SharePoint Plan 1 vs Plan 2, OneDrive Plan 1 vs Plan 2, and Extra File Storage: Storage-Only Licensing in Microsoft 365

In January 2026 Microsoft told partners it is retiring the standalone SharePoint (Plan 1), SharePoint (Plan 2), OneDrive for Business (Plan 1) and OneDrive for Business (Plan 2) subscriptions. The published timeline: end of sale in June 2026, with no new customers or tenants after May 31, 2026; end of life in January 2027, after which no renewals are available and existing contracts run to their natural expiry; and end of service in December 2029. Microsoft's stated reasons are low demand for standalone offerings, unintended or nonstandard usage, and the operational cost of separate plans; the Microsoft 365 suites remain the way to license SharePoint and OneDrive (Microsoft, Partner Center announcement, January 2026).

The October 2026 price list we sell from no longer carries the four plans, so this article quotes no list price for them. If you hold one today, you can renew it until Microsoft's January 2027 cutoff, after which it runs to its expiry date and then has to move to a suite. The plan pages, SharePoint (Plan 1), SharePoint (Plan 2), OneDrive for Business (Plan 1) and OneDrive for Business (Plan 2), stay on the site for existing subscribers.

Microsoft's SharePoint service description describes the plans as follows; the page could not be fetched for a date at the time of writing, so the description is kept to what it has stated consistently.

SharePoint (Plan 1) gave a user SharePoint Online: team and communication sites, document libraries, lists, pages, external sharing, and a 1 TB OneDrive. No mailbox, no Teams, no installed Office apps. SharePoint (Plan 2) added the compliance layer: eDiscovery search, hold and export, in-place holds, and the larger OneDrive allocation Microsoft describes for the Plan 2 and enterprise tiers, where an admin can raise a user's OneDrive beyond the 1 TB default on a subscription with five or more licensed users.

OneDrive for Business (Plan 1) was the sync-and-share license with 1 TB per user and no SharePoint sites of its own; OneDrive for Business (Plan 2) added the expandable allocation and the eDiscovery and hold features. Microsoft's current documentation describes OneDrive capacity as a 1 TB default that an admin can raise on eligible plans, not as unlimited. The pattern was consistent: Plan 2 was Plan 1 plus compliance and more OneDrive, and both halves now live inside the suites.

With the standalone plans off the list, the question of what to buy for a user who only needs files has a simpler answer. On the October 2026 price list the lowest-priced per-user suite that includes SharePoint and OneDrive is Microsoft 365 Business Basic at $84.00 per user per year, which is $7.00 per user per month on an annual term ($84.00 ÷ 12), Microsoft list price, October 2026 price list. It includes SharePoint, a 1 TB OneDrive, a 50 GB Exchange mailbox, Teams and the web and mobile Office apps, and it adds to the tenant storage pool, which SharePoint Plan 1 also did. Microsoft 365 Business Basic (no Teams) is $64.80 per year, $5.40 per month.

Business plans stop at 300 users per plan. Above that, Office 365 E1 is the file-and-mail entry license at $120.00 per year, $10.00 per month, with the no-Teams variant at $81.48 per year, $6.79 per month. For frontline workers who open files on a phone, Microsoft 365 F1 at $36.00 per year, $3.00 per month, gives SharePoint access and a 2 GB OneDrive with no mailbox, and Microsoft 365 F3 at $120.00 per year, $10.00 per month, adds a 2 GB mailbox and the web apps; the mailbox rules are in the mailbox licensing guide. All figures are Microsoft list price, October 2026 price list.

The comparison most buyers meant to make, SharePoint Plan 1 against Business Basic, used to turn on a dollar or two per user per month and on whether the user needed mail. For a new purchase it no longer exists: Business Basic is the floor. If those file-only users are the last reason a file server is still running, what to move and what to leave covers the migration side.

SharePoint storage is pooled per tenant, not per site. Microsoft's SharePoint limits page states the formula: 1 TB per organization plus 10 GB per license of an eligible plan, plus any Office 365 Extra File Storage purchased, with a maximum of 25 TB per site (Microsoft, SharePoint limits service description; not fetched for a date at the time of writing). Every SharePoint site in the tenant draws from the pool, including the sites behind Microsoft Teams channels.

Worked example: 120 users on Business Basic is 1 TB plus 1,200 GB, roughly 2.2 TB. Add 80 users at renewal and the pool grows by 800 GB; drop 40 and it shrinks by 400 GB, which is the usual reason a tenant runs out of space the month after a license reduction.

OneDrive is separate. Each user's OneDrive has its own allocation, 1 TB on Business Basic and E1 and 2 GB on F1 and F3, and it does not draw from the SharePoint pool; the Extra File Storage add-on does not change it either. If the pool is close to full, read how the pool is calculated and what consumes it before buying anything: version history and recycle bins are usually the largest lines, and a SharePoint Storage Optimization pass is included for IT Partner licensing clients.

Office 365 Extra File Storage is the add-on that enlarges the SharePoint pool. It is sold per gigabyte: $2.40 per GB per year, which is $0.20 per GB per month on an annual term ($2.40 ÷ 12), or $0.24 per GB per month on a monthly commitment (Microsoft list price, October 2026 price list). The quantity is the number of gigabytes: 500 GB extra is 500 units, $1,200.00 per year or $100.00 per month on the annual term. Education, Government and Nonprofit tenants have their own rows.

Microsoft's documentation states the rules that matter. The add-on requires an eligible base subscription: the Microsoft 365 Business plans, Microsoft 365 E3, E5, F1 and F3, Office 365 E1, E3 and E5, and the SharePoint plans while they last. It adds SharePoint storage only: no users, no mailboxes, no OneDrive capacity. The quantity can be reduced later to as little as 1 GB, but removing it entirely takes a support request. A tenant that buys through a Cloud Solution Provider orders it through the partner, which for our clients is the plan page at list price.

When you need it: the pool is full or will be within a quarter, the content is active, and cleanup has already been done. When you do not: version history is a third or more of the usage, inactive sites can be archived, or a license reduction at renewal caused the shortfall and the licenses will come back. Microsoft 365 Archive is the other option for content you must keep but nobody opens; it is billed pay-as-you-go through an Azure subscription, and like every Microsoft consumption charge, that meter is the customer's. The table below resolves each situation to a suite, the add-on, or a cleanup.

Can I still buy SharePoint Plan 1?

Not as a new customer. Microsoft's Partner Center announcement of January 2026 ended new sales after May 31, 2026, and the plan is not on the October 2026 price list. Existing subscribers can renew until January 2027.

Is Business Basic cheaper than SharePoint Plan 1?

For a new purchase the comparison no longer applies, because SharePoint Plan 1 is not sold. Business Basic is $7.00 per user per month on an annual term and includes SharePoint, a 1 TB OneDrive, a mailbox and Teams.

Does Office 365 Extra File Storage add OneDrive space?

No. It adds to the SharePoint pool only. OneDrive is allocated per user and does not draw from the pool.

What happens to my OneDrive for Business Plan 2 subscription?

It keeps working. Microsoft's timeline allows renewals until January 2027 and ends service in December 2029; move those users to a suite that includes OneDrive before the subscription expires.

How much does 1,000 GB of Extra File Storage cost?

$2,400.00 per year, which is $200.00 per month on an annual term, or $240.00 per month on a monthly commitment (Microsoft list price, October 2026 price list).

• Microsoft NCE price list (US), October 2026, Commercial rows: Microsoft 365 Business Basic (CFQ7TTC0LH18), Office 365 E1 (CFQ7TTC0LF8Q), Microsoft 365 F1 (CFQ7TTC0MBMD), Microsoft 365 F3 (CFQ7TTC0LH05), Office 365 Extra File Storage (CFQ7TTC0LHS9); SharePoint (Plan 1) CFQ7TTC0LH0N, SharePoint (Plan 2) CFQ7TTC0LH14, OneDrive for Business (Plan 1) CFQ7TTC0LHSV and (Plan 2) CFQ7TTC0LH1M do not appear on the list
• Microsoft, Partner Center announcement on the retirement of the standalone SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business plans, January 2026
• Microsoft Learn: SharePoint limits (service description), the SharePoint service description plan comparison, and "Add storage space for your subscription"; not fetched for a date at the time of writing, so the claims are kept to what the pages have stated consistently
• IT Partner blog: sharepoint-storage-limits-tenant-pool-what-to-do-when-it-runs-out; file-server-to-sharepoint-and-onedrive-migration-what-to-move-and-what-to-leave; IT Partner service pages: content/services/ITPWW220MIGOT, ITPWW350MIGOT, ITPWW310CONOT and ITPWW250CONOT