Migrate away from Rackspace for M365 admin directly to Microsoft.

Question

Migrate away from Rackspace for M365 admin directly to Microsoft.

Damien 61

I currently manage the M365 tenant for the company I work for and the billing is done through Rackspace as we used to have hosted Exchange with them, but now I just login through them to access the M365 admin centres, but I have recently found out that it would actually be a lot cheaper for us to just do the billing through Microsoft directly. We have no hosting or anything with Rackspace its just the M365.

Is there an official process I need to go through or is it purely telling Rackspace that I no longer what there service and just setup billing directly with Microsoft?

We have used Rackspace for over a decade at this point so its not like we are under a 12 month contract with them anymore.

Cheers....

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Answer 1

Allison-H 1,100 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi @Damien

Welcome Microsoft Q&A forum

I understand your company wants to switch Microsoft 365 billing from Rackspace to Microsoft directly to save costs. If you're not under a current contract with Rackspace, you are free to transition your billing. Here are a few steps to make it happen:

1.Check Admin Access: Ensure you have Global Admin rights in the M365 Admin Center. If not, contact Rackspace to grant access.

2.Contact Rackspace to inform them you want to stop their M365 billing service. Request:

-Tenant ID and M365 license details.

-Confirmation that no contract obligations remain.

3.Contact Microsoft: please refer this link and contact Microsoft to request a switch to direct billing. Microsoft will assist with:

-Verifying your tenant.

-Setting up a new payment method (credit card/bank transfer).

-Transferring licenses without service interruption.

4.Set Up Billing with Microsoft:

-Go to M365 Admin Center, navigate to Billing > Invoices & Payments.

-Add a payment method and purchase/assign M365 licenses.

5.Verify After Transition:

-Confirm users can still access email, Teams, OneDrive, etc.

-Check the first Microsoft invoice to ensure no duplicate charges.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

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Allison-H 1,100 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-07-28T14:18:08.8733333+00:00

Hi @Damien

I hope this message finds you well and that everything is going smoothly on your end

I am looking forward to hearing from you if there are any update
Allison-H 1,100 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-07-29T14:14:58.3333333+00:00

Hi @Damien

I hope you're doing well

I noticed it's been a while since I shared my response. Could you please mark it as the accepted answer? This would really help others facing the same issue find the solution more easily.

Thank you so much for your time
Damien 61 Reputation points

2025-07-31T08:40:48.17+00:00

Hi there,

Been waiting to hear back from Rackspace and they finally got back to me and they have switched off automatic billing so our licences "expire" with them on the 15th August. I am probably going to switch to a different provider for the licences, I'm not sure if I need to remove rackspace from my tenant or if it will disappear after the 15th, but if I was to remove them now, would I lose access to the M365 admin centres as I login to it via their portal.
Allison-H 1,100 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-07-31T09:47:08.3633333+00:00

Hi @Damien

Great to hear from you again

As far as I know once their billing ends and you set up licenses with a new provider, the old Cloud Solution Provider will automatically end. Since you have been confirmed that their billing will end on August 15th, your M365 licenses should remain active until then, and you won’t lose access to the M365 Admin Center during this period. You can confirm one more time with Rackspace.

By the way, I believe your case contains valuable information that could be very helpful for others with similar concerns about transitioning M365 billing or managing CSP relationships. I’d greatly appreciate it if you could mark my previous response as accepted answer. This will make it easier for others to find and benefit from this guidance.

If you have any other issues in the future, please don’t be a stranger. I’m always happy to assist.

Thank you for your contribution
Damien 61 Reputation points

2025-07-31T10:05:50.9566667+00:00

Hi,

I have confirmed that I can login to the M365 admin centres without needing to use their portal and I can just use admin.microsoft.com, which was one of my concerns. I just need to confirm what I am going to use to continue our subscription.

Thanks again.
Allison-H 1,100 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-07-31T14:29:12.02+00:00
Hi @Damien

Awesome to hear you’ve confirmed you can log into the M365 Admin Center directly at admin.microsoft.com

To continue your M365 subscription:

Log into admin.microsoft.com with your Global Admin account.

Navigate to Billing > Your Products to review your current licenses.

Under Billing > Purchase Services, you can purchase new licenses directly from Microsoft. Add a payment method (credit card or bank transfer) at Billing > Invoices & Payments.

Assign the new licenses to users to ensure no service interruption

Remember to start this process a few days before August 15th to avoid any gaps

If you run into any hiccups, just let me know. I'm always here to help.
BlackBeard 21 Reputation points

2025-08-24T19:25:17.31+00:00

I have this same issue. Rackspace charges more than Microsoft for Microsoft 365 yet -- as far as I am concerned -- doesn't add any value. My support experience with them for Microsoft 365 has not been very compelling.

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Migrate away from Rackspace for M365 admin directly to Microsoft.

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