Microsoft said in a 28 October 2026 Microsoft 365 Developer Blog post that SharePoint Embedded apps can now be created and managed through a new Apps experience in the SharePoint admin center. The change gives SharePoint Embedded and Global admins a portal-based way to set up apps, container types, ownership and billing before developers start building.
SharePoint Embedded is Microsoft's API-only document management platform for custom applications. The application provides the user interface, while SharePoint Embedded provides Microsoft 365 content services behind it, including Office collaboration, Microsoft Purview security and compliance, and Copilot experiences.
App creation in the admin center
Admins can open SharePoint Embedded > Apps in the SharePoint admin center and select Create app. The guided flow can create a new Microsoft Entra application registration or use an existing one, create the SharePoint Embedded app and its associated container type, assign up to three app owners, choose the billing type and install the app in the tenant.
The billing type cannot be changed after app creation. For owner organisation billing, the admin also needs appropriate access to the Azure subscription. Microsoft says the Azure subscription can be connected during creation or later, so development can begin before the subscription is attached, subject to the relevant access, billing and product requirements.
The Apps page separates installed and owned apps. Installed apps shows SharePoint Embedded apps available in the tenant, including apps built by the organisation and apps from external publishers. Owned apps lists apps created by the organisation, whether or not they are installed, and can be used to start installation when an app is ready.
Container lifecycle management
The same admin update moves container management into the SharePoint admin center for common lifecycle work. SharePoint Embedded and Global admins can view active containers, inspect details, manage membership, apply sensitivity labels, archive and reactivate containers in preview, delete containers, restore deleted containers and permanently delete containers.
PowerShell remains relevant for automation and repeatable reporting. The portal change is mainly for admins who need inventory and lifecycle management without scripting every operation.
Container planning still needs attention before production. In related SharePoint Embedded guidance published on 22 October 2026, Microsoft said containers in a tenant count towards SharePoint's sites-per-organisation limit, with the limit at publication set to 2 million sites and containers per tenant. The same guidance said SharePoint Embedded enforces an API limit of 12,000 resource units per minute, per app, per tenant, and that teams should verify limits before production because they can change.
Archiving and billing
SharePoint Embedded container archival is in preview. It uses Microsoft 365 Archive as a cold-storage tier for containers that must be retained but no longer need active access or collaboration.
Microsoft says archival may reduce storage charges compared with keeping the same content in active storage, with actual charges depending on usage, pricing and configuration. The archived storage meter appears in Azure billing transactions and measures storage consumed by archived containers within a tenant. Availability and functionality may differ from active storage while the feature is in preview.
Admins can also set up SharePoint Embedded pass-through billing directly from the Microsoft 365 admin center. A Billing or Global admin can configure the Azure subscription and resource group used for pay-as-you-go billing. For apps that use pass-through billing, valid billing must be configured before users can access the app.
Development impact
The admin centre work changes the operational boundary between tenant admins and developers. Admins can establish the app registration, owners, container type and billing model, then hand over an installed app foundation for development.
For developers, the wider SharePoint Embedded work also includes Microsoft Graph access to containers and content, narrower Graph permissions such as FileStorageContainer.Selected, and support for delegated and app-only access. Microsoft recommends delegated access where possible because actions can be associated with an individual user.
SharePoint Embedded also supports Office co-authoring for Word, Excel and PowerPoint files through Office for the web and desktop clients. The platform provides AutoSave, version history, sharing links and comment mentions for licensed users, depending on tenant and admin configuration.
The hand-off between SharePoint Embedded admins, Microsoft Entra app registrations, Microsoft Graph permissions and tenant billing is the kind of custom-app boundary ECS's Development topic examines, alongside Microsoft Graph, SPFx, Teams Toolkit and Copilot extensibility. Sessions and workshops give developers and architects room to compare app models, permissions, provisioning and production constraints with practitioner experience. Bring the app design, permission and billing questions that are easier to settle with peers than from portal screens alone.
This article was written by the ECS editorial team with the assistance of Amal Agent, run.events' AI assistant, which supported the research, drafting and proofreading.