(Updated) Updates to Tenant External Recipient Rate Limit (TERRL) Quotas for New, Trial, and Education Tenants
Versions captured by this deployment. Earlier versions and notices may be missing; first observed is not first published.
Rollout
- Ends
- 31 Dec 2026
Rollout dates are often only in the text. When Microsoft moves them, the change shows under "What changed".
- Microsoft's start date
- 14 Aug 2026
- Last changed by Microsoft
- 29 Sep 2026
- First seen here
- 19 Oct 2026
- Versions seen
- 1
What the notice says
Microsoft's text, with its sections, lists and tables; source markup removedUpdated September 29, 2026: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.
What and Why
To strengthen protection against abuse and ensure fair use of Exchange Online resources, we are updating how the Tenant External Recipient Rate Limit (TERRL) quota is calculated for certain tenants.
These changes improve how quotas account for tenant age (how long the tenant has existed since creation), trial subscriptions, and educational organizations using free Education (EDU) licenses.
Rollout Schedule
- General Availability (Worldwide): Rolling out beginning mid-September 2026 and expected to complete by end of November 2026.
Impact on Your Organization
Who is affected
- Newly created tenants (first 60 days)
- Trial tenants
- Educational organizations with free EDU licenses
Platforms/Services
- Exchange Online
- Exchange admin center (EAC)
What will happen
TERRL quota calculations will change based on tenant status and licensing.
- New tenant quotas (based on tenant age):
- Trial tenants:
- Tenants with free EDU licenses (e.g. A1 licenses):
- Tenants without free EDU licenses:
- Less than 31 days: 10% of standard calculated quota
- 31–60 days: 25% of standard calculated quota
- More than 60 days: 100% of standard calculated quota
- Daily TERRL quota reduced from 5,000 to 500 external recipients
- New formula applied: 500 × (Purchased Email Licenses^0.7 + Free EDU Licenses^0.3) + 9500
- Free EDU licenses contribute to the quota at a lower weighting than purchased licenses
- Existing formula remains unchanged: 500 × (Purchased Email Licenses^0.7) + 9500
If a tenant exceeds its quota:
- Additional outbound messages to external recipients will be blocked until usage falls below the rolling 24-hour limit
- Senders will receive one of the following Non-Delivery Reports (NDRs):
- Trial tenants: 550 5.7.232 — Message blocked due to trial tenant external recipient limit
- Non-trial tenants: 550 5.7.233 — Message blocked due to tenant external recipient limit
Action Required / Recommendations
No immediate action is required.
Recommended actions:
- Review the Tenant Outbound External Recipients Rate report in the Exchange admin center: EAC > Reports > Mail flow > Tenant Outbound External Recipients Rate.
- Monitor:
- If your organization regularly operates near or above quota consider migrating high-volume, application-driven outbound email to a third-party bulk email service or purchasing more licenses to cover your volume needs.
- Current TERRL quota
- Outbound recipient volume
- Percentage of quota consumed
- Blocked recipients (if any)
- TERRL enforcement status
Learn more: Introducing Exchange Online Tenant Outbound Email Limits
Compliance considerations
No compliance considerations identified, review as appropriate for your organization.
What changed
Between the versions this installation saw, newest firstThis installation has seen one version of this notice, first on 19 Oct 2026. Later changes will show here.
Linked documentation
Microsoft pages the notice links toNot confirmed here
What this page cannot tell you- Whether your tenant is affected: this is Microsoft's notice, not a check of your settings.
- Versions before 19 Oct 2026: this installation first saw the notice after Microsoft posted it.
- 1 linked page has not been read yet.