Key takeaways
- OneDrive shows storage for each account in the Microsoft 365 admin center under Reports > Usage > OneDrive; add up Storage used (MB), divide by 1,024 for GB, and report it separately from SharePoint.
- The usage report lists only users with a valid OneDrive license, and deleted users drop out after 180 days, so ask your SharePoint admin whether older former employees' OneDrives still exist.
- Before exporting, set access delegation and a longer retention (30 to 3650 days) for deleted users' OneDrives; the clock starts only when an account is deleted from Microsoft Entra ID.
- You don't need to export anything to apply: have your storage in GB, years of history and seat count ready, and the data vendor anonymizes the records before any AI lab sees them.
01
What is OneDrive data, and why do AI labs and data vendors buy it?
The short answer
OneDrive data is the set of working files that each employee keeps in their own OneDrive storage: drafts, personal trackers, exported reports and attachments saved from email. AI labs (companies that build and train AI models) and data vendors (companies that anonymize business records and package them for those labs) buy a copy because these files show work in progress that never reached a shared site, and because each OneDrive has a single owner, its files reflect that person's job.
What a OneDrive account records
OneDrive for work or school is the personal file storage that comes with most Microsoft 365 business plans. Every licensed employee gets their own OneDrive, and the files in it start out private to that person until they choose to share them. Over the years it fills with spreadsheets, documents, presentations and saved attachments, plus the earlier versions of each.
This differs from SharePoint, where a team keeps files together on a shared site. A OneDrive holds one person's own view of the work, including files they never moved anywhere else.
Why one person's files teach an AI model something
An AI model learns by studying a very large number of examples and finding the patterns in them, and those examples are called training data. A OneDrive has one owner, so its files show how a single role does its work from the inside. An analyst's pricing sheets, a recruiter's candidate notes and a coordinator's schedules each reveal how that job is done day to day.
The finished documents on shared sites show what a company decided, while the working files show how people got there. Why AI companies want your data explains why labs pay for that second kind of record.
How OneDrive fits into a dataset
OneDrive files are priced as one part of a whole dataset, not on their own. micro1, the data vendor we typically refer companies to, pays them $100K to $2M or more per dataset, and the figure depends on the years of history and how completely the records show each job.
The Microsoft 365 overview shows how OneDrive connects with Teams and SharePoint, and what your data is worth explains how the pieces add up.
02
Where does OneDrive show how much data you have?
The short answer
OneDrive lists storage for every account in the Microsoft 365 admin center, on the Usage tab at Reports > Usage > OneDrive, in a column called Storage used (MB). Global Administrators, SharePoint Administrators and Reports Readers can open it. Add up the column and report the total in gigabytes (GB).
How to read your OneDrive storage
The steps below read the size of every OneDrive from Microsoft's own usage report. Microsoft's OneDrive usage report guide describes the same screen.
- Open the Microsoft 365 admin center with an account that is a Global Administrator, SharePoint Administrator or Reports Reader.
- Choose Reports > Usage, select OneDrive from the list of reports and switch to its Usage tab. Charts there summarize accounts, files and storage used.
- Choose Export to download the table of accounts as a CSV file. Add up the Storage used (MB) column and divide by 1,024 to get GB.
- When owners show as hidden, a Global Administrator can reveal them: under Settings > Org Settings > Services > Reports, untick Conceal user, group, and site names in all reports.
- Look at the Deleted column too, as described below.
Which plans, roles and columns apply
Any Microsoft 365 plan that includes OneDrive works. To view the report, an admin needs a role like Global Administrator, SharePoint Administrator, Exchange Administrator or Reports Reader. The exported table has one row per OneDrive.
| Column in the export | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Storage used (MB) | How much space that person's OneDrive uses, which you add up for the total. |
| Files | The number of files in that OneDrive, which you can quote as a file count. |
| Deleted | Whether the account has been deleted. Microsoft needs at least seven days to mark an account as deleted. |
| Owner principal name | The email address of the OneDrive's owner, hidden unless a Global Administrator reveals it. |
Why the report total can fall short
The report only includes users who hold a valid OneDrive license. A former employee whose license was removed may be missing from it. Deleted users stay in the report for 180 days and then drop out.
The Deleted column shows which accounts remain in the report only because they were recently deleted. Ask your SharePoint admin whether OneDrives belonging to older former employees still exist, because those files can be part of your history.
03
What should you know about your OneDrive data before you apply?
The short answer
Have three facts ready: how many gigabytes your OneDrives hold, how many years they cover and how many people have one. They go into the data manifest, the written summary of which apps hold your records, how many years each covers and roughly how much. You don't need to run an export to find them.
The storage size
The unit for OneDrive is gigabytes of storage used. Report the summed total from the usage report, and keep it apart from SharePoint, because OneDrive storage is counted separately from SharePoint site storage.
The years of history
The years of history run from the year your company began using OneDrive for work or school. The oldest files in the OneDrives of long-serving employees are a good check on that date.
The number of seats
Seats are the people who hold a OneDrive license, together with former employees whose OneDrives have not yet been removed. The export also has a Files column, whose total is a file count to quote alongside the storage figure.
What you don't need to do first
You don't need to export anything to apply, and you don't need to clean or scrub an export. The data vendor anonymizes the records before anyone else sees them, and nothing moves until a lawyer-reviewed license is signed. The application, the intro call and each later step are laid out in how to sell your company's data.
04
How do you export your OneDrive files and history?
The short answer
An admin in the eDiscovery Manager role group, with a Microsoft 365 Enterprise E3 or E5 license, creates a case and a search of the OneDrives in the Microsoft Purview portal, exports it with departed users included and downloads the packages within 14 days. For one person's files, that person, their manager or the secondary owner can sync the OneDrive or download from the browser. Before you start, protect the OneDrives of people who have left.
Who can run an export
According to Microsoft, whoever runs an eDiscovery export must hold a Microsoft 365 Enterprise E3 or E5 license, and a SharePoint E3 license as well when SharePoint content is part of the export. The standard edition of eDiscovery for sites and files comes with Office 365 E3 and Microsoft 365 E3 and above. Microsoft's guide to exporting eDiscovery search results sets out these rules.
Step one: protect the OneDrives of people who have left
A OneDrive is deleted on a schedule after its owner's account is deleted, so do this before more people leave. Microsoft's pages on OneDrive retention and deletion and on setting retention for deleted users describe these two steps.
- Start in the SharePoint admin center at More features > User profiles > Open and choose Setup My Sites. Make sure Enable access delegation is ticked, and name a secondary owner, who gets access when a departing person has no manager on record.
- Go to Settings > Retention in the SharePoint admin center and enter the number of days in Days to retain files a deleted user's OneDrive. You can enter any value from 30 up to 3650.
Step two: the eDiscovery export
eDiscovery is Microsoft's tool for searching a company's records and collecting them for legal and compliance work. These steps use it to collect whole OneDrives.
- Put the exporting admin into the eDiscovery Manager role group, which lives at Settings > Role groups in the Microsoft Purview portal.
- Go to eDiscovery > Cases, make a case, and add a search aimed either at all people and groups or at just the people whose OneDrives you need.
- Choose Export and tick the option for departed users. Then pick Export items with items report, and decide how many versions you want under Select document versions.
- Collect the finished packages from Process manager; they expire 14 days after creation.
For one person: sync or download
When only one person's files are needed, that person, their manager or the secondary owner can run the OneDrive sync app against the account and copy the files out. Another way is to pick the files in the browser and choose Download. Both routes give only the current version of each file, so use eDiscovery when earlier versions matter.
A single file can be up to 250 GB, and a download of several files becomes a ZIP capped at 20 GB overall. Microsoft advises keeping the total synced to one computer under 300,000 files.
How long a departed person's OneDrive survives
The retention period starts only when the user account is deleted from Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft's service for managing sign-ins and accounts. Blocking someone from signing in or removing their license does not start it. After the account is deleted, the OneDrive goes through the stages in the diagram and table below.
| Stage | How long | Can you export it? |
|---|---|---|
| Retained, with the manager or secondary owner holding access | 30 days by default; set from 30 to 3650 days | Yes, through eDiscovery with departed users included, the sync app or a download |
| In the site collection recycle bin | 93 days | No search is possible, and an admin can restore it only with PowerShell |
| Unlicensed and archived | Archived on the 93rd unlicensed day | Holds and retention are honored in the paid archive, but after 12 months of unpaid archive the data might be deleted regardless |
Retention policies and holds always take precedence over this schedule. A OneDrive placed on an eDiscovery hold is not deleted until the hold is removed.
What a OneDrive export leaves out
A download or a sync gives current files only, and an eDiscovery search cannot reach a OneDrive that has moved to the site collection recycle bin. Files restricted by data loss prevention (DLP) rules, which block certain sensitive files from being shared, are skipped as well. If a person's OneDrive was archived or removed, its files will not be in the export.
How long an export takes
Microsoft gives no fixed time. An export that runs for more than seven days is cancelled, so split a large company into several exports by user group or date range.
Sources: Microsoft Learn, OneDrive usage report, OneDrive retention and deletion, Set the OneDrive retention for deleted users and Export search results in eDiscovery. Steps checked against these pages in November 2026.
05
What stays private when OneDrive data is licensed?
The short answer
The company decides whose OneDrives are included, and the data vendor replaces names and other personal details with consistent stand-ins before an AI lab sees anything. The company keeps ownership of its files, and the license covers defined records for a defined use.
You choose what is in scope
An eDiscovery search only collects the OneDrives you choose, so private folders holding no business records can be kept out of the export. A company can license a few departments' accounts and leave the rest. The data vendor also deletes records too sensitive to clean safely instead of anonymizing them.
Names are replaced before a lab sees them
Anonymization means replacing every detail that identifies a person, such as a name or an email address, with a stand-in that is the same every time it appears. The file still reads as a whole, so a lab can learn from it, but it no longer says who the people are. The diagram below shows one spreadsheet before and after.
The method, including what is deleted outright and how you review samples, is in how company data is anonymized for AI training.
Ownership and payment
Licensing gives the buyer limited rights to a copy, while the company keeps ownership of the originals. The terms that matter, such as exclusivity, permitted use and deletion, are covered in data licensing. micro1 pays in full within 30 days of accepting the data, usually as a single payment.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Can we get OneDrive files from employees who have already left?
Often yes, if the account was deleted recently. For 30 days by default, the manager or secondary owner can reach the OneDrive, and it then sits in the site collection recycle bin for 93 days, where only a PowerShell restore can bring it back. A retention policy or hold can keep it longer.
Why are some people missing from the OneDrive usage report?
Only users with a valid OneDrive license appear in the report. An account takes at least seven days to be marked deleted, and deleted users remain listed for 180 days before they drop out.
If we block a leaver's sign-in or remove their license, does their OneDrive start to expire?
No. The retention period begins only when the user account is deleted from Microsoft Entra ID. Separately, any OneDrive that lacks a valid license is archived on its 93rd unlicensed day.
Is OneDrive part of our SharePoint storage number?
No, so report the two on separate lines. The SharePoint allowance Microsoft quotes (1 TB plus 10 GB per license) leaves out the OneDrive each licensed person receives, and the OneDrive usage report has a total of its own.
How long can we make Microsoft keep a departed person's OneDrive?
Any time from 30 to 3650 days. An admin sets it in the SharePoint admin center under Settings > Retention, and the setting applies to the next user who is deleted and to anyone already being deleted.
Do we need to export OneDrive before we apply?
No. The application takes about two minutes and shares no data. You only need your approximate storage in GB, your years of history and your seat count for the intro call, and the usage report gives you the first. The full export is needed later, when the records are transferred after you sign the license.
Can we leave personal folders out?
Yes. The eDiscovery search covers only the OneDrives you choose, and private folders without business records can be left out.
What are OneDrive files worth to AI labs and data vendors?
OneDrive files are priced as part of a whole dataset rather than on their own. Companies are paid $100K to $2M or more per dataset, according to micro1, and the price depends on the years of history and how completely the records show each job. What your data is worth explains the factors.
Bottom line
Know what is in OneDrive, then see what it is worth
You don't need to export anything to apply. Apply in two minutes, describe your records on the intro call, and micro1, the data vendor we typically refer companies to, prices the whole dataset and sends an offer 1–2 days later.
Not legal, tax or financial advice. Figures come from micro1's published pages and public reporting as of November 2026.