{
  "id": 13121916,
  "title": "Microsoft 365 slashes storage capacity for shared accounts amid industry-wide shortages",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/09/microsoft-365-slashes-storage-capacity-for-shared-accounts-amid",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-09T12:51:59.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Tom's Hardware",
    "slug": "tom-s-hardware",
    "url": "https://www.tomshardware.com/software/cloud-storage/microsoft-365-slashes-storage-capacity-for-shared-accounts-amid-industry-wide-shortages-2tb-limit-to-take-effect-after-april-2027"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Microsoft 365 has altered its storage policy for shared accounts, reducing the amount of cloud storage for Family, Premium, and Pro plans. Previously, each user received 1TB of dedicated storage, but now the storage is shared among all users, amounting to 2TB total. This change impacts subscribers renewing after May 2, 2027, unless they update their plan beforehand. When transitioning to the shared limit model, some users may get extra storage, though the specifics remain undisclosed. The company contends this adjustment ensures storage allocation aligns with demand and minimizes the likelihood of individual users encountering storage limits. Additionally, unused storage benefits the entire family and any extra storage purchased by the primary subscriber becomes available to all users. This update proves advantageous for those with a power user consuming most of the storage, while others occupy a smaller share. It is also more cost-effective for individuals needing over 1TB of storage to opt for the Microsoft 365 Family plan ($129.99 annually) instead of the Microsoft 365 Personal plan ($99.99 annually) plus an additional $9.99 monthly or $119.88 yearly to reach 2TB. However, accounts with four users each utilizing 500GB will need to acquire additional capacity, starting at $1.99 monthly for 200GB. Despite Microsoft not increasing subscription prices, this move lessens storage server strain and obliges multi-user accounts to buy storage independently. This appears to be a response to storage shortages across the industry, with hard drive costs rising 46% from September 2025 to January 2026. Enterprise SSDs are also affected, with 30TB drives priced at $22,600, and supply remaining out of stock until 2027. Affected users could switch storage providers, but Google has also reduced its free cloud storage from 15GB to 5GB pending enhanced security measures. Backblaze, offering \"unlimited\" backups, updated its terms to potentially throttle or terminate accounts exceeding typical usage or imposing undue burdens. As a result, users may consider setting up a NAS with top-tier hard drives, though this may entail short-term expenses and some initial setup, potentially saving hundreds to thousands of dollars in the long run.",
  "summary": "This effectively increases the costs for large users, although it may benefit those who have family members that don't take up much cloud storage space.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "TechRadar",
        "title": "Microsoft 365 Family plan slashes cloud storage from 6TB to 2TB",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/09/microsoft-365-family-plan-slashes-cloud-storage-from-6tb-to-2tb",
        "published": "2026-10-09T13:40:50.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}