Can businesses claim credits after the Microsoft outage?

Microsoft’s agreement promises 99.9 percent monthly uptime for each covered product, including Outlook and OneDrive. If a service falls below that threshold, a business may qualify for a credit against a future bill. Individual workers cannot file claims or receive compensation; the right belongs to businesses that license the software.

The calculation is based on “user minutes”—the duration of an outage multiplied by the number of users shown to have been affected. Microsoft assesses each service separately, rather than treating Office 365 as one bundle, and prorates credits according to the uptime lost. A disruption limited to Outlook, for example, would not generate a credit for other services that remained available. Depending on the outage and the size of the business, the result could be only a few dollars.

Businesses must submit claims by the end of December. Customers who bought directly from Microsoft can file through the Office admin center, supplying details such as incident IDs and how long users could not access the service. Microsoft then calculates whether a credit is due.

Companies that bought through a Cloud Solution Provider or another reseller must ask that provider to submit a claim for them. Whether the provider does so promptly or effectively may vary. Microsoft does not issue credits automatically, so a qualifying business has to request one.