As Microsoft updates Office 365 services on a more frequent basis, we are starting to see differences emerge between SharePoint Online and SharePoint Server features and capabilities

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The following is a summary of software limits and boundaries that are significantly different for SharePoint Online compared to SharePoint Server or are only applicable to SharePoint Online

The first key difference is that there is no breakdown between threshold, supported and boundary limits. Configuration options are far more limited because the limits are set by the Farm Owner, which would be Microsoft. There is the odd exception where a default is provided but can be configured up to a maximum limit.

Information is accurate as of 26 August 2014.

Feature	Limit	Notes and Observations
Total included storage per tenancy	10GB + 500MB per user license	This is the amount of storage available for shared site collections (intranets, team sites etc.). Personal site quotas are separate. Each tenancy starts with 10GB and is granted an additional 500MB per qualifying user license. Additional storage can be purchased separately
Site Collection limit	1TB per site collection	(25GB for trial evaluations). This is the maximum size allowed per site collection
No. sites per site collection	2,000	Each site collection can contain up to 2,000 sites
No. items per list or library	5,000	According to the source, you can only have up to 5,000 items per list or library. However other documentation states that large lists are supported and we have successfully tested creating a list with more than 5,000 items in it. We don’t know if this a new limit being introduced… If it is, it is a significant change that would impact solution designs
File upload limit	2GB per file	The file upload limit applies to libraries. Don’t forget that only supported file types will be uploaded and filenames must not contain any special characters
File attachment size limit	250MB	The attachment limit applies to files being attached to list items. This is a new edition to the software limits (Summer 2014)
Sync Limit for OneDrive Libraries	20,000 items	Up to 20,000 items can be stored and sync’d in a OneDrive for Business Library. This limit is being worked on and we would expect it to be raised in the future to match competitors
Sync Limit for SharePoint libraries	5,000 items	Up to 5,000 items can be sync’d from a SharePoint library to a OneDrive for Business Library. This includes files and folders. <- this maybe why the limit has been specified for items in lists and libraries in general (see further up the table)
Number of external users	Unlimited	This now applies across all Office 365 plans. (And was increased from 10,000 to unlimited in Summer 2014).

Source: Microsoft TechNet – SharePoint Online: Software Limits and Boundaries