Mailbox Litigation Hold / Retention policy - (cheapest) license option

Question

Hello,

On the website (link) it is written that "To place an Exchange Online mailbox on Litigation hold, it must be assigned an Exchange Online Plan 2 license. If a mailbox is assigned an Exchange Online Plan 1 license, you would have to assign it a separate Exchange Online Archiving license to place it on hold."

But when I read Exchange Plan 1 (link) is written "Automatically move old messages to an In-Place Archive".

What are the licenses to use and not pay full E3 or E5 to have a mailbox archived for important users or users leaving the enterprize?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Hi,

Best Cost-Saving Setup

• For Active Users Who Need Archiving
  • Exchange Online Plan 1 + Exchange Online Archiving (add-on) or Exchange Online plan 2
• For Departing Users
  • Convert to Shared Mailbox (Free, 50GB limit) for a mailbox within the 50GB storage quota

Answer 2

Hello, @TheNewGuy-0614,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A platform!

To archive mailboxes without paying for the full E3 or E5 licenses, you can use the following options:

1.Exchange Online Plan 1 with Exchange Online Archiving Add-On

Exchange Online Plan 1 allows you to move old messages to an In-Place Archive, but it doesn't include the Litigation Hold feature by default. To enable Litigation Hold, you need to add the Exchange Online Archiving license.

2.Microsoft 365 Business Premium

This plan includes archiving and in-place hold features without needing additional licenses.

3.Exchange Online Plan 2

This plan includes both archiving and in-place hold features, but it is more expensive than Plan 1 with the Archiving add-on.

For reference about these descriptions, please visit Exchange Online Archiving service description - Service Descriptions | Microsoft Learn.

These options should help you manage archiving for important users or those leaving the enterprise without incurring the higher costs of E3 or E5 licenses.

Should you need more help on this, you can feel free to post back. 

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Thank you for your support and understanding.

Best Wishes,

Alex Zhang

Answer 3

As shared by Olu above.

Further reference here - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/exchange-online-archiving-service-description/exchange-online-archiving-service-description

You either add a ala-carte EOA license to an existing email plan, or get a bundled plan that already contain the license. The reference above shows the bundled plans that contain the license.