FAIR USAGE POLICY FOR BACKUP FOR 365
(Revision October 2026)
This Policy explains how unlimited storage, licensing, monitoring, and excess usage are handled for the Service.
1. Introduction
This Fair Usage Policy (“Policy”) applies to the Backup for Microsoft 365 service (“Service”) where the applicable subscription includes storage described as unlimited. The fair usage limitations in this Policy apply only to customers using selective backup configurations, including group-based backups or other configurations where only a subset of the tenant’s licensed users is included in the backup scope. Customers using Entire Tenant Backup, where all licensed users are automatically included in the backup scope, are exempt from these limitations.
The purpose of this Policy is to ensure a stable, reliable, and equitable service for all customers while supporting normal business use of Microsoft 365 backup.
This Policy forms part of and is subject to the applicable agreement, order form, Service Description, and other contractual terms governing the Service.
2. Licensing
Customers are billed based on consumed licenses. Each Microsoft 365 user with a licensed mailbox that is protected by the Service is counted as one consumed license. Consumed licenses are determined automatically based on the users included in the backup.The treatment of shared mailboxes, guest users, groups, Teams, SharePoint sites, and other shared or non-user objects is governed by the applicable Service Description and licensing terms.
3. Unlimited Storage and Fair Usage
The Service provides storage without a predefined cap for normal business use, subject to this Policy.
Fair usage is assessed at customer or tenant level, taking into account the total amount of protected data, the number of consumed licenses, and the customer’s overall Microsoft 365 usage pattern.
As an indicative reference point, typical protected data usage is approximately 100GB per consumed license when measured across the entire protected tenant. This reference point is not a fixed per-user storage limit, and exceeding it does not automatically constitute a breach of this Policy.
Customers whose aggregate data usage materially exceeds normal Microsoft 365 usage patterns or appears inconsistent with the intended use of the Service will be subject to review.
4. Organizational Coverage
The Service covers only the Microsoft 365 workloads and data types listed in the applicable Service Description.
Backing up disproportionately large shared datasets relative to the number of consumed licenses may be considered outside fair usage.
5. Monitoring and Notification
We monitor aggregate service usage to maintain service stability, capacity, and performance in accordance with this Policy.
Where usage falls outside the fair usage guidelines, we will notify the customer and/or the relevant reseller or distributor. The customer will be required to increase the number of licensed Microsoft 365 users included in their backup scope sufficiently to bring their usage into compliance with this Policy.
3 email notifications will be sent, each 10 days apart, specifying the identified excess usage and the corrective action required. The customer is responsible for making the necessary adjustments to their backup configuration.
If the customer remains outside the fair usage guidelines following the third notification, the measures described in Section 6 will automatically take effect.
6. Excess Usage
If a customer remains outside the fair usage guidelines following the notification process described in Section 5, additional billable licenses will automatically be applied to the customer’s subscription.
The number of additional billable licenses will be calculated based on the customer’s protected data usage and the applicable fair usage guidelines. These licenses are applied for billing purposes only and do not result in additional users being included in the backup scope or any changes to the customer’s backup configuration.
The customer will be informed of the number of additional licenses and the effective date before the additional charges take effect.
7. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Policy by providing prior notice through the appropriate contractual or communication channel.
Any update will take effect on the date stated in the notice and will remain as such, including any provisions relating to committed subscription periods and order of precedence.
8. Contact
Questions regarding this Policy should be directed to your reseller, distributor, or contracting service provider.