Microsoft Outage Still Not Fixed: How Much Is the Downtime Costing Businesses?
Last checked: about 2:15pm SGT, Friday 13 November 2026.
More than twelve hours after Microsoft's first public report, the Microsoft 365 and Outlook outage is still not fully fixed. Somewhere around hour six, the office question changed from "is it back?" to "what is this costing us?"
The quick answer: nobody has a verified total. Some experts have published estimates, and we quote them below with their names attached, but they are estimates. The number that matters to you is your own, and it takes about five minutes and a calculator to work out. For most small offices it is far smaller than the headlines, and most of it is delayed work, not vanished revenue.
Is the Microsoft outage still not fixed?
At the time of checking, Microsoft had not declared it resolved. Its most recent statements that we found, paraphrased:
| Singapore time (13 Nov) | What Microsoft said, as reported | Reported by |
|---|---|---|
| About 1:01pm | It was working on several fronts to reduce the impact, deal with what it called its current blocker, and return parts of the service infrastructure to a healthy state | ABC7 |
| About 12:36pm | It was seeing partial recovery in regions where it had applied adjustments, but not yet a sustained recovery | NBC News |
CNN also reported a Microsoft executive saying the outage was not caused by a cyber attack. The live status for your organisation is in the Microsoft 365 admin center under EX1550543 and MO1550821. Our running timeline is in the latest update post.
Source: Microsoft's updates as reported by NBC News, ABC7 and CNN.
How much has the Microsoft outage cost businesses?
There is no verified total, and anyone quoting one confidently is guessing. Here is what has actually been published, and by whom:
| What was said | Who said it | What kind of figure it is |
|---|---|---|
| The cost to Australian businesses is likely to run to billions of dollars, with professional services firms losing more than A$100,000 for every hour | Ashwin Pal, Risk Advisory partner at RSM Australia, quoted by ABC News Australia | One expert's estimate, made while the outage was still running |
| Workhorse Group, a US electric truck maker, moved its quarterly results announcement from 12 to 16 November after the outage disrupted its operations | Seoul Economic Daily | A reported, specific business impact. No dollar figure |
| In past cloud outages, most of the cost stayed with the affected businesses, because of short durations, vendor credits and insurance waiting periods | Insurance Business | Trade press analysis |
| There is no verified aggregate financial-loss figure in the available reporting | WindowsForum | A review of the coverage |
We have not seen a published estimate for Singapore, and we are not going to invent one.
Why do the big "cost per hour" numbers not apply to your office?
You will see survey figures such as "downtime costs hundreds of thousands of dollars an hour". The best-known source is ITIC's Hourly Cost of Downtime survey. Three things to know before borrowing its numbers:
- They are respondents' own estimates, mostly from mid-size and large enterprises, in US dollars.
- They describe full IT downtime, such as servers and transaction systems stopping. An email outage where phones, the website and the accounting system still work is a smaller event.
- ITIC itself reports that six in ten businesses cannot calculate their hourly downtime cost. So the honest state of the art is "most firms do not know".
Source: ITIC 2024 Hourly Cost of Downtime Report.
How do you calculate your own downtime cost?
This method and the example are SourceIT's own. The example figures are made up for illustration; put in your own.
| Part | How to work it out | Illustrative 20-person office |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Staff time | People affected x working hours affected x cost per hour x share of work that depends on email | 20 x 5 hours x S$40 x 50% = S$2,000 |
| 2. Lost revenue | Only orders that were truly lost, not ones that arrived late | One enquiry went elsewhere: say S$1,500 margin |
| 3. Recovery work | IT hours, resending, chasing, catching up afterwards | 6 hours x S$40 = S$240 |
| 4. Other | Overtime, late fees, contract penalties | S$0 |
| Total | S$3,740 |
Three honest notes on the method:
- Count working hours, not outage hours. The outage began around 2am Singapore time. Your cost clock started when your staff did.
- The "share of work" matters most. People did not sit idle for five hours. They made calls, did the filing they had been avoiding, and had lunch early. Fifty percent is generous for many offices and too low for a sales desk that lives in its inbox.
- Delayed is not lost. Most email arrives once the service returns. See are emails lost during a Microsoft outage?
The outage has a cost. It is rarely the number in the headline, and it is almost never zero.
Which businesses are hit hardest?
| Type of business | Why email downtime bites |
|---|---|
| Firms that bill by the hour | Time that cannot be worked may not be billable later |
| Sales and quoting desks | A quote that arrives a day late can lose to one that arrived on time |
| Logistics and trading | Booking confirmations and shipping documents travel by email, with cut-off times |
| Businesses with deadlines today | Tenders, filings and submissions do not always wait |
This table is SourceIT's general observation, not survey data.
What should you record today?
Whether or not you ever claim anything, write these down while they are fresh. Insurance trade press is giving brokers the same advice for their clients.
- When the disruption began and ended for you, in Singapore time.
- Which services were affected, with a screenshot or two.
- How many staff were affected and for how many working hours.
- Any order, deadline or transaction that failed or was delayed.
- The Microsoft incident references: EX1550543 and MO1550821.
Can you recover any of the cost?
Two routes exist, and neither should be oversold.
- A service credit from Microsoft, if your subscription and the incident meet the terms of Microsoft's Service Level Agreement. A credit relates to your subscription fees, not to your business losses. See how to claim a Microsoft 365 service credit.
- Your own insurance, if you hold a policy that covers this kind of interruption. Cover varies widely, so ask your broker or insurer what your policy says.
If you want to raise the matter formally, see how to complain to Microsoft about the outage.
Related products and solutions from SourceIT
Nothing here would have prevented a Microsoft-side outage. What these do is lower the "share of work affected" in the formula above the next time something is unreachable.
| If you want to | Look at |
|---|---|
| Keep a readable, restorable copy of mailboxes and files | Synology ActiveProtect DP320 backup appliance or the Synology backup and data protection range |
| Add a small office NAS for backup and file sharing | Synology DS925+ or the Synology NAS range |
| Cover the other common cause of downtime, power | APC Back-UPS series |
Planning guides: email continuity for SMEs and how often Microsoft 365 goes down.
Getting help in Singapore
For backup and continuity planning, call (65) 6978 3502, email Sales@sourceit.com.sg or use our contact page.
Frequently asked questions
How much did the Microsoft outage cost businesses? There is no verified total. Individual experts have published estimates, such as an RSM Australia partner's view that Australian businesses could lose billions, but these are estimates.
How do I calculate the cost of downtime for my business? Add staff time lost, revenue actually lost, recovery work and other costs such as overtime or penalties, using your own figures.
Will Microsoft pay for my business losses? Microsoft's Service Level Agreement provides for service credits against subscription fees where its terms are met. A credit is not compensation for business losses. Check the agreement and your own insurance.
Is the Microsoft outage fixed? As of about 2:15pm SGT on 13 November 2026, Microsoft had reported partial recovery but had not declared the incident resolved in the updates we found.
This article is general information compiled from the sources linked above as at the time shown. Figures attributed to third parties are their estimates, and the worked example uses invented numbers for illustration only. It is not financial, legal or insurance advice, and it is not a statement by or on behalf of Microsoft. Microsoft, Microsoft 365 and Outlook are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.
