Microsoft Exchange Online (Plan 1) Annual Subscription (12 Months)
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Microsoft Exchange Online (Plan 1) Annual Subscription (12 Months) (CFQ7TTC0LH16:0001) - Local Support
What Exchange Online Plan 1 is
A hosted business mailbox, licensed per user on a 12-month term. Microsoft publishes the primary mailbox at 50 GB with a 50 GB archive mailbox. It gives each user business email, calendar and contacts on Microsoft's infrastructure, reachable from Outlook on the web, from Outlook mobile and from the Outlook desktop application — with one important licensing caveat about the desktop application that is set out below and that catches people out.
The Outlook desktop trap
Buying an Exchange Online licence does NOT give a user the installed Outlook application. Microsoft's service description carries a footnote to exactly this effect: connecting an Exchange Online P1 or P2 mailbox to Outlook for Windows, classic Outlook for Windows or Outlook for Mac requires that those applications first be licensed with an account that includes the rights to Microsoft 365 desktop apps. Microsoft's own list of licences that include the Outlook desktop app names no Exchange Online plan at all. Outlook on the web is included and needs nothing extra. If installed Outlook is part of the requirement, budget for a Microsoft 365 plan that includes the desktop applications.
Where Plan 1 stops and Plan 2 starts
Plan 1 does not include litigation hold or in-place hold, does not include Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention, does not include auto-expanding archiving, and does not include Exchange Online Archiving. All four are Plan 2 entitlements. What Plan 1 does have alongside the mailbox is eDiscovery content search, messaging records management, journaling, transport rules, S/MIME and encryption of data at rest. Microsoft also publishes a specific upsell route: litigation hold placement requires Exchange Online Plan 2, or Exchange Online Plan 1 with the Exchange Online Archiving add-on.
Exchange Online (Plan 1) — Mailbox, Archive and Entitlements
Mailbox and archive
| Primary mailbox | 50 GB |
| Archive mailbox | 50 GB |
| Auto-expanding archive | No |
Compliance and retention entitlements
| eDiscovery content search | Yes |
| In-place hold and litigation hold | No |
| Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention | No |
| Exchange Online Archiving (for Exchange Online and for Exchange Server) | No |
| Manual retention policies, labels and tags | Yes |
| Messaging records management, journaling, transport rules, S/MIME, encryption of data at rest | Yes |
| eDiscovery Premium (Advanced eDiscovery) | No. Microsoft's Purview service description requires E5-class licensing and does not list any Exchange Online plan. |
| Litigation hold upsell route | Microsoft: litigation hold placement requires Exchange Online Plan 2, or Exchange Online Plan 1 with the Exchange Online Archiving add-on. |
Subscription terms
| Term | 12 months |
| Billing | Annual subscription |
| Metric | Per user |
| What happens at expiry | Microsoft's published path for business subscriptions runs Active, then Expired for roughly 30 days with normal access retained, then Disabled for roughly 90 days during which data is read-only and reachable by administrators only, and then deleted. Explicit cancellation shortens this. Renew before the term ends if the data matters. |
| Support route | Microsoft's admin support is included with subscriptions bought direct from Microsoft. Where a subscription is bought through a partner, Microsoft routes support through that partner — which on this order is us. |
| SKU on this listing | CFQ7TTC0LH16:0001 |
The Outlook Desktop Application — Read This Before You Budget
| The short answer | No Exchange Online plan licenses the Outlook desktop application. |
| Microsoft's wording | Connecting an Office 365 E1, Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Microsoft Exchange Online P1 or P2 to Outlook for Windows, classic Outlook for Windows, and Outlook for Mac requires that those applications first be licensed with an account that includes the rights to Microsoft 365 desktop apps. |
| What that means in practice | A Plan 1 or Plan 2 mailbox CAN be connected to Outlook desktop, but the user must separately hold an Office or Microsoft 365 licence that grants the desktop applications. Microsoft's own list of licences that include the Outlook desktop app names no Exchange Online plan. |
| Outlook on the web | Included with every plan. Browser access needs no additional licence. |
| Budget implication | If your users need installed Outlook, price a Microsoft 365 plan that includes the desktop apps alongside or instead of a standalone Exchange licence. Ask us and we will compare the two routes. |
Limits, Message Sizes and Restrictions
Message and rate limits (these are tenant-wide, not plan-specific)
| Between users inside Microsoft datacentres | Microsoft: you can send and receive up to 150 MB messages between users where the message never leaves the Microsoft datacenters. |
| Routed outside Microsoft datacentres | Microsoft: subject to an additional 33% translation encoding increase, in which case the maximum message size is 112 MB. |
| Outlook desktop and Outlook for Mac | 150 MB |
| Outlook on the web | 112 MB |
| Outlook for iOS and Android | 33 MB |
| Attachments per message | 250 |
| Recipient rate limit | 10,000 recipients per day |
| Recipient limit per message | Configurable up to 1,000 |
| Message rate limit | 30 messages per minute |
Official Microsoft Documentation
Every figure on this page comes from one of the Microsoft pages below. Where Microsoft's own pages disagree, or where a figure appears only on a marketing page rather than in the service description, we say so on the page rather than pick a side quietly.
- Microsoft Learn — Exchange Online service description (per-plan feature tables)
- Microsoft Learn — Exchange Online limits (mailbox sizes, message sizes, rate limits)
- Microsoft Learn — which licences include the Outlook desktop app
- Microsoft Learn — Microsoft Purview service description (eDiscovery and DLP licensing)
- Microsoft — Exchange Online product page
- Microsoft Learn — Cloud Voicemail (a Teams service, not an Exchange Online entitlement)
- Microsoft Learn — Microsoft 365 lifecycle policy
Frequently Asked Questions — Exchange Online (Plan 1)
Is 50 GB the mailbox or the total?
50 GB is the primary mailbox. Microsoft publishes a separate 50 GB archive mailbox for Plan 1. What Plan 1 does not get is auto-expanding archiving, which grows the archive beyond its initial allocation — that is a Plan 2 entitlement.
Do I need this if I already have Microsoft 365 Business Standard?
No. The Microsoft 365 business plans already include an Exchange Online mailbox. A standalone Exchange Online licence is for users who need a mailbox and nothing else, or who are being added to an estate where the productivity applications are licensed separately. Ask us before you buy both.
What happens if I do not renew?
Microsoft's published path for business subscriptions runs Active, then Expired for roughly 30 days with normal access retained, then Disabled for roughly 90 days during which the data is read-only and reachable by administrators only, and then deletion. For a mailbox this is not an abstract risk. Renew before the term ends.
Who supports it?
Microsoft includes admin support with subscriptions bought directly from Microsoft. Where a subscription is bought through a partner, Microsoft routes support through that partner — on this order, that is us, in Singapore, in your timezone.
What is the uptime commitment?
Microsoft's Exchange Online product page states a guaranteed 99.9% uptime with a financially backed service level agreement. That figure is attributed to the product page deliberately: Microsoft does not publish a per-plan SLA percentage, so this page does not present 99.9% as a guarantee specific to this plan.
