Apple iCloud versus Microsoft 365 storage

Hello, lyndawhatling，

Thanks for raising your concerns here. You're on the right track — let’s break it down clearly:

What You're Paying For

1. £0.99/month for Apple iCloud:

This gives you extra iCloud storage (beyond the 5 GB free tier, 50GB storage space), used for:

- iPhone/iPad backups
- iCloud Photos, Contacts, Mail, Notes, etc.
- iCloud Drive across Apple and Windows devices

2. £8.49/month for Microsoft 365 (Personal) This includes:
   • The full Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook…)
   • 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage, plus email, Teams, and other MS services
   • Reference: Compare All Microsoft 365 Plans (Formerly Office 365) – Microsoft Store

➡️ Importantly, the Microsoft 365 storage is OneDrive, not iCloud — so you can't use that 1 TB to back up or sync iPhone/iPad Apple services.

For the concerns of cancelling iCloud? It depends on how you’re using it:

• If you rely on iPhone/iPad backup, iCloud Photos, iCloud Drive, or syncing Apple-specific data (Contacts, Mail, Notes), you'll still need iCloud storage.
• If you're using Microsoft 365 for all file work and don't mind switching iOS backups and photo syncing to OneDrive or a similar platform — it's possible to stop the iCloud plan.

That said, OneDrive doesn’t fully replace some Apple services:

- You **can’t** back up an iOS device to OneDrive
- You **can’t** auto-sync Photos to OneDrive the same way as iCloud

Quick Comparison Table

Feel free to let me know if anything unclear, thanks!

Lizzie |Microsoft Community Support Specialist