In August, Microsoft announced that Microsoft 365 tenants will get 50 million Graph Connector items from September. Microsoft mentioned it again in September.
Graph Connector items were only included in E5 and Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses. 500 items were added to the tenant for each license. Alternatively, organizations could purchase the “Extra Graph Connector Capacity” add-on for the tenant. The add-on included one million Graph Connector items each and had its own monthly price.
In summary, this change has an annual value of CHF 537,300 (or EUR 561,660), list price.
With Graph Connectors for Microsoft Search, search in the tenant can be extended with external data, for example content from on-prem File Share, Azure DevOps, Jira Cloud, ServiceNow and others. Microsoft maintains a list of possible integrations. Once set up, Microsoft Search finds content from the external products. I myself tested the connectors for Azure DevOps and Confluence in Microsoft Search.
Microsoft 365 Copilot (formerly Copilot for Microsoft 365) can also benefit from Graph Connectors, see Graph Connectors for Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Microsoft Search indexes all your Microsoft 365 data to make it searchable for users. With Microsoft Graph connectors, your organization can index third-party data, ensuring it appears in Microsoft Search and Microsoft 365 Copilot results. This feature enhances the range of content sources searchable within your Microsoft 365 productivity apps and the broader Microsoft ecosystem. The third-party data can be hosted on-premises or in the public or private clouds. Microsoft Graph connectors respect the source permissions configured in your content source. As a result, users can only access content for which they have appropriate permissions
Each of the following licenses now includes the “Graph Connectors Search with Index” service plan. E5 and Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses are practically excluded from this, they already had the service plan.
- Microsoft 365 E5 / E3 / A5 / A3 / F3 / F1
- Office 365 E5 / E3 / E1 / F3 / A5 / A3
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium / Business Standard / Business Basic
- Microsoft 365 Copilot
Microsoft added the new service plan to the licenses on Tuesday.
The screenshot shows an example of Microsoft 365 E3. The service plan was not included a few days ago.
As a result, the Graph Connector items in the tenant have been increased many times over.
On Wednesday, Microsoft has changed the section for Data Sources in the Search Admin Center and informs the tenant now includes the 50 million items. The previous statistics on used items have been removed. 50 million items per tenant is now the maximum, see Licensing.
Organizations with the Graph Connector Capacity Add-on should contact their Microsoft licensing partner. They no longer need the add-on.
Setting up a Graph Connector is done in a short time (depending on the data source). Microsoft describes the setup for various data sources. The account requires the Search Administrator role for a configuration.
Please note that according to the license information, a connector supports up to 5 million items. For more items, you will need to contact the Microsoft Account Manager.
