SHAREPOINT ONLINE LIMITATIONS & BOUNDARIES

Storage Limits

SharePoint Online imposes storage constraints to ensure performance and scalability.

• Total storage per organization: 1 TB base storage plus 10 GB per licensed user. Additional storage can be purchased in 1 GB increments, with no upper limit on total purchasable storage. Education tenants may have restricted allocations.
• Maximum storage per site (site collection): 25 TB.
• Overall site metadata: Up to 1,000 GB per site. This limit is rarely approached in practice.
• Hold limits for eDiscovery and retention policies: 13 holds for all sites automatically included; 2,600 for specific locations included or excluded. These contribute to a tenant-wide maximum of 10,000 compliance policies.

Exceeding storage limits may result in the environment entering read-only mode until resolved.

Files and Sync Limits

These boundaries govern file handling, uploading, and synchronization.

• File upload size: 250 GB for files uploaded to SharePoint document libraries, Microsoft Teams Files tab, OneDrive folders, or Viva Engage conversations.
• File attachment size in lists: 250 MB per file attached to a list item in Microsoft Lists or SharePoint lists.
• ZIP file download size: 20 GB for downloading multiple files as a ZIP. Individual files within a ZIP are limited to 250 GB.
• File path length: 400 characters for the entire decoded file path, including the file name. Each path segment (file or folder name) is limited to 255 characters due to operating system constraints. The total path, including the OneDrive root folder, cannot exceed 520 characters. SharePoint Server versions support only 260 characters.
• Sync performance: Recommended maximum of 300,000 files across all synced libraries for optimal performance. Exceeding this may cause delays. Only one personal OneDrive and up to nine work or school accounts can sync concurrently per device; macOS limits to one business account from the same organization.
• Moving or copying files across sites: Total file size limited to 100 GB; up to 30,000 files; OneNote files up to 2 GB. Cross-geo operations are limited to 15 GB per file.
• Copying files on OneDrive website: Up to 2,500 files at once.
• OneNote notebooks: Limited to 2 GB when saved in SharePoint or OneDrive. Notebooks use a separate sync mechanism.
• Differential sync: Supported for .docx, .pptx, and .xlsx files with specific Office and OneDrive versions; not for OneNote.
• Libraries with Information Rights Management (IRM): Sync as read/write requires OneDrive sync app version 17.3.7294.0108 or later (Windows) or 18.151.0729.0014 or higher (Mac).
• Libraries with specific columns or metadata: Sync as read-only if checkout, validation, content approval, or draft item security is enabled.
• Unsupported sync locations: Network or mapped drives, symbolic links, or junction points are not supported. OneDrive cannot run with elevated privileges.
• Windows-specific: File Explorer displays only the first 35 characters of a site library's name and site name combination. Roaming, mandatory, and temporary Windows profiles are unsupported.

Lists and Libraries Limits

• Items in lists or libraries: Up to 30 million items per list or 30 million files and folders per library. Views and folders should not exceed 5,000 items to avoid throttling.
• Combined lists and libraries per site collection: Up to 2,000.
• Unique security scopes: Up to 50,000 per list or library, with a recommended limit of 5,000. Inheritance cannot be broken on lists or folders exceeding 100,000 items.

Sites and Subsites Limits

• Sites (site collections) per organization: Up to 2 million. Contact Microsoft if exceeding 500,000 users.
• Subsites per site: Up to 2,000. Microsoft recommends using hubs instead of subsites for organization. Navigation links are limited to 500 per level. Up to 2,000 hub sites per organization.

Users and Groups Limits

• Users per site collection: Up to 2 million. No limit on guest users.
• SharePoint groups: Up to 5,000 groups per user per site; 5,000 users per group; 10,000 groups per site. Microsoft Entra ID group limits may apply.

Versions Limits

• Major versions: Up to 50,000.
• Minor versions: Up to 511.

Managed Metadata Limits

• Total terms: Up to 1 million (global and site-level combined).
• Term labels: Up to 2 million.
• Term properties: Up to 1 million.
• Global term sets: Up to 1,000.
• Global groups: Up to 1,000. Recommend no more than 50 default terms on managed metadata columns.

Invalid Characters and Names

• Invalid characters in file and folder names: " * : < > ? / \ | Leading/trailing spaces are prohibited. # and % may require admin enablement. Semicolon (;) is restricted in Office desktop apps; & is unsupported in Office 2010.
• Invalid file or folder names: .lock, CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM0-COM9, LPT0-LPT9, vti, desktop.ini, any starting with ~$. "forms" cannot be at the root level; certain Unicode characters (e.g., ゛, ဧ) cannot start folders.

Blocked or Restricted File Types

• Temporary files: TMP files are not synced.
• System files: desktop.ini and .ds_store are not synced; cloud copies are deleted if uploaded.
• Outlook PST files: Supported but synced less frequently. May cause errors if migrated via Known Folder Move.
• Organization-blocked types: Varies by administrator; executable and system files are often restricted.
• Virus detection: Sync stops for files flagged as malware.

Sharing Limits

• Folder sharing: Limited to 50,000 sub-items (files and subfolders) total. Move items to subfolders to exceed this.
• Inheritance considerations: Sharing respects permission inheritance; clarified as of December 20, 2023.

Other Limits

• Thumbnails and previews: Not generated for images or PDFs larger than 100 MB. Limited to supported file types.
• SharePoint hosted applications: Up to 20,000 instances per organization.
• SharePoint workflows: 2013 workflows can run indefinitely without an end condition.

For additional details on related services, such as Project Online or SharePoint Server, refer to Microsoft-specific documentation. Administrators should monitor usage to avoid performance degradation.