Exchange Online Plan 1 vs Plan 2 vs Kiosk vs Business Basic: The Mailbox Decision
Not every person in a tenant needs Word, Teams and a terabyte of OneDrive. Front-desk staff, contractors, shift workers who read a rota by email, and the mailboxes that belong to nobody can be licensed for a fraction of a suite seat. The decision comes down to four prices on the October 2026 list and three mailbox rules: size, archive and hold. This guide leads with the prices, answers whether Exchange Online Plan 1 includes Teams, and then works through the cases.
Exchange Online pricing and mailbox sizes on one table
Prices are per user per month on an annual term, Commercial segment (Microsoft list price, October 2026 price list). The list carries annual figures: Exchange Online (Plan 1) is $48.00 per user per year, and $48.00 ÷ 12 = $4.00 per user per month. Every other price below is the same division.
| Exchange Online Kiosk | Exchange Online (Plan 1) | Exchange Online (Plan 2) | Microsoft 365 Business Basic | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price, annual term | $2.00 | $4.00 | $8.00 | $7.00 ($5.40 no Teams) |
| Primary mailbox | 2 GB | 50 GB | 100 GB | 100 GB: the Plan 1 mailbox plus 50 GB added in 2026; see the note |
| Archive mailbox | Not included; Exchange Online Archiving can be added | 50 GB | 1.5 TB, auto-expanding from 100 GB | As Plan 1; add Exchange Online Archiving at $3.00 |
| Litigation hold | With the Archiving add-on | With the Archiving add-on | Included | With the Archiving add-on |
| Desktop Outlook license | No | No | No | No; web and mobile Outlook |
| Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Office web apps | No | No | No | Yes; Teams on the Teams SKU |
| Found inside | Microsoft 365 F3, Office 365 F3 | Business Basic, Standard, Premium; Office 365 E1 | Microsoft 365 E3, E5; Office 365 E3 | n/a |
| Seat cap | None | None | None | 300 across the Business family |
The mailbox and archive figures are the ones Microsoft's Exchange Online limits service description publishes; they are cited without a date. One 2026 change matters for the last column: Microsoft's packaging update lists "+50GB email" for Business Basic, Standard and Premium (Microsoft, Microsoft 365 pricing and packaging updates, February 2026). The Exchange Team blog of 19 August 2026 gives the resulting figure: the primary mailbox on those three plans goes from 50 GB to 100 GB, delivered as a separate service plan, EXCHANGE_STORAGE_50GB, that must be enabled beside Exchange Online (Plan 1). The rollout began in June 2026, and Microsoft expected to finish adding the service plan to existing Business subscriptions by 30 September 2026 (Message Center MC1304290). Standalone Exchange Online (Plan 1) stays at 50 GB, Office 365 E1 is not on the list, and the change adds nothing to the archive.
Does Exchange Online Plan 1 include Teams? No. Here is what it includes
No. Microsoft's service plan reference lists three service plans inside the Exchange Online (Plan 1) product: Exchange Online (Plan 1), Mobile Device Management for Office 365 and To-Do (Plan 1) (Microsoft Learn, Product names and service plan identifiers for licensing, August 2026). There is no Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive or Office app service plan in it, and the Kiosk product is a single Exchange Online Kiosk service plan.
What Plan 1 does include is a complete business mailbox: 50 GB on your domain, calendar, contacts and tasks, Outlook on the web, mobile access through Exchange-compatible clients, shared and resource mailbox support, and Exchange Online Protection filtering.
The plan that adds Teams to the mailbox is Microsoft 365 Business Basic: Exchange Online (Plan 1), with a 100 GB primary mailbox since the 2026 packaging update, plus Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive and the Office web and mobile apps, at $7.00 inside the 300-seat Business family cap. Above 300 users, Office 365 E1 is the nearest equivalent at $10.00 ($120.00 per year) with no cap and the 50 GB Plan 1 mailbox. Both are $3.00 or more above Plan 1, which is the price of Teams, SharePoint and a 1 TB OneDrive for that person.
Plan 1 vs Plan 2: the bigger mailbox, the archive and the hold
Plan 2 is $4.00 more than Plan 1, and the difference buys a 100 GB primary mailbox, an archive that auto-expands, and Litigation Hold. The Plan 2 page is explicit that desktop Outlook still needs its own license.
There are two routes to an archive and a hold. Plan 1 plus Exchange Online Archiving is $4.00 + $3.00 = $7.00 and gives a 50 GB mailbox with an archive and Litigation Hold; Plan 2 is $8.00 and gives the 100 GB mailbox as well. If the problem is a full 50 GB mailbox, Plan 2 is the answer, although Business Basic at $7.00 also carries a 100 GB primary since the 2026 packaging update, without the auto-expanding archive or the hold; if it is a hold on an ordinary-sized mailbox, the add-on is a dollar less and leaves the base plan alone.
The pattern in 20-to-500-seat tenants: Business Premium users need nothing, because the Archiving service plan is already in their row; Business Basic or Standard users under a legal hold get the add-on, not a plan change; departed users' mailboxes are converted to shared and licensed only if they exceed 50 GB or must sit on hold; and a tenant leaving a third-party archive lands its data in the archive mailboxes it already pays for, which is what the Third-Party Email Archive Migration to Microsoft 365 service does.
Kiosk: the $2.00 mailbox and who can live with it
Exchange Online Kiosk is a 2 GB mailbox with Outlook on the web, mobile access and Exchange Online Protection, and nothing else. Our Kiosk page positions it for kiosk, frontline and infrequent email users and lists what it lacks: desktop Outlook, Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive. The mailbox has no archive of its own. It is per user, and the catalog shows no device-based or shared-device entitlement.
It fits staff who read a schedule or an HR notice and reply in a sentence, and contractors who need an address in your domain for the length of an engagement. Kiosk is also the mailbox inside Microsoft 365 F3 and Office 365 F3, so an F3 user already has it; the common pairing for a Microsoft 365 F1 user, who has no usable mailbox, is F1 plus a standalone Kiosk license at $3.00 + $2.00. The F1 vs F3 vs Business Basic article covers who is eligible for the F plans. Kiosk stops fitting when the person needs more than 2 GB or Office files to edit; Plan 1 at $4.00 or Business Basic at $7.00 is then the move, and the mailbox stays in place through the license change. An archive or a hold alone does not force the move: Microsoft's Product Terms allow Exchange Online Archiving on a Kiosk mailbox, at $3.00 added to the $2.00 for Kiosk.
What your suites already carry
Microsoft's service plan reference (August 2026) shows which Exchange plan each bundle contains:
- Business Basic, Business Standard and Office 365 E1 carry Exchange Online (Plan 1).
- Business Premium carries Plan 1 plus the Exchange Online Archiving service plan, so its users already have an archive and can be placed on hold.
- Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 and Office 365 E3 carry Exchange Online (Plan 2).
- Microsoft 365 F3 and Office 365 F3 carry Exchange Online Kiosk; Microsoft 365 F1 does not entitle the user to a mailbox.
Two consequences. Do not buy Exchange Online Archiving for a Business Premium or E3 user. And F3 is a Kiosk mailbox with Teams and Intune around it, not a stripped Plan 1. How the Business family's 300-license limit is counted has its own article; the Microsoft 365 Plan Optimizer applies the cap to the whole licensed headcount.
Shared mailboxes, contractors and shared devices: the no-license rules
Microsoft's shared-mailbox documentation gives the rules auditors check. A shared mailbox stores up to 50 GB without a license; over 50 GB it needs an Exchange Online Plan 2 license, which lifts the limit to 100 GB; to add an archive or a litigation hold it needs Plan 2, or Plan 1 plus the Archiving add-on. The same guidance limits a shared mailbox to 25 users, keeps sign-in for its account blocked, and requires every person who accesses it to be licensed in their own right.
Contractors split by where their mailbox lives. A contractor with an address in your domain needs a license: Kiosk for a read-and-reply role, Business Basic when they work in Teams and SharePoint. A contractor who works from their own company's email and needs your SharePoint site or Teams channel is a guest, and guests need no Exchange license; the guest and external users article sets out what they do need. When the engagement ends, convert the mailbox to shared and release the license; the 50 GB rule is what makes that work at no ongoing charge.
Shared devices are licensed by the people who sign in, never by the tablet in the cradle. When a shared mailbox crosses 50 GB, buying Plan 2 for it is usually simpler than splitting it; our Exchange Online Administrator on Demand service can do either, and the Shared Mailbox Tenant-to-Tenant Migration service moves them between tenants.
Frequently asked questions
Does Exchange Online Plan 1 include Teams?
No. The Plan 1 product carries only the Exchange Online (Plan 1), Mobile Device Management and To-Do service plans. Microsoft 365 Business Basic ($7.00) adds Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive and the Office web apps to the same mailbox; Office 365 E1 ($10.00) does the same without the 300-seat cap.
What is the mailbox size of Exchange Online Plan 1?
Microsoft's Exchange Online limits service description states 50 GB for the primary mailbox and 50 GB for the archive. Plan 2 is 100 GB with an auto-expanding archive. Kiosk is 2 GB with no archive. Inside Business Basic, Standard and Premium the Plan 1 mailbox is 100 GB since Microsoft's 2026 packaging update; standalone Plan 1 stays at 50 GB.
How much does Exchange Online Plan 1 cost?
$4.00 per user per month on an annual term, from $48.00 per user per year (Microsoft list price, October 2026 price list). Plan 2 is $8.00, Kiosk is $2.00 and the Archiving add-on is $3.00.
Does Business Basic include an archive or litigation hold?
It includes an archive but not a hold. Business Basic carries Exchange Online (Plan 1), whose archive is fixed at 50 GB with no auto-expanding and no litigation hold. Add the Archiving add-on at $3.00 for the users who need a larger archive or a hold, or move them to Plan 2 at $8.00.
Can I license a shared iPad with one Kiosk license?
No. Kiosk is per user; each person who signs in needs their own license.
Sources
- Commercial price list, October 2026: Exchange Online Kiosk, Plan 1, Plan 2, Exchange Online Archiving for Exchange Online, Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Office 365 E1
- Microsoft Learn, Product names and service plan identifiers for licensing (August 2026): the service plans inside Exchange Online (Plan 1), Kiosk, Business Basic, Business Premium, E3, E5, F1 and F3
- Microsoft, Microsoft 365 pricing and packaging updates (February 2026): the "+50GB email" change for the Business plans
- Microsoft Exchange Team blog, Understanding the new 100 GB mailbox entitlement for Microsoft 365 Business suites (19 August 2026), and Message Center MC1304290 (updated 22 June 2026): the 100 GB primary mailbox on the Business plans, the EXCHANGE_STORAGE_50GB service plan and the rollout dates
- Microsoft Product Terms, Exchange Online: Archiving may be used with Exchange Online Plans 1 and 2 and Exchange Online Kiosk
- Microsoft Learn, Exchange Online limits service description (cited without a date) and About shared mailboxes in Microsoft 365 (March 2026)
- IT Partner: Exchange Online Kiosk, Plan 1, Plan 2, Archiving and Business Basic subscription pages
| The person or mailbox | License | Per user per month (annual term) |
|---|---|---|
| Reads and replies to email only | Exchange Online Kiosk | $2.00 |
| Needs a 50 GB business mailbox, no Teams | Exchange Online (Plan 1) | $4.00 |
| Needs a mailbox plus Teams, SharePoint and web Office, under 300 seats | Microsoft 365 Business Basic | $7.00 |
| The same, above 300 seats | Office 365 E1 | $10.00 |
| Under a legal hold on an ordinary mailbox | Plan 1 (or Business Basic) plus Exchange Online Archiving | $4.00 + $3.00 |
| Full 50 GB mailbox, or hold plus a bigger mailbox | Exchange Online (Plan 2) | $8.00 |
| Shared or resource mailbox under 50 GB, no hold | No license | $0.00 |
Key takeaways
- On the October 2026 price list Kiosk is $2.00, Plan 1 $4.00, Plan 2 $8.00 and Business Basic $7.00 per user per month on an annual term.
- Exchange Online Plan 1 does not include Teams; Business Basic adds Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive and the web apps inside the 300-seat cap, and its mailbox is 100 GB since the 2026 packaging update.
- Microsoft's documentation puts the mailboxes at 2 GB, 50 GB and 100 GB; Plan 2 adds an auto-expanding archive and Litigation Hold, and Plan 1 plus the $3.00 Archiving add-on is the other route to a hold.
- Business Basic, Standard and Premium carry Plan 1 (Premium adds the Archiving service plan); E3 and E5 carry Plan 2; F3 carries Kiosk; F1 has no usable mailbox.
- Shared mailboxes need no license up to 50 GB; over that, or for an archive or hold, they need Plan 2 or Plan 1 plus Archiving, and shared devices are licensed by the people who sign in.
Put the email-only people on the right line before renewal. Subscriptions are at Microsoft's list price on our Exchange Online Kiosk, Exchange Online (Plan 1), Exchange Online (Plan 2) and Microsoft 365 Business Basic pages, each with a quote button. If the mailboxes need converting to shared, or an archive and other mailbox features set up, the Exchange Online Administrator on Demand service does the work at a fixed hourly rate, and the Microsoft 365 License Audit and Optimization service finds the Plan 2 and Archiving licenses nobody needs. Not sure which mailboxes belong where? Book 30 minutes with Mike.
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