Microsoft 365 Family covers up to six people, with no address check listed

Microsoft says a Microsoft 365 Family subscriber can share plan benefits with up to five other people, giving the subscription six users in total. Each person uses a separate account, receives one terabyte of OneDrive storage and can keep Office apps signed in on five devices at once.

The sharing arrangement adds people to the owner's Microsoft family group; it does not hand them the owner's password or divide one storage account. The owner's invitation, each member's account and each member's storage quota remain separate parts of the setup.

Six people receive separate accounts and storage quotas

Microsoft says an accepted share gives the invitee one terabyte of personal OneDrive storage and desktop apps including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. The owner and as many as five invitees therefore receive separate storage allocations rather than drawing from one six-terabyte pool.

Each member can install Microsoft 365 or Office on all of that member's devices and remain signed in on five devices at the same time. When the account exceeds five active device sign-ins, Microsoft says the first device is signed out automatically; the rule is an active-session limit, not a five-install limit.

Microsoft says personal files, email, appointments, contacts, photos and notebooks stay separate and are not exposed to the subscription holder unless the member shares them. A family group can also contain shared Family locations for email, calendars and OneNote, so those shared areas should not be confused with each member's private account data.

Copilot features in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, along with extended storage options, remain available only to the subscription owner. The five additional members receive the shared subscription benefits, but Microsoft does not treat every owner-only add-on as shareable.

The owner sends an invitation that expires after 48 hours

Only the subscription holder can share Microsoft 365 Family, using an email invitation or a link from the Services and subscriptions sharing page. Microsoft 365 Basic and Personal cannot be shared through this process, and a member who receives a shared subscription cannot pass it on to someone else.

The invitee signs in with an existing Microsoft account or creates one, then selects Join now to enter the owner's family group. Microsoft gives the invitee 48 hours to accept and requires anyone already in another family group to leave that group before accepting the new invitation.

Family-group membership is a continuing condition, not a one-time activation step. Microsoft says sharing works only while the invitee remains in the subscription owner's group, and it tells owners to send invitations rather than distribute a product key.

How this plays out outside Taiwan

For readers outside Taiwan, the first practical difference is the storefront price. Microsoft's United States store currently lists Microsoft 365 Family at US$129.99 per year or US$12.99 per month. The Singapore store lists the plan at SG$189.99 per year or SG$18.99 per month. Microsoft's United Kingdom page lists £104.99 per year and £10.49 per month, while the Australian comparison page lists AU$179 per year or AU$18 per month. These are prices shown by Microsoft's country-specific stores, not a conversion of the Taiwan price. They should be checked again before payment because a subscription renews at the regular price and the store selected for the account controls the currency and offer shown.

The four stores describe the same broad product shape: one subscription can cover one to six people, with up to 6 TB of storage shared as 1 TB per person. The US and Singapore pages show both monthly and annual billing. The UK and Australia pages also publish local-currency monthly and annual options. That makes the local store more useful than a global currency estimate when a reader is comparing a Family plan with a one-person plan or deciding whether six people will actually use the allowance. A lower per-person cost is only a calculation; it does not turn the members into joint owners of one Microsoft account.

The account rule remains global in the English support instructions: the recipient accepts the invitation, joins the owner's Microsoft family group and stays in that group to keep the shared benefits. Microsoft's published sharing steps do not list a common home address or a recurring address check. That is different from services whose family plans explicitly require the same residence. YouTube's family-plan guidance uses a same-residential-address rule and periodic checks, so a household cannot safely assume that one service's sharing condition applies to another.

Country selection still matters even when an invitation can be sent. Microsoft says Microsoft 365 is not available in every market, and the cited support pages do not publish a complete matrix explaining every cross-border combination of purchaser, invitee and account region. A reader in the United States, Singapore, the United Kingdom or Australia should therefore open Microsoft's store for that country, confirm that Microsoft 365 Family is offered in local currency, and check the account's Services and subscriptions page after accepting an invitation. If the store does not show the plan or the account does not show the shared benefit, the official pages do not provide enough evidence to promise that the invitation will work.

There is also a local budgeting issue after someone leaves. Microsoft lists the storage allowance and billing currency by market, but the consequence of ending a share is described in the support documentation rather than in each storefront: the former member drops to the account's lower storage quota, and an account that stays over quota can lose uploads, editing, synchronization and Outlook.com mail functions. The US, Singapore, UK and Australian prices above do not change that storage rule. Before removing a member, the practical check is the member's own OneDrive usage and the post-removal quota shown by Microsoft, not the number of people who originally split the bill.

For a cross-border group, keep the roles separate. The person who pays controls the invitation, but each member should use a personal Microsoft account and retain copies of files they need to manage. Microsoft says family-group membership is required and that an invitee already in another family group must leave it before accepting a new invitation. APPI News could not verify a universal rule for every account-country pairing from Microsoft's published pages. The dependable local workflow is therefore to check the country store, read the account-specific sharing screen, accept within 48 hours, and confirm the recipient's storage and app access before treating the arrangement as active.

The English instructions do not list a shared-address check

Microsoft's English sharing page requires the recipient to join the subscription owner's family group, but the instructions reviewed for this guide do not list a common residential address or an address-verification step. This is a description of the published instructions, not a guarantee that every invitation will work across countries or account regions.

Family-plan rules differ by service. Microsoft's cited page publishes a family-group condition without the check described in YouTube's same-residential-address rule and 30-day electronic check.

Microsoft separately says Microsoft 365 is not available in every market. APPI News could not find a universal country-by-country invitation matrix in the cited English pages; a specific cross-border invitation can only be confirmed from the participating accounts.

Stopping a share and removing a family member are separate actions

Microsoft says stopping a share removes the person's extra OneDrive storage and desktop-app benefit but does not automatically remove that person from the family group. An organizer must use the separate family-group control if the intention is to remove the person from that group as well.

Once sharing stops, the former member's OneDrive quota falls from one terabyte to five gigabytes and the desktop apps allow viewing and printing but no longer allow creating or editing files. Microsoft says mobile apps remain available without their paid productivity features.

Microsoft's sharing FAQ says the former member's files remain intact when the person leaves the group, is removed or loses the shared subscription. That statement describes the immediate end of benefits; it does not override the separate policy for an account that stays above its reduced storage limit.

An over-quota account can lose more than new uploads

Microsoft says an account above its cloud-storage quota cannot upload, edit or sync new OneDrive files, cannot send or receive Outlook.com email, and leaves existing OneDrive files read-only. An account that used more than five gigabytes while covered by the family subscription can enter that state after its shared quota is withdrawn.

Microsoft says a OneDrive account that remains over its limit for more than three months will be frozen and that, after six months, it may delete the OneDrive and all files in it. The page does not promise indefinite retention after sharing ends, so storage use and an independently controlled copy of needed files should be checked before removal.

Five checks before sharing or ending access

The dashboard and the invited account supply the final status for a particular share. A short record of the account, quota and membership state makes the consequences of either action visible before benefits change.

1. Confirm that the paying account holds Microsoft 365 Family and has an unused share among its five available places.
2. Use a separate Microsoft account for every member; the owner does not need to send a password or product key.
3. Check whether the invitee already belongs to another Microsoft family group before sending the 48-hour invitation.
4. After acceptance, confirm that the recipient's account shows the shared subscription and one-terabyte OneDrive quota.
5. Before stopping a share, compare the member's storage use with the five-gigabyte quota that will apply afterward and preserve needed files in storage the member controls.

Frequently asked questions

How many people can use Microsoft 365 Family?
One subscription holder can share benefits with up to five other people, for six users in total. Each person signs in through a separate Microsoft account.

Must all six people live at the same address?
The cited English Microsoft instructions require membership in the owner's family group but do not publish a shared-address or address-verification rule. APPI News could not verify from those pages whether account-country settings can block a particular cross-border invitation.

Can the subscription owner see every member's files?
Microsoft says personal files and account data remain separate unless their owner shares them. Shared Family email, calendar and OneNote locations are distinct from those private areas.

Does the five-device limit cap installations?
No. Microsoft says each person can install the apps on all of that person's devices but remain signed in on only five at the same time.

Are OneDrive files deleted as soon as sharing stops?
Microsoft says the files remain intact when the shared benefit ends, while the quota falls to five gigabytes. An account that stays over quota loses functions and may face file deletion under Microsoft's longer-term over-quota policy.