Office 365 Government

Important

Microsoft Teams is experiencing a tremendous spike in online calls and audio/video conferencing due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

In response to the unprecedented increase in calls, and to ensure continuity and availability, Microsoft is allowing Microsoft Teams GCC audio/video servers to leverage processing capacity in our commercial datacenters, as well as in our government datacenters.

These audio/video servers reside within the Microsoft Azure FedRAMP High accreditation boundary servers in the United States and do not store any customer content. However, these servers are processing audio and video for calls and conferences and are operating under our commercial staff during this interim period.

Qualified, screened personnel are monitoring these servers for potential access to customer data by reviewing any interactive log-ons to these servers. Qualified personnel meet GCC requirements for access to customer content. For details about screening requirements, see the GCC service description.

Thank you for your support as we take steps to ensure that our services remain available and reliable in these extraordinary times.

In response to the unique and evolving requirements of the United States public sector, Microsoft has created Office 365 Government plans (or Office 365 Government). This service description provides an overview of features that are specific to Office 365 Government US environments. We recommend that you read this service description alongside other Microsoft 365 and Office 365 service descriptions.

How to use this service description

The Office 365 Government service description is designed to serve as an overlay to the general Office 365 service description. It defines the unique commitments and differences compared to Office 365 Enterprise offerings.

About Office 365 Government environments

Office 365 Government plans are monthly subscriptions and can be licensed to an unlimited number of users.

  • The Office 365 GCC environment provides compliance with federal requirements for cloud services, including FedRAMP High, Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations Supplement (DFARS), and requirements for criminal justice and federal tax information systems (CJI and FTI data types).

  • The Office 365 GCC High and DoD environments deliver compliance with Department of Defense Security Requirements Guidelines, Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations Supplement (DFARS), and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).

In addition to the features and capabilities of Office 365, the organizations that use Office 365 Government benefit from the following features unique to Office 365 Government:

  • Your organization's customer content is logically segregated from customer content in Microsoft's commercial Office 365 Services.

  • Your organization's customer content is stored within the United States.

  • Access to your organization's customer content is restricted to screened Microsoft personnel.

  • Office 365 Government complies with certifications and accreditations that are required for US Public Sector customers.

Customer eligibility

Office 365 Government is available to (1) US federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government entities, and (2) other entities that handle data that is subject to government regulations and requirements and where use of Office 365 Government is appropriate to meet these requirements, subject to validation of eligibility. Validation of eligibility by Microsoft will include confirmation of handling data subject to International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), law enforcement data subject to the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Policy, or other government-regulated or controlled data. Validation may require proof of registration with the U.S. Department of State for ITAR data or sponsorship by a government entity with specific requirements for the handling of data. The Office 365 DoD environment is for the exclusive use of the United States Department of Defense.

While eligibility criteria are consistent across Office 365 Government offerings, Microsoft will only agree to ITAR contract language for the GCC High environment.

Entities with questions about eligibility for Office 365 Government should consult their account team.

Upon renewal of a customer's contract for Office 365 Government, revalidation of eligibility is required.

Customer content located within the United States

Office 365 Government services are provided from datacenters physically located in the United States. Customer content is stored at rest in datacenters physically located only in the U.S.A. This includes but isn't limited to:

  • Exchange Online mailbox content (email bodies, calendar entries, and the content of e-mail attachments)
  • SharePoint Online site content and the files stored within that site
  • Microsoft Teams persistent chat threads
  • Skype for Business archived conversations, uploaded documents, and whiteboarding sessions
  • Microsoft Planner plans
  • Forms data
  • PowerApps/PowerAutomate data

Office 365 Government and third-party services

Office 365 provides the ability to integrate third-party applications into SharePoint Online sites, Teams, Office applications included in Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise (such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook), and Outlook Web App. In addition, Office 365 supports integration with third-party service providers. These third-party applications and services might involve storing, transmitting, and processing your organization's customer data on third-party systems that are outside of the Office 365 infrastructure and therefore aren't covered by the Office 365 compliance and data protection commitments. It's recommended that you review the privacy and compliance statements provided by the third parties when assessing the appropriate use of these services for your organization.

Restricted data access by administrators

Access to Office 365 Government customer content by Microsoft administrators is restricted to screened personnel. For personnel screening details, refer to the service description page for each respective environment (GCC or GCC High and DoD).

FastTrack Center onboarding assistance

With the FastTrack Center Benefit for Office 3651, you work remotely with FastTrack Specialists to get your Office 365 environment ready for use and plan rollout and usage within your organization. The FastTrack process provides onboarding and user adoption services.

Onboarding consists of:

  • Core onboarding - These are tasks required for tenant configuration and integration with Microsoft Entra ID if needed. Core onboarding also provides the baseline for onboarding other eligible services.

  • Service onboarding and migration - Service onboarding tasks enable scenarios in your tenant. Data migration (including email and files) is covered in Data Migration.2

User adoption services are composed of tasks that provide guidance for you to ensure your users are aware of the eligible services and can use them to drive business value. This assistance occurs in parallel to onboarding activities.

Specific information on the FastTrack Center process can be found here. For a breakdown of engagement roles and responsibilities, review FastTrack Responsibilities as well as Your Responsibilities.

1 You must purchase at least 150 licenses from the list of the eligible plans to receive FastTrack services.
2 Data Migration services are available to Office 365 tenants with 500 or more licenses.

Data migrations performed by FastTrack

Customers who choose the FastTrack migration benefit will need to grant access to the team managing their data migrations. These personnel are US citizens and undergo the following background checks before performing migrations for customers of Office 365 US Government services.

Background screening GCC GCC High and DoD
Verification of US citizenship Yes Yes
Employment history check Yes Yes
Education verification Yes Yes
Social Security number (SSN) search Yes Yes
Criminal history check (7 year) Yes Yes

Office 365 US Government and Azure Government ExpressRoute

Office 365 US Government customers can use Azure Government ExpressRoute services to connect privately to supported Office 365 services instead of connecting over the public internet.

For details, such as supported providers, pricing models, and more, review the Azure ExpressRoute information.

For details on Office 365 support for Azure ExpressRoute, see Azure ExpressRoute for Office 365.

System requirements

For system requirements for Office 365 US Government plans, see System requirements for Office on the office.com products site.

Microsoft Defender portal and Microsoft Purview compliance portal

For more information, links, availability, and information about the Microsoft Defender portal and the Microsoft Purview compliance portal, see Microsoft 365 Guidance for security & compliance.

Service availability for each plan

Each Office 365 plan includes a number of individual services, such as Exchange Online and SharePoint Online. The following table shows the services that are available in each Office 365 US Government plan.

Office 365 service Office 365 Government G1 Office 365 Government G3 Office 365 Government G5 Office 365 Government F3
Microsoft 365 for the web Yes Yes Yes Yes
Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise No Yes Yes No
Exchange Online Yes Yes Yes Yes
Exchange Online Protection Yes Yes Yes Yes
SharePoint Online Yes Yes Yes Yes
OneDrive for Business Yes Yes Yes Yes
Skype for Business (Instant Messaging & Presence) Yes Yes Yes Yes
Power BI Pro No1 No1 Yes No1
Project Online No1 No1 No1 No1
Voice - Phone System, Audio Conferencing No1 No1 Yes3 No
Visio for the web No4 No4 No4 No4
Viva Engage2 No2 No2 No2 No2

1 Not included but can be purchased as a separate add-on. Project Online includes Project Online Desktop Client as a part of the subscription.
2 Viva Engage Enterprise is not a component of Office 365 US Government, but may be acquired at no cost as a standalone offer for each user licensed for Office 365 in GCC. This offer is currently limited to customers that purchase Office 365 GCC under Enterprise Agreements and Enterprise Subscription Agreements. Viva Engage is not available in GCC High or DoD.
3 Calling Plan is an add-on (add language or bring your own trunk).
4 Not included but can be purchased as a separate add-on. Visio for the web includes the Visio desktop app as a part of the subscription.

Platform features

The following table lists the platform features and services that are available across the Office 365 US Government plans.

Feature Office 365 Government G1 Office 365 Government G3 Office 365 Government G5 Office 365 Government F3
Office 365 administration
Use the Microsoft 365 admin center to administer Office 365 Yes13 Yes13 Yes Yes13
Manage core service settings from Office 365 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Use Windows PowerShell to manage Office 365 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Protect content by using Azure Information Protection No1 Yes12 Yes12 Yes12
Office 365 suite features Office 365 Government G1 Office 365 Government G3 Office 365 Government G5 Office 365 Government F3
Microsoft Bookings No Yes18 Yes18 No
Microsoft Power Automate Yes Yes Yes Yes
Microsoft Forms Yes Yes Yes
Yes
Microsoft Graph API Yes Yes Yes Yes
Microsoft Viva Insights Yes14 Yes14 Yes14 No
Microsoft Viva Connections Yes24 Yes24 Yes24 Yes24
Microsoft Planner Yes Yes Yes Yes
Microsoft PowerApps Yes Yes Yes Yes
Shifts for Teams (replaces Microsoft StaffHub)23 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Microsoft Stream (Classic) Yes16, 21 Yes16, 21 Yes16, 21 Yes16, 17, 21
Microsoft Stream (on SharePoint) Yes22 Yes22 Yes22 Yes22
Microsoft Sway No No No No
Microsoft Teams Yes Yes Yes Yes
Office Delve Yes14 Yes14 Yes14 Yes14
Office 365 Groups Yes Yes Yes Yes
User account management Office 365 Government G1 Office 365 Government G3 Office 365 Government G5 Office 365 Government F3
Cloud identity, Federated identity, or Multi-factor authentication Yes Yes Yes Yes
Office 365 desktop setup Yes Yes Yes Yes
Manage users with Office 365 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Bulk upload using .csv files Yes7 Yes7 Yes7 Yes7
Directory Sync tool Yes Yes Yes Yes
Exchange simple (cutover) migration Yes Yes Yes Yes
Delete accounts and reset user passwords from Microsoft 365 or by using Windows PowerShell3 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Users can change their own password4 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Manage licenses Yes5, 6 Yes5, 6 Yes5, 6 Yes5, 6
Manage security groups from Office 365 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Multiple administrator roles available Yes Yes Yes Yes
Allow a partner to administer Office 365 for you Yes9 Yes9 Yes9 Yes9
Microsoft Entra services Yes Yes Yes Yes
Domains Office 365 Government G1 Office 365 Government G3 Office 365 Government G5 Office 365 Government F3
Add custom 2nd-level domains, like fourthcoffee.com Yes Yes Yes Yes
Add custom 3rd-level domains, like marketing.fourthcoffee.com Yes Yes Yes Yes
Add up to 900 custom domains Yes Yes Yes Yes
Domain ownership verification required for custom domains Yes Yes Yes Yes
Service health and continuity Office 365 Government G1 Office 365 Government G3 Office 365 Government G5 Office 365 Government F3
Status information available on the Service health or Service status page Yes Yes Yes Yes
Status of individual alerts available on the Microsoft 365 admin center dashboard Yes Yes Yes Yes
Service health RSS feed Yes Yes Yes Yes
Reports Office 365 Government G1 Office 365 Government G3 Office 365 Government G5 Office 365 Government F3
Activity reports Yes Yes Yes Yes
Microsoft Graph Usage Reports APIs Yes Yes Yes Yes
Microsoft Graph API (BETA) Yes Yes Yes Yes
Service updates Office 365 Government G1 Office 365 Government G3 Office 365 Government G5 Office 365 Government F3
Regular updates provided to all customers Yes Yes Yes Yes
Notifications sent to Message Center when action is required Yes14 Yes14 Yes14 Yes14
Roadmap.office.com for some service updates No10, 12 No10, 12 No10, 12 No10, 12
Option to turn on Targeted Release Yes8 Yes8 Yes8 Yes8
Help and training Office 365 Government G1 Office 365 Government G3 Office 365 Government G5 Office 365 Government F3
Online help Yes Yes Yes Yes
Community Yes Yes Yes Yes
Other self-help resources Yes Yes Yes Yes
Self-paced training Yes Yes Yes Yes
Networking Office 365 Government G1 Office 365 Government G3 Office 365 Government G5 Office 365 Government F3
IPv4 and IPv6 protocols Yes Yes Yes Yes
Trust Office 365 Government G1 Office 365 Government G3 Office 365 Government G5 Office 365 Government F3
Privacy, security, and transparency
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps (formerly Microsoft Cloud App Security) No10, 16 No10, 16 Yes16 No10, 16
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 No10, 15 No10, 15 Yes15 No10, 15
Microsoft Purview Customer Lockbox No10 No10 Yes No10
Microsoft Purview Customer Key19 No No Yes No
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Premium) No10 No10 Yes No10
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Standard) No10 No10 Yes No10
Microsoft Purview Audit (Standard)20 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Microsoft Purview Audit (Premium)20 No No Yes No
Microsoft Secure Score11 Yes7, 12 Yes7, 12 Yes7, 12 Yes7, 12
Threat Intelligence No10 No10 Yes No10
Compliance
SAS 70 / SSAE16 Assessments Yes Yes Yes Yes
ISO 27001 certified Yes Yes Yes Yes
EU Model Clauses Yes Yes Yes Yes
EU Safe Harbor Yes Yes Yes Yes
HIPAA-Business Associate Agreement Yes Yes Yes Yes
FISMA Authority to Operate Yes Yes Yes Yes
Microsoft Data Processing Agreement Yes Yes Yes Yes
PCI DSS Level One Yes Yes Yes Yes
PCI-governed PAN data No No No No
BlackBerry Office 365 Government G1 Office 365 Government G3 Office 365 Government G5 Office 365 Government F3
Use BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) No2 No2 No2 No2
Partners
Create trial invitations and purchase orders for a customer who is using the specified plan No9 No9 No9 No9
Provide delegated administration No9 No9 No9 No9
Service Level Agreement Yes Yes Yes Yes
Product use rights Yes Yes Yes Yes

1 Azure Information Protection is not included but can be purchased as a separate add-on and will enable the supported Information Rights Management (IRM) features. Some Azure Information Protection features require a subscription to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise, which is not included with Office 365 Government G1.
2 Existing BBCS and BIS customers can continue use of the service. New customers are not being accepted.
3 If using directory synchronization, you must delete accounts or change passwords by using Active Directory, rather than the Office 365 portal or by using the Microsoft Entra module for Windows PowerShell.
4 To learn how to set self-service password management policies for users, see Reset your work or school password using security info.
5 Reducing seats that were purchased with a term discount may be subject to an early termination fee. This is not applicable to subscriptions paid on a monthly basis.
6 The following plans do not support license seat changes from the Microsoft 365 admin center: Office 365 Government G1, Office 365 Government G3, Office 365 Government F3.
7 Not yet available in GCC High, but coming soon.
8 For Office 365 Government G1, G3, and F3, Office 365 for business roadmap apply; however, there may be some differences or delays for specific service updates due to compliance requirements.
9 Not yet available in Office 365 Government offerings, but coming soon.
10 Not included, but can be purchased as a separate add-on in GCC.
11 Available at https://securescore.office.com. Requires admin permissions. For more information, see Microsoft Secure Score.
12 Not yet available in DoD environment, but coming soon.
13 Admin center does not include usage analytics in DoD or GCC High environments.
14 Viva Insights for personal insights is available in GCC, GCC High (excluding Headspace) and DoD (excluding Headspace and Praise). The Viva Insights Outlook add-in and inline suggestions are not available in GCC High and DoD. The Viva Insights subscription is not available in GCC, GCC High & DoD.
15 Anti-phishing for user and domain impersonation and spoof intelligence are not yet available in GCC High and DoD.
16 Not yet available in GCC environment but coming soon.
17 Consumption only for Microsoft Stream: no publishing or sharing.
18 Not available for the Microsoft Graph API or Microsoft Teams.
19 For more information, see Service encryption with Customer Key.
20 Audit in Microsoft 365 provides organizations with visibility into many types of audited activities across different services in Microsoft 365. Use the Security & Compliance Portal audit log search to view user and administrator activity in your organization. You can also use the Office 365 Management Activity API to retrieve events from the unified audit log. When an audited activity is performed by a user or admin, an audit record is generated and stored in the audit log for the customer organization. The length of time that an audit record is retained (and searchable in the audit log) depends on the customer's Office 365 or Microsoft 365 Enterprise subscription and the type of license assigned to specific users.
21 Stream (classic) will eventually be replaced with Stream (on SharePoint).
22 Stream (on SharePoint) is used to upload your videos to SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams. This is already supported in all Government offerings. Additional enhancements like the Stream start page in Office, closed captions, transcripts, etc are on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap.
23 Shifts for Teams is available in all Enterprise SKUs where Teams is available. Shifts is available in GCC environments, but not in GCC High or DoD environments.
24 Viva Connections is available in G3/G5 (and in G1/F3 with an add-on) on mobile and tablet devices in GCC, GCC High and DoD environments with limited features. The desktop experience, multiple connections experiences, centralized Viva Connections administration within the Microsoft 365 Admin center, Announcements, and Analytics features are not available in GCC, GCC High and DoD environments.

Office application availability and enterprise value

The following table shows the Office application features that are available across Office 365 US Government plans.

Application/feature Office 365 Government G1 Office 365 Government G3 Office 365 Government G5 Office 365 Government F3
Office applications
Microsoft Word7 No Yes Yes No
Microsoft Excel7 No Yes Yes No
Microsoft PowerPoint7 No Yes Yes No
Microsoft OneNote7 No Yes Yes No
Microsoft Outlook7 No Yes Yes No
Microsoft Forms7 Yes Yes Yes No
Microsoft Whiteboard7 No Yes Yes No
Microsoft Publisher No Yes Yes No
Microsoft Access No Yes Yes No
Skype for Business Yes3 Yes Yes Yes3
Office for Mac for Office 365 No Yes Yes No
Office Mobile for iPad/iPhone Yes Yes Yes Yes
Office Mobile for Android Yes Yes Yes Yes
Office Mobile for Windows Phone Yes Yes4 Yes4 Yes
Office Mobile for Windows 10 tablets Yes Yes Yes Yes
Outlook for iOS and Android5, 4 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Enterprise value Office 365 Government G1 Office 365 Government G3 Office 365 Government G5 Office 365 Government F3
5 installs per user on PC or Mac No Yes Yes No
Automated user account provisioning Yes Yes Yes Yes
Multilingual user interface No Yes Yes No
Client push deployment No Yes4 Yes4 No
Client support for on-premises Exchange No Yes Yes No
Client support for on-premises SharePoint No Yes Yes No
Control of software updates No Yes Yes No
Database Compare No Yes Yes No
Desktop virtualization No Yes Yes No
Excel Spreadsheet Compare No Yes Yes No
Excel Spreadsheet Inquire No Yes Yes No
Exchange Online and SharePoint Online Archiving and Compliance No Yes Yes No
Group Policy support No Yes Yes No
Information Rights Management using Azure Information Protection No1 Yes6 Yes6 No1
Information Rights Management using Windows Server AD RMS Yes2 Yes2 Yes2 Yes2
Office Add-in, ActiveX, and BHO support No Yes Yes No
OneNote client access to notebooks on SharePoint Server, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Office 365 No Yes Yes No
Office Lens No No No No
Office Telemetry No Yes4 Yes4 No
Offline support for client applications No Yes Yes No
Optimized side-by-side client installation No Yes Yes No
3D Maps(Power Map for Excel) No No No No
Power Pivot for Excel No Yes4 Yes4 No
Power Query for Excel No Yes4 Yes4 No
Roaming settings No Yes Yes No
Shared computer activation No Yes Yes No
Support for blocking cloud-based file storage No Yes Yes No
Version upgrades No Yes4 Yes4 No
Volume activation (KMS/MAK) No No No No

1 Azure Information Protection is not included but can be purchased as a separate add-on and will enable the supported Information Rights Management (IRM) features. Some Azure Information Protection features require a subscription to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise, which is not included with Office 365 Government G1 or Office 365 Government F3.
2 Windows Server AD RMS is an on-premises server that must be purchased and managed separately to enable the supported IRM features.
3 Skype for Business Basic is available for all customers. The Skype for Business desktop client is a locally installed application that provides presence, instant messaging, and conferencing features for Office 365 plans that include Skype for Business Online. Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise, and Office 365 Enterprise E3 include the full Skype application, which includes additional features such as advanced telephony support, archiving, and compliance features. A Skype for Business Online license must be assigned for each user. For more information on Lync Basic features, see Skype for Business Online client comparison tables.
4 Not yet available in GCC High or DoD environments, but coming soon.
5 See Using Outlook for iOS and Android in the Government Community Cloud for more details.
6 Not yet available in Office 365 DoD environment, but coming soon.
7 Applications are fully available in the government clouds, with the exception of the specific features not available at this time. See Office application feature availability for details.