Help CenterMicrosoft Exchange Online is a hosted messaging solution that delivers email, calendar, contacts, and tasks from PCs, the web, and mobile devices. It integrates fully with Microsoft Entra ID, enabling administrators to use group policies, as well as other administration tools, to manage Exchange Online features across their environment.
Organizations that subscribe to Exchange Online retain control over the messaging services they offer to users. With the Exchange Online hosted plans described in this document, email is hosted on servers that support multiple customers simultaneously. These servers are housed in Microsoft datacenters and are accessible to users on a wide range of devices from inside a corporate network or over the Internet.
Note:
Each user who accesses the Exchange Online service must be assigned to a subscription plan, and each user subscription has its own mailbox. Folders and messages in these mailboxes reside at a Microsoft datacenter.
User subscriptions are not required for conference rooms and shared mailboxes. These special mailbox types do not have login credentials, instead, licensed users with the appropriate permissions manage and access them via delegation. Microsoft 365 F1 does not include rights to an Exchange mailbox.
Features Available For All Plans: (Exhange Online Plan 1 and Plan 2)
Anti-spam and anti-malware protection (via direct access to the Exchange admin center management interface) - Built-in anti-spam and anti-malware protection (uses multiple anti-malware engines to scan inbound, outbound, and internal messages for malware)
Customized anti-spam and anti-malware policies. Quarantine - administrator management, and quarantine - end-user self-management.
Exchange Online setup and administration - Microsoft 365 portal and admin center access, Exchange admin center access, Remote Windows PowerShell access
ActiveSync policies for mobile devices and Usage reporting.
High availability and business continuity - Mailbox replication at datacenters
Single item recovery (not available for F3 and Kiosk plans) and Deleted mailbox and deleted item recovery
Interoperability, connectivity, and compatibility - Skype for Business presence in OWA and Outlook, SharePoint interoperability, EWS connectivity support (EWS app support applied to impersonation) and SMTP relay support.
Mail flow - Custom routing of outbound mail, Secure messaging with a trusted partner, Adding a partner to an inbound safe list, Conditional mail and hybrid email routing (CALs or upgrade to an Enterprise SKU provide the access rights).
Planning and deployment - Hybrid deployment supported (CALs or upgrade to an Enterprise SKU provide access rights for business and F3 plans), IMAP, cutover, and staged migration supported.
Reporting features and troubleshooting tools - Microsoft 365 admin center reports
Excel reporting workbook, Web Services reports, Unified Messaging reports (E3/E5 and plan 2 only), Message trace and auditing reports are accessible via direct access to the Exchange admin center (EAC) management interface.
Recipients - Capacity alerts, Clutter, MailTips, Inbox rules, Resource mailboxes, Out-of-office replies, Offline address book, Address book policies, Distribution Groups, External contacts (global), Universal contact card, Contact linking with social networks
Conference room management and Calendar sharing (Kiosk calendars can only be accessed or shared through OWA).
Sharing and collaboration - Federated sharing (including calendar publishing), Site mailboxes (SharePoint Online must be included and deployed) and Public folders (not available for F3 and Kiosk plans).
Voice message services - Skype for Business integration, Third-party voice mail interoperability (only E3/E5 and Plan 2 provide voicemail and third-party voicemail/fax integration -- For third-party PBX systems via direct connections, see Discontinuation of support for Session Border Controllers in Exchange Online Unified Messaging.
The Following features are avaialble for Exchange Plan 2 Licenses:
- Exchange Online Archiving for Exchange Online
- IRM using Azure Information Protection,
- In-Place Hold and Ligitation Hold.
- Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention.
- Inactive Mailboxes.
Storage Limits Across Plans:
Additional Limits Information is available at - Exchange Online limits - Service Descriptions | Microsoft Learn
The pricing for Exchange Online plans is as follows:
- Exchange Online Plan 1: $4.00 per user/month
- Exchange Online Plan 2: $8.00 per user/month
Shared Mailbox Licensing
Your shared mailbox can store up to 50GB of data without you assigning a license to it. After that, you need to assign a license to the mailbox to store more data.
The following scenarios require an Exchange Online Plan 2 license for a shared mailbox:
- The shared mailbox has more than 50 GB of storage in use.
- The shared mailbox uses in-place archiving.
- The shared mailbox is placed on litigation hold.
To access a shared mailbox, a user must have an Exchange Online license, but the shared mailbox doesn't require a separate license. Every shared mailbox has a corresponding user account. Notice how you weren't asked to provide a password when you created the shared mailbox? The account has a password, but it's system-generated (unknown). You shouldn't use the account to log in to the shared mailbox.