Due to changes within the Microsoft education tenant pricing structure, there will be personal file storage quotas imposed on all Imperial accounts from Monday 23 March 2026:
- Staff and research students will be able to store up to 200 GB of files
- Non-research students will be able to store up to 100GB of files
ICT has negotiated a seven-year deal with Box, a cloud-based file storage and sharing service. Staff and students who are exceeding, or near to exceeding their personal storage quota will be asked to migrate larger files to Box.
Summary of file storage options
| Product | OneDrive | SharePoint | groupspace | Box | Research storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Storage type |
Cloud | Cloud | Local | Cloud | Local |
| Features |
|
|
|
|
|
| Quota |
200GB (staff and research students) 100GB (non-research students) |
200GB | 100GB minimum quota per department | 100GB, more available on request | Individual need |
My storage and files
- Why are these changes happening?
- How can I check how much storage I have?
- I am above the quota limit. What happens if I don't migrate my files to Box or reduce my storage?
- Will ICT ask me to migrate my data again?
- I want to purchase additional storage for my OneDrive - what are my options?
- Are role accounts affected?
- Will this affect storage in SharePoint?
- Do you have any tips for reducing my storage?
Microsoft has increased the price of storing data within the Microsoft 365 (M365) environment.
Imperial stores large quantities of data within M365 and the price increase made it uneconomical to continue doing this.
ICT has negotiated a seven-year deal with Box, which staff and students can request access to and use to store larger files.
Visit the Microsoft website for instructions on how to check your personal storage.
We would encourage everyone, regardless of whether they are above the new quotas or not, to review their files and regularly delete those that are no longer needed.
From Monday 23 March 2026, if you are:
- A staff member or research student with more than 200GB of files or;
- A non-research student with 100GB of files
You will not be able to store anymore files in your OneDrive.
If you continue to remain over the quota and do not migrate or delete files to be within the quota, this will incur a cost to your deparment.
ICT has negotiated a seven-year deal with Box.
If you use Box, you can be confident that you will not be asked to migrate any data until at least 2030.
It is strongly recommended that you make every effort to remove unnecessary data from OneDrive and use Box to store larger files. You can request additional storage from Box if you are a staff member or research student.
From January 2026, you can request a storage pack for additional storage in your OneDrive. Before doing so, you will need:
- Written permission from your Faculty Chief Operating Officer
- The cost code for your area
Storage packs are £3,000+VAT per year and will provide you with an additional 10TB of storage.
Yes, all Imperial accounts will be subject to the new quotas from 23 March 2026.
No, the storage quota for SharePoint sites remains at 200GB of data.
When reviewing your files, you can view them in order of when they were last modified - it is likely you may no longer need files that have not been modified in a long time.
You can also check folders where anything is saved by default to your OneDrive, e.g. "Downloads", "Recordings".
If you are migrating files to Box, please visit our Box webpage to find out about what Box offers, training resources and how to get support.
You can also find out about planned improvements to Box.
Migrating to and using Box
- How can I migrate my data to Box?
- What is the biggest file size I can store within Box?
- Does Box encrypt my data?
- How much storage do I get in Box?
- What file types does Box support?
- What will happen to my share links when I migrate data to Box?
Please complete our OneDrive migration into Box form.
You'll need to know how much data is in your OneDrive and specify what you want to be copied over to Box.
You can request a report as part of the process to be certain your data is migrated.
Once your data is migrated, it will remain in your OneDrive for two weeks after which it will be deleted.
The maximum individual file size within our Box environment is 500GB.
If you have files larger than this, you will need to provide your own storage solution for these.
Box has the industry standard for data encryption: 256-bit AES encryption at rest and TLS 1.2 encryption in transit.
You are given a default allocation of 100GB when you create a Box account.
If you are a staff member or a research student, you can request additional storage by completing our Box support form.
Visit the Box website to find out what file types are supported for viewing content on the web and mobile.
If a file type is not supported natively by Box, you can open it through Box Drive. This allows you open files stored on Box using software installed on your device, e.g. MATLAB.
Share links will not work after your data has been migrated and deleted from OneDrive.
You will need to create new share links in Box.