How to get free storage

Question

I cannot save a file in my Excel spreadsheet as i have no cloud storage left. I want free storage. How do I get more storage?

Answer 1

Hello

You already get 5GB of storage for free by default for your OneDrive. If you need more than that, it is not free.

If you want to keep it free, you need to free up space in OneDrive to keep it below 5GB.

Log into https://www.onedrive.com

Then review the section in My Files. You can delete them from there.

Important - deletion from here will sync to all your devices, meaning, if the files are synced to your computer or phone, if you delete here, it will also delete on your devices.

Answer 2

Excel cannot save if the disk or cloud location you are saving to has run out of space. There are two options: free up existing storage or buy more. Completely free additional storage is not available beyond the standard free quotas.

1. Free up Microsoft cloud storage (OneDrive/Outlook.com)

• Sign in to OneDrive and see what is taking up space: View files.
• Delete large or unneeded files (especially videos, ZIP archives, and old backups).
• Empty the OneDrive Recycle Bin online (emptying the Windows Recycle Bin on the PC is not enough): Open your OneDrive Recycle bin.
• Wait up to 24 hours for the quota to update.

If your OneDrive account is frozen because you are over quota, go to Manage your OneDrive storage, delete files until you are under the limit, and allow up to a few hours for the change to apply.

2. Understand the free storage limits

• Free Microsoft account:
  • 5 GB of free cloud storage shared across OneDrive files/photos, Outlook.com attachments, and Microsoft 365 apps.
  • 15 GB of free Outlook.com email storage (separate from the 5 GB cloud storage).
• Consumer Outlook.com mailboxes are capped at 100 GB even with subscriptions.

3. If more space is needed beyond the free quota

• For OneDrive/cloud storage: you must buy more storage or a Microsoft 365 subscription if the free allocation is not enough. See buy more storage or buy a subscription.
• If already a Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, or Premium subscriber, additional OneDrive storage can be added on top of the included 1 TB per user.

4. Save Excel files to a location with free disk space If saving locally (for example, to C: drive) fails with a “Disk is Full” or similar message, move or delete files on that drive until there is more free space, then save again. Excel needs more than twice the file size in free space on the target drive because it creates a temporary file when saving.

There is no way to permanently increase Microsoft cloud storage for free beyond the standard free quotas; the only options are to delete content to get back under quota or purchase additional storage.

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References:

• Microsoft storage FAQs
• What is Microsoft cloud storage?
• What does it mean when your OneDrive account is frozen?
• Microsoft storage quotas
• You receive the "Disk is Full" error message when you save a workbook in Excel