2010.
Important
Auto-expanding archive is only supported for mailboxes used for individual users or shared mailboxes with a growth rate that does not exceed 1GB per day. Using journaling, transport rules, or auto-forwarding rules to copy messages to Exchange Online Archiving for the purposes of archiving is not permitted. A user's archive mailbox is intended for just that user. Microsoft reserves the right to deny additional archive storage in instances where a user's archive mailbox is used to store archive data for other users or in other cases of inappropriate use.
FAQs
What is the difference between Exchange Online Plan 1 and Plan 2 service description? ›
Exchange Online Plan 2 is twice expensive then the Plan 1. It costs $8.00/user per month but with the extra cost a couple of handy feature like Data Loss Prevention(DLP), voicemail and practically unlimited storage. The size of the inbox for each user is increased from 50 GB to 100 GB.
What is Exchange Online archiving for Exchange Online? ›Exchange Online Archiving is an additional specialized mailbox that works in tandem with your Primary Exchange Mailbox allowing messages to be quickly and easily archived to simplify mailbox size management.
Does Exchange Online Plan 2 include online archiving? ›Microsoft 365 Exchange Online Plan 2 is a more advanced version of Plan 1. Apart from the features available in Exchange Online Plan 1 you get the ability to archive the content of your mailboxes in a local archive, unlimited mailbox storage space and an even higher standard of protection of your insider company data.
Does E3 include archiving? ›Customers with Microsoft Office 365 E3 licenses and above are essentially led to believe they have an unlimited mailbox size. In reality, they have a mailbox that can be set to a maximum of 100GB, and an unlimited amount of space for archive email. It is important to understand how archiving with Office 365 works.
Does Exchange Online Plan 1 have archiving? ›In Exchange Online, you can use archive policies to automatically move mailbox items to personal (on-premises) or cloud-based archives.
Does E3 license include Exchange Online Plan 2? ›Exchange Online Plan 2 is included in the Office 365 Enterprise E3 package and includes all features included in Exchange Online Plan 1, but adds unlimited mailbox storage for every user, secure hosted voicemail, and necessary security features to stay HIPAA compliant.
What is the difference between Office 365 in-place archive and online archive? ›After users act on an email, they manually move it to the archive or use rules to move it automatically. With in-place archives enabled, users can declutter their inbox but still have online, indexed, and searchable archive emails available to them whenever they login.
How do I manage Exchange Online archive? ›- Go to Recipients > Mailboxes.
- Select a mailbox.
- In the details pane, under In-Place Archive, click Enable. ...
- On the Create In-Place Archive page, click OK to have Exchange automatically select a mailbox database for the archive or click Browse to specify one.
Online Archive is a feature for Microsoft 365 enterprise customers who have uncommonly large mailboxes. These customers can use an Online Archive to avoid deleting old mail. A user's Online Archive acts somewhat like a second account in Outlook with its own folder structure.
What is Exchange Online Plan 2 used for? ›Exchange Online (Plan 2)
100 GB mailbox and messages up to 150 MB. Built-in data loss prevention (DLP) Cloud Voicemail services with call answering, dial-in UI, and automated attendant.
What are the two Exchange Server Editions? ›
Exchange Server license types
The Server license is sold in two server editions: Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition.
Apart from the standalone plan, Exchange Online Plan 1 is also included with Business Premium & Business Essentials. The storage space available is 50 GB per user. Outlook is offered on all web, mobile, and desktop-based interface. The features like inbox management, EOP, contact and calendar sharing are available.
What is the limit for Exchange Online Plan 1? ›Each user mailbox can be a maximum of 50GB. Shared mailboxes and public folder mailboxes are also given the same maximum size as a user mailbox. The 50GB maximum mailbox size limit cannot be increased.