What Microsoft’s own copies are for
Microsoft keeps several copies of your data, but they exist to keep Microsoft 365 running through hardware faults and data centre outages. They aren’t there for you to restore a deleted mailbox or a corrupted library.
- SharePoint and OneDrive. Every file is written to a primary and a secondary data centre region, and SharePoint keeps 14 days of metadata backups. Microsoft describes these in its SharePoint and OneDrive data resiliency page.
- Exchange Online. Every mailbox database has at least three copies, spread across at least two data centres. Microsoft says the lagged copy “isn’t intended for individual mailbox recovery or mailbox item recovery” (Exchange Online data resiliency).
Under Microsoft’s shared responsibility model, customer data stays the customer’s responsibility in a SaaS service such as Microsoft 365. Microsoft’s Microsoft 365 Backup FAQ says that view hasn’t changed. Without a backup, getting deleted data back depends on the built-in recovery windows, which we list in our Microsoft 365 retention vs backup guide.
What is Microsoft 365 Backup?
Microsoft 365 Backup is Microsoft’s own online backup for SharePoint sites, OneDrive accounts and Exchange Online mailboxes. You can back up all of them or only the ones you choose. It is a pay-as-you-go service charged by how much data you protect, rather than a per-user licence.
To use it, Microsoft’s set-up guide says you need:
- An Azure subscription. Billing runs through it, set up as pay-as-you-go in the Microsoft 365 admin centre, with an Owner or Contributor on the subscription.
- An admin role. A SharePoint Administrator or Global Administrator to set it up. After that, the Microsoft 365 Backup Administrator role covers the whole tool, and file and folder restores need the SharePoint Backup Administrator role. End users can’t turn on backups or run restores themselves.
- Backup policies. Your admins create policies for OneDrive, SharePoint and Exchange, choose what goes in them and set the recovery window.
Microsoft also lets third-party apps run on the same storage, called Microsoft 365 Backup Storage. A third-party app then becomes the “Controller” for backups in your tenant.
What Microsoft 365 Backup covers and misses
These are the figures Microsoft publishes for its own product, as checked on 29 October 2026.
| Compared on | What Microsoft says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| What it backs up | SharePoint sites, OneDrive accounts and Exchange Online mailboxes | Microsoft Learn |
| Microsoft Teams | Not a workload. Files in a Teams channel’s SharePoint site are backed up if that site is in a backup policy. Team chats and other content held by Teams aren’t protected | Microsoft |
| Mailbox types | User and shared mailboxes. Room mailboxes and group mailboxes aren’t supported | Microsoft Learn |
| SharePoint sites | Most site templates. Five, including the tenant admin site and the MySite host, aren’t supported | Microsoft Learn |
| Restore points | Every 10 minutes for Exchange Online. Every 10 minutes for the last two weeks for OneDrive and SharePoint, then weekly from 2 to 52 weeks back | Microsoft Learn |
| Recovery window | 3 months, 6 months, 1 year or 2 years, set on each backup policy. Existing policies default to 1 year | Microsoft Learn |
| What a restore brings back | A whole SharePoint site or OneDrive rolled back to a chosen point, or selected files and folders from roughly daily restore points. Whole mailboxes or individual mail, contact, calendar and task items | Microsoft Learn |
| Restore speed | Median of 30 minutes for one site or OneDrive using an express restore point, and 2 hours for one mailbox | Microsoft Learn |
| Where backups are kept | Inside the Microsoft 365 data trust boundary, in your tenant’s data residency location | Microsoft Learn |
| Deleting backups | Append-only storage, but an admin can delete backups by offboarding. They can be recovered for 90 days afterwards | Microsoft Learn |
| Price | $0.15 per GiB per month of protected content. Restores are free | Microsoft Learn, overview |
How much does Microsoft 365 Backup cost?
Microsoft’s pricing page gives a list price of $0.15 per GiB per month of protected content, and restores are free. Microsoft quotes the price in US dollars and gibibytes (GiB). What counts as protected content:
- Live data. The size of each protected SharePoint site, OneDrive and mailbox, including online archives.
- Deleted and changed data. Content in the second-stage recycle bin, plus deleted and changed mailbox items held in the backup.
Microsoft’s own example: a 1 GB site with 0.5 GB in its second-stage recycle bin, plus a 1 GB mailbox with a 1 GB online archive, is billed as 3.5 GB. Deleting content doesn’t lower the bill straight away. You keep paying for deleted content until it ages out of the recovery window. If you use a third-party app built on Microsoft 365 Backup Storage, that partner bills you instead of Microsoft.
For 250 GiB (about 268 GB) at Microsoft’s list price of $0.15 per GiB. The bill grows as your data does, deleted content included.
With every user or mailbox, on every plan. Priced per user rather than per GB, so the bill doesn’t grow as mailboxes and OneDrives fill up.
We don’t publish a price list. After a free 15-minute demo or a free 30-day trial, you get a scoped, no-obligation proposal with no hidden fees. See how CloudVision pricing works.
Where Microsoft 365 Backup falls short
- Teams chats aren’t covered. Microsoft says only files in a Teams channel’s SharePoint site are backed up, and team chats aren’t protected. Group mailboxes aren’t supported either.
- Both copies sit with one provider. Microsoft says backup data never leaves the Microsoft 365 data trust boundary, so your live data and its backups are held by the same provider, inside the same service.
- Your admins run it. Someone has to set up the Azure billing, manage the backup policies and run every restore.
- A full restore rolls back everything. Restoring a whole SharePoint site or OneDrive to its original URL overwrites all content and metadata changed since the restore point. File and folder restores avoid that, but their restore points are roughly daily rather than every 10 minutes.
- Backups can be deleted. The storage is append-only, but an admin can delete backups by offboarding. Microsoft keeps them recoverable for 90 days afterwards.
Microsoft 365 Backup vs CloudVision
| Compared on | Microsoft 365 Backup | Independent backup (CloudVision) |
|---|---|---|
| What’s covered | SharePoint sites, OneDrive accounts, user and shared mailboxes | Every Exchange Online mailbox, OneDrive, SharePoint site and Team |
| Microsoft Teams | Channel files only, through SharePoint. Team chats aren’t protected | Every Team, with its public and private channel conversations, files, SharePoint site, OneNote, Planner tasks and group mailbox, plus 1:1 and group chats |
| Where the copy lives | Inside the Microsoft 365 data trust boundary, with the data it protects | Outside Microsoft 365, in our backup data centres, in the UK by default. They are ISO 27001 certified and SOC 2 Type 2 audited |
| How often | Restore points every 10 minutes (weekly after two weeks for OneDrive and SharePoint) | Up to real time, depending on the service. Every object checked against a 24-hour backup SLA |
| How far back | 3 months to 2 years | Retention configurable to your policy |
| How it’s priced | $0.15 per GiB per month ($37.50 a month for 250 GiB, about 268 GB), billed through an Azure subscription | Per user, with 250 GB of backup storage included for each user or mailbox on every plan |
| Who sets it up | Your admins: Azure subscription, billing and backup policies | CloudVision engineers connect your tenant and run the first backups |
| Who restores | Your admins, from the Microsoft 365 admin centre | Our UK team, 24/7. We can restore within minutes |
| Daily record of what was backed up | Not described. Optional daily email digests list admin events such as policy changes and restores | The CloudVision Daily Backup Report every morning: results by service, failing objects listed, full data attached as CSV |
Microsoft 365 Backup as described on Microsoft Learn, checked on 29 October 2026.
Microsoft 365 Backup suits an organisation whose admins will run it and which is happy to keep its backups inside Microsoft 365. CloudVision suits you if you want an independent backup outside Microsoft 365, your Teams conversations and chats backed up, and our UK team checking every backup and handling restores.
An independent backup of every mailbox, OneDrive, site and Team
CloudVision keeps an independent backup of every Exchange Online mailbox, OneDrive, SharePoint site and Team in your Microsoft 365 tenant, updated up to real time. For each Team, that includes its public and private channel conversations and files, and we also back up 1:1 and group chats. Each one is checked against a 24-hour backup SLA, and anything that misses it is fixed by our UK team, 24/7. Backups are stored in the UK by default and encrypted at rest and in transit. When you need something back, tell us and our UK team can restore it within minutes. The result shows in the CloudVision Daily Backup Report every morning. See managed Microsoft 365 backup.
Microsoft 365 Backup: common questions
Does Microsoft 365 Backup back up Microsoft Teams?
No, only its files. Microsoft says files stored in the SharePoint sites behind Teams channels are backed up if those sites are in a backup policy. Team chats and other content stored by Teams aren’t currently protected, and group mailboxes aren’t supported.
How much does Microsoft 365 Backup cost?
$0.15 per GiB per month of protected content, at Microsoft’s list price, and restores are free. At that rate, 250 GiB (about 268 GB) costs $37.50 a month. You’re billed for the live size of each protected site, OneDrive and mailbox, plus online archives, the second-stage recycle bin and deleted or changed items held in the backup. Microsoft quotes the price in US dollars.
How often does Microsoft 365 Backup back up?
Every 10 minutes, measured as a recovery point objective rather than a snapshot. For Exchange Online that holds for 52 weeks. For OneDrive and SharePoint, you can go back to any 10-minute point in the last two weeks, then to weekly restore points from 2 to 52 weeks back. File and folder restores use roughly daily restore points.
Is Microsoft 365 Backup a good fit for a small business?
It depends on who will run it. Someone has to set up an Azure subscription and pay-as-you-go billing, create the backup policies and run every restore, with an admin role such as Global Administrator or Microsoft 365 Backup Administrator. In a small business, that is often nobody’s job. Our small business backup page shows how CloudVision takes that job on, for Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and QuickBooks Online.
Are third-party Microsoft cloud backup services built on Microsoft 365 Backup?
Some are. Microsoft lets third-party apps take control of Microsoft 365 Backup Storage in your tenant, and the partner then bills you instead of Microsoft. Other services, including CloudVision, keep an independent backup outside Microsoft 365.
Microsoft documentation used in this guide
This guide is general information, not legal or insurance advice. Requirements and product limits change, so check the linked sources and your own policies, and take professional advice where needed. Sources last checked on 29 October 2026.
- Overview of Microsoft 365 Backup (Microsoft Learn)
- Pricing model for Microsoft 365 Backup (Microsoft Learn)
- Frequently asked questions about Microsoft 365 Backup (Microsoft Learn)
- Set up Microsoft 365 Backup (Microsoft Learn)
- Restore data in Microsoft 365 Backup (Microsoft Learn)
- Microsoft 365 Backup (Microsoft)
- Overview for third-party developers of Microsoft 365 Backup Storage (Microsoft Learn)
- SharePoint and OneDrive data resiliency in Microsoft 365 (Microsoft Learn)
- Exchange Online data resiliency (Microsoft Learn)
- Shared responsibility in the cloud (Microsoft Learn)