There’s a free Microsoft Groups tier now, and there’ll proceed to be a free Microsoft Groups tier after April 12, 2023. However in a bureaucratic twist, neither product could have something to do with the opposite. Present customers of Microsoft Groups Free will both have to create new accounts in a brand new tier known as Microsoft Groups (free), dropping all their Groups knowledge within the course of, or improve to a $4-per-user-per-month Microsoft Groups Necessities tier to maintain all their stuff.
Microsoft spells out the adjustments on this support page concerning the retirement of Microsoft Groups Free, now known as Microsoft Groups Free (traditional). Information from Microsoft Groups Free (traditional) will be downloaded and saved till the service shuts down on April 12, however there is not any automated course of for importing these information or different consumer accounts right into a Microsoft Groups (free) account.
Microsoft’s product web page positions the brand new Microsoft Groups (free) tier as a product for house customers and households, however the options it affords are fairly much like the previous traditional tier total. Video calls nonetheless prime out at 100 individuals and a one-hour runtime (one-on-one conferences can run for as much as 30 hours). Every Groups (free) consumer will get 5GB of storage, whereas Groups Free (traditional) customers acquired 2GB every and a 10GB pool of shared storage. Each merchandise provide limitless chatting and entry to shared information, process lists, and polls.
The Groups Necessities tier affords limitless group conferences of as much as 30 hours in size with as much as 300 individuals and 10GB of cloud storage for all of your paid customers. Nevertheless it’s lacking some options in comparison with the more-expensive Microsoft 365 bundles, like entry to the erstwhile Microsoft Office apps or recorded conferences with transcripts.