Microsoft Cut Family Plan OneDrive From 6 TB to 2 TB. Its Own Support Pages Disagree on When.

A Microsoft 365 Family plan used to come with 1 TB of OneDrive for each of up to six people. New subscriptions started this week get 2 TB for the whole group, a two-thirds cut that Microsoft describes as flexibility. The company's own support pages disagree on exactly when it starts.

Two pages, two sets of dates

Microsoft's Changes to Microsoft 365 storage page says new and upgraded subscriptions get shared storage starting October 8, 2026. Existing plans, it says, generally move at the first renewal on or after May 2, 2027. The Microsoft storage quotas page holds the plan table. It says new subscriptions start October 7. Existing Family and Premium plans move when they renew starting April 1, 2027.

That is a one-day gap at the front and a 31-day gap at the back. Someone renewing on April 20 gets a different answer depending on the tab. Microsoft has not said which page governs, and I found no note reconciling them.

The quota table also covers the top tier. Existing Microsoft 365 Pro subscriptions are listed at 1 TB per person for up to six people. They move to 5 TB shared on November 1, 2027. A full Pro household loses 1 TB.

What happens when a family goes over

Here the two pages differ on substance. The changes page says a subscription over its limit can keep accessing files for up to one year. Warnings come first. The quotas page describes the standing rule: past the limit, you cannot upload, edit or sync, and existing files turn read-only. After three months the account freezes. After six months Microsoft might delete the OneDrive and everything in it, and deleted files cannot be recovered.

Neither page explains how the one-year language fits with the six-month one. Office Watch, an independent outlet that covers Microsoft Office, notes that Microsoft never says what happens when the 12 months run out. It tells readers to treat the year as a deadline.

Who comes out ahead

Microsoft's argument has real arithmetic behind it. Under six separate lockers, a member who hits a 1 TB cap cannot borrow from a relative who barely uses theirs. Microsoft's page says an owner who never shares the plan can use the full 2 TB. Office Watch agrees: a solo owner, or two light users, goes from 1 TB to close to 2.

The losers are households that fill their lockers. Office Watch's example is four people with 700 GB of phone photos each, 2.8 TB against a 2 TB pool. Split evenly across six people, the new allowance is about 333 GB each. Office Watch also calls the change a data center cost cut. That is its opinion. Microsoft's stated reason is flexibility.

Ákos Hajdu posted on Microsoft's Q&A forum on October 8. He has paid for Family for years, he wrote, and the per-person allowances were a main reason he subscribed. He called the decision completely unacceptable and asked whether the price would drop to match. As of Friday morning the thread had one answer. It came from another user, who pointed back to the same support page and the May 2, 2027 date. On TechEnclave, a member posting as ze_cook shares a plan with a relative and a few friends. That group is already past 2 TB, the member wrote, so the friends may be kicked off or the plan cancelled.

The trap, and what Microsoft has not said

Existing subscribers have time. Microsoft says nothing changes before renewal and that it will send an email first. The exception is a plan change. According to the changes page, upgrading before May 2, 2027, say from Family to Premium, moves the subscription to shared storage right away. Downgrading does not. A household that upgrades for extra features without adding up its photos first will have bought the cut early.

Several things are still open. Microsoft says some existing subscribers in supported markets may get bonus storage at renewal, with no size or duration given. Purchased add-on storage goes into the shared pool, up to 10 TB total. The FAQ asks itself "Is this change a reduction in storage?" The answer begins "Total storage varies by plan." It never says yes or no. For a six-person plan, the answer is yes.

I found no data on how often consumer cloud plans shrink quotas for existing subscribers. This piece does not call it a trend. What is documented is narrower. Until Microsoft reconciles its own dates, a subscriber renewing in April cannot tell from Microsoft's pages whether the old 6 TB survives the next bill.