Microsoft 365 Message Center Archive

MC693860 - Estimating cost of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for Exchange, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Endpoint

Message ID

MC693860

View in Message Center

Service

Microsoft 365 suite

Last Updated

Nov 20, 2024

Published Nov 27, 2023

Tag

Updated message
New feature
User impact
Admin impact

Roadmap ID

160009

View in M365 Roadmap

Platforms

Web

Summary

The OCR Cost Estimator has been launched for Microsoft 365 services, allowing customers to estimate OCR costs without needing an Azure Subscription. The rollout timeline has been updated, with Public Preview and full rollout expected between August and December 2024. Users with specific role groups can access the estimator on compliance.microsoft.com. Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 160009 is associated with this update.

More information

Updated November 18, 2024: We have updated the timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

The OCR Cost Estimator allows customers to estimate the potential cost for using Optical Character Recognition (OCR). OCR can scan images for sensitive content and is chargeable based on the number of images scanned.

With the launch of the OCR Cost Estimator, customers can now estimate OCR costs without any pre-requisites. This means that customers will no longer be required to set up an Azure Subscription for billing first and can accurately estimate the cost they would have incurred while using OCR.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 160009

When this will happen:

Public Preview: We will begin rolling out late August 2024 (previously early August) and is expected to be complete by late November 2024 (previously late September)

General Availability: We will begin rolling out in early December 2024 (previously late October) and is expected to be complete by late December 2024 (previously late November).

How this will affect your organization:

The primary use case is to see the potential cost that you might have incurred while using OCR.

The OCR Cost Estimator will allow you to try out different workload/user and site scope combinations to find the best setting for you to use OCR, and everything is free of cost. You will be able to see breakdown of cost and volume of images in the dashboards. The ability to download reports for the data is also available.

different scope combinations

breakdown of volume

What you need to do to prepare:

Login to compliance.microsoft.com and “Start Cost Estimator” under Settings > Optical Character Recognition.

Users with either of the following role groups will be able to start the OCR Cost Estimator.

  • Compliance Data Administrator
  • Compliance Administrator
  • Information Protection
  • Information Protection Admin

 Additional Resources: