Options for adding your domain to Office 365

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If you want your hosted email or other services to use a domain that you own, like fourthcoffee.com, rather than the onmicrosoft.com domain you were given at signup, you can add your custom domain to Microsoft Office 365 for professionals and small businesses.

Here’s how:

  1. Add the domain name to Office 365.

  2. Verify that the domain name belongs to you. To do this, add a DNS record at your DNS hosting provider website, wait for the information to update through the DNS system, and then request that Office 365 verify that the record is there.

  3. Update your DNS name server records to point DNS traffic for your domain to Office 365. After the update is propagated through the DNS system, you can use your Office 365 services with your domain name.

    Note

    Office 365 hosts your DNS after you add your domain so the required DNS records for your Office 365 services (Microsoft Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Lync Online) are configured for you. To learn more about DNS, see DNS basics and Work with domain names and DNS records in Office 365.

    OR

    Instead of updating your name server records to point to Office 365, you can continue to host your DNS with your current DNS hosting provider. If you choose this option, you have to set up all the DNS records for Office 365 services at your DNS hosting provider before email and other services will work.

Specific instructions vary depending on what you want to do. Office 365 doesn’t provide a custom domain for you, but you can easily purchase one yourself. (How? See Buy a domain name.)

Note

You can add multiple domains to your Office 365 account. However, you can’t add the same domain to different Microsoft cloud services. So, for example, when you add your domain to Office 365, you can’t add the same custom domain to another Office 365 subscription.

What do you want to do?

See Also

Work with domain names and DNS records in Office 365
Locate your domain services or buy a new domain
Use a custom domain name for your SharePoint Online public-facing website address