Microsoft 365 Backup Cost Calculator
Put a per-user backup quote next to consumption-based pricing using your own protected users, data size, retention and management scope. Licensing and management stay on separate lines so two proposals can be compared honestly.
How much does Microsoft 365 backup cost?
Microsoft 365 backup is priced two ways: a flat monthly fee per protected user from third-party vendors, or consumption pricing per gigabyte protected, which is how Microsoft bills its own Microsoft 365 Backup service. Who manages the backup and runs restores is a separate cost. Enter your numbers below to compare both models as a planning estimate.
What goes into a Microsoft 365 backup calculator?
A per-protected-user model charges one monthly price for each mailbox or account under protection. Vendors publish different prices and terms, so the planner leaves that field blank for the figure on your quote. A consumption-based model charges for the storage under protection. Microsoft 365 Backup, the service inside the Microsoft 365 admin center, is pay-as-you-go at a list price of $0.15 per GiB of protected content per month, counting live data plus deleted and versioned items held for recovery (Microsoft Learn: pricing model for Microsoft 365 Backup; price checked on November 7, 2026).
Microsoft also publishes a Microsoft 365 Backup pricing calculator, an Excel workbook linked from that pricing page, which estimates consumption for Microsoft's product from your usage reports. Use it to size Model B precisely. This planner adds what that workbook does not: the per-user comparison, the retention effect in plain terms, and the management line a business actually pays for.
Where the numbers come from
- Protected users: the licensed mailboxes and OneDrive accounts in the backup policy, including shared mailboxes if the vendor counts them.
- Data size: the Exchange mailbox usage, OneDrive usage and SharePoint site usage reports in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Add online archives and second-stage recycle bins for consumption pricing.
- Retention: how long a deleted or changed item must remain restorable. Longer retention holds more data under charge on consumption plans and is a contract term on per-user plans.
- Restore needs and management: whether your own admin restores items or a provider does it on request, monitors jobs and documents restore tests. Enter the provider fee from the proposal.
What a scoped Microsoft 365 backup service covers, workload by workload · Why Microsoft does not back up your Microsoft 365 data
From a backup cost estimate to a proposal you can compare
Ask every vendor for the same four things: the per-user or per-GB price with its term, the retention and storage limits, which workloads are covered (Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, the SharePoint sites behind Teams), and who runs restores and tests. Put the management fee on its own line. A cheap license with nobody watching the jobs is the most common way a business discovers its backup stopped months ago.
Estimates here are planning figures. NetSys scopes backup around the actual product, workloads, retention and restore ownership before quoting.
Microsoft 365 backup cost questions
How does this Microsoft 365 backup pricing calculator work?
It compares two planning models from your own inputs. Model A multiplies protected users by a per-user monthly price you enter from any quote. Model B multiplies protected storage (mailbox, OneDrive and SharePoint data plus optional retained changes) by a price per GB per month, prefilled with Microsoft's published pay-as-you-go list price of $0.15 per GiB per month, checked on November 7, 2026. Management is a separate line in both models.
What is the difference between per-user and consumption-based backup pricing?
Per-user pricing charges a flat monthly amount for each protected mailbox or account, usually with storage or retention terms in the contract, so cost grows with headcount. Consumption-based pricing charges for the gigabytes under protection, including deleted and versioned items kept for recovery, so cost grows with data and retention. The planner shows both so you can see which curve your organization is on.
Does retention change the backup cost?
On consumption pricing, yes. Microsoft 365 Backup keeps deleted and versioned content billable until the configured recovery window lapses, so a longer retention period holds more data under charge. Enter a monthly change rate to model that; leave it blank and the planner uses live data only. On per-user plans, retention is normally a contract term rather than a price driver, so check the vendor's limits.
Why are licensing and management shown separately?
Because they are bought from different places. Licensing is the backup product itself. Management is who monitors the jobs, reviews failures, runs restores on request and documents quarterly restore tests. A self-managed plan shows management at $0 but your staff time is real; a provider-managed plan shows the fee you enter. Comparing proposals line by line avoids a low license price hiding an unmanaged backup.
Is this a NetSys quote for Microsoft 365 backup?
No. It is a planning estimate built only from the numbers you enter plus one published Microsoft list price. NetSys prices a backup service after scoping the product, protected workloads, retention and restore responsibilities. Use the result to compare quotes and to decide what to ask a provider.