No. It is a cheaper shelf inside the same cupboard: the files stay in your tenant, still count toward your storage, and nobody can open one until an admin brings it back. A shed takes the files out of SharePoint altogether, keeps them open in the browser and the Finder, and the SharePoint bill stops growing.
Microsoft 365 Archive lets a SharePoint admin archive whole sites, or individual files inside sites that stay active. Archived content stays in your tenant, under the same retention policies, and is billed at US$0.05 per GB a month through an Azure subscription.
That charge only applies above your quota. Microsoft adds archived and active storage together; under the quota, archiving costs nothing. Over it, the archived part is billed at US$0.05 per GB instead of US$0.20 for extra storage.
It is the cheapest way to keep content inside Microsoft with your retention policies still applying, which matters for content under a legal hold or a records policy.
| Microsoft 365 Archive | Extra storage | Shed | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per TB a month, US price | about US$51 | about US$205 | US$100 |
| Open a file | After reactivation | Yes | Yes, in the browser |
| Leaves your tenant | No | No | Yes |
| Microsoft retention applies | Yes | Yes | No, Shed's own snapshots |
| Replicated across nodes | Microsoft's own | Microsoft's own | A node you name |
The Microsoft figures are US$0.05 and US$0.20 per GB a month, times 1,024.
Use Microsoft 365 Archive for sites that must stay under Microsoft's retention and that nobody expects to open again. Use a shed for everything people still look up: old jobs a client asks about, footage that gets reused, artwork that gets reprinted. If someone would be annoyed to wait for an admin before opening a file, it belongs in a shed. Plenty of tenants use both.
Not exactly. Archived storage still counts toward the tenant's total. What changes is the bill: the part above the quota that is archived costs US$0.05 per GB a month instead of needing extra storage at US$0.20.
Not for SharePoint since 31 March 2025. Reactivated content cannot be archived again for four months. Unlicensed OneDrive accounts are different: reactivating those is still US$0.60 per GB.
Yes. Microsoft includes archived sites in retention policies by default, and labels already on archived items keep applying.
Tell us which libraries or drives are full and roughly how large they are. We size a shed, set up the first sweep with you, and most are running within a week.
Ask for a shed