How much email storage does a small office in Malaysia need?

Most small offices need one mailbox per person who signs in, plus a few shared inboxes and aliases for addresses like sales@ and accounts@. Size each mailbox from what your staff use today, then add room for two or three years. When a mailbox is full it stops sending first and later stops receiving, so plan before that happens.

How do I find out how much space we use now?

Start with the numbers you already have. In Outlook on a PC, go to File, then Info, and look at the mailbox size under Mailbox Settings or Tools. In webmail, the quota bar usually sits at the bottom or in Settings. Write down the size for each person and how long they have been using that mailbox.

A simple sum works well: current size, divided by the years in use, times three. That gives a size that should last about three years. Staff who send drawings, scanned documents or photos will grow much faster than staff who mostly write short replies, so look at each person, not the office average.

What happens when a mailbox gets full?

Microsoft describes the stages for its business mailboxes. At about 98% the user gets a warning. At 99% the mailbox can no longer send. At 100% it can neither send nor receive, and people writing to you get a bounce message. Microsoft 365 business mailboxes are capped at 50 GB or 100 GB depending on the plan. Ask your email provider where its own limits sit, because a bounced customer email is easy to miss.

Do we need a separate account for sales@ and accounts@?

Often you do not. There are two cheaper ways to handle these addresses:

• Alias: an extra address that delivers into one person's mailbox. Google Workspace allows up to 30 aliases per user at no extra cost. Use it when one person handles that address.
• Shared mailbox or group: one inbox that several people can open. Microsoft says a shared mailbox can hold up to 50 GB without its own licence. Once full, it stops sending and later bounces incoming mail, like any other mailbox. Use it when two or more staff answer the same address.

Only one person can own a Google alias, so if several staff answer accounts@, Google recommends a group instead.

When should we archive?

Archive when a mailbox passes about 70% of its quota, or once a year, whichever comes first. Move closed projects and old years out of the inbox into an archive folder or archive mailbox. Keep invoices and contracts for as long as your accountant tells you to, and keep at least one backup copy outside the mailbox.

What to do

1. Check every mailbox size this week and note anyone above 70%.
2. Use the three year sum above to pick the plan size for each person.
3. Turn role addresses (sales@, info@, accounts@) into aliases or shared inboxes instead of paid user accounts where you can.
4. Set a yearly reminder to archive and to remove mailboxes of staff who have left, after their mail has been handed over.
5. If you are not sure whether you even need email hosting apart from your website plan, read our guide Do I need separate email hosting if I have web hosting?

How SyncTech can help

We can look at your current mailbox sizes with you and suggest a plan that fits. See our business email hosting services in Malaysia, or our spam-filtered email hosting if junk mail is part of what is filling your inboxes.

Source and credit

We are sharing facts from Microsoft and Google help pages. This guide is written by Synctech in our own words.

• Exchange Online limits, Microsoft Learn, retrieved 5 November 2026: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/exchange-online-service-description/exchange-online-limits
• About shared mailboxes, Microsoft Learn, retrieved 5 November 2026: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/email/about-shared-mailboxes
• Add or delete an alternate email address (email alias), Google Workspace Admin Help, retrieved 5 November 2026: https://support.google.com/a/answer/33327 Retrieved 5 November 2026. Microsoft, Microsoft 365, Outlook and Google Workspace are trademarks of their owners. Synctech is not connected with them. This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. If anything here is wrong, email support@synctech.com.my and we will correct it.