June 2026 is the final month to purchase a standalone SharePoint Online or OneDrive for Business subscription. Microsoft has announced the end of sales for these SKUs and a full retirement of service access by December 2029. Tenants still running on standalone plans at that date will lose access to the service.
What the standalone SharePoint plan retirement timeline looks like
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| June 2026 | Last month to purchase new standalone SharePoint Online or OneDrive for Business plans. |
| After June 2026 | Existing standalone subscriptions may continue to renew, but no new purchases are possible. |
| December 2029 | Full retirement. Access to SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business via standalone plans is removed for all remaining tenants on those SKUs. |
Who the standalone SharePoint plan retirement affects
The retirement primarily touches:
- Small businesses that purchased SharePoint Online separately rather than as part of a Microsoft 365 bundle.
- Organisations that bolted a standalone OneDrive for Business plan on top of a legacy Office subscription that did not include cloud storage.
- Educational or non-profit tenants that negotiated custom agreements including standalone SharePoint SKUs.
- IT consultants and MSPs managing client tenants where standalone plans were used for cost control or targeted licensing.
If your users are already licensed via Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard, E1, E3, or E5, SharePoint Online is included in those plans and this retirement does not affect your access.
What to replace standalone SharePoint plans with
Microsoft is directing affected customers toward three paths:
- Microsoft 365 base plans. Microsoft 365 Business Basic (currently USD 6 per user per month) bundles SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, Teams, and OneDrive for Business in a single licence. For most affected organisations, this is the cleanest transition.
- Microsoft 365 Extra File Storage add-ons. Customers who held standalone OneDrive plans purely to extend storage can instead purchase Extra File Storage (billed per GB per month) on top of an existing Microsoft 365 plan. This is the most cost-effective route when users are already covered by a base plan and only the quota entitlement was missing.
- Microsoft 365 Archive. For tenants using SharePoint primarily to hold long-term archival content, Microsoft 365 Archive (now generally available) offers a lower per-GB rate for content that does not need immediate access. This may be more cost-effective than renewing a standalone Plan 2 licence for archival site collections.
What admins should do now
The December 2029 deadline is distant enough that there is no crisis today, but close enough that leaving the transition unplanned is a mistake. The recommended steps:
- Open the Microsoft 365 admin centre and navigate to Billing > Your products. Identify any active subscription with a name containing "SharePoint Online Plan" or "OneDrive for Business Plan" that exists outside a Microsoft 365 bundle.
- Document the licence count and renewal dates for each standalone SKU.
- Identify which users or workloads are assigned to those licences. In many tenants, standalone plans cover service accounts, shared mailboxes, or archival site collections rather than named users, which changes the migration approach.
- Run a storage audit on sites attached to standalone licences. Understanding the actual data footprint now means you can size the replacement plan accurately and avoid an unwelcome surprise at the storage quota after migration.
- Evaluate which Microsoft 365 base plan matches the required capabilities, and align the licence transition to the next billing cycle to avoid paying for both plans simultaneously.
Storage quota implications
SharePoint Online Plan 2 included a 1 TB storage entitlement on top of the tenant pool. If any of your tenant's available storage quota was funded by standalone plan entitlements, migrating to a base plan without adding Extra File Storage may expose a quota shortfall you were not aware of.
Audit your current storage utilisation before the transition. For a full breakdown of storage entitlements by Microsoft 365 plan type, see the Microsoft 365 Plan Storage Quota Reference.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will my existing SharePoint content be deleted when the standalone plan retires?
Microsoft has stated that content will not be immediately deleted at the retirement date. However, tenants still on standalone plans lose service access after December 2029. Treat that date as a hard migration target.
What should standalone SharePoint plan customers migrate to?
Microsoft is directing customers toward Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard, or enterprise plans (E1, E3, E5). For customers who need only additional storage, Microsoft 365 Extra File Storage add-ons remain available as a separate purchase on top of any Microsoft 365 base plan.
How do I check whether my organisation is on a standalone SharePoint plan?
Open the Microsoft 365 admin centre, navigate to Billing, then Your products. Look for any subscription named "SharePoint Online Plan 1", "SharePoint Online Plan 2", "OneDrive for Business Plan 1", or "OneDrive for Business Plan 2" that appears outside a Microsoft 365 bundle.
Source: Petri.com: Microsoft Retires Standalone SharePoint and OneDrive Plans
Learn how Report Master can audit storage and permissions before your licence transition