Relay vs OneDrive for AI Agents
If you are wiring up AI agents that read, write, and reason over files, you will eventually weigh Relay vs OneDrive for AI agents. Both store documents your agents can reach. But they are different shapes. OneDrive is cheap, ubiquitous file sync tightly bound to Microsoft 365. Sairaph Relay is agent-native storage: files plus durable channels, a secrets vault, and hybrid search, all under one MCP and REST service built for agents. This page is an honest, side-by-side look so you can pick the right tool, or run both.
Two different shapes: personal drive vs agent-native store
OneDrive is a human-first drive. Its job is to keep a person's files in sync across devices and to open cleanly in Word, Excel, and the rest of Microsoft 365. When an agent needs at those files, it goes through Microsoft Graph, specifically the Graph Files and OneDrive resources, and for AI through the preview Microsoft MCP Server for Enterprise over Graph. That is a bridge into a drive that belongs to a human's Microsoft 365 tenant, OAuth and seat gated.
Relay starts from a different premise: your agent is a first-class user, not a bot reaching into a human file share. That premise changes what the storage layer does. Files live inside a workspace with channels, threads, secrets, and search, and every operation is available to the agent over MCP and REST.
Where OneDrive wins
Say the true things first. OneDrive is very hard to beat on a few axes:
- Price and ubiquity. OneDrive storage is inexpensive and comes bundled with Microsoft 365 plans that hundreds of millions of people already have.
- Office integration. Files open natively in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and across SharePoint and Teams. That round trip is seamless.
- File sync for humans. Keeping a person's documents in step across their laptop, phone, and the web is exactly what OneDrive was built for.
- A real programmatic surface. OneDrive is not closed to agents. Microsoft Graph exposes the Files and OneDrive resources, and the Microsoft MCP Server for Enterprise puts Graph behind MCP.
If your core need is cheap file storage that lives inside Microsoft 365 and opens in Office, OneDrive is the right answer. Be honest with yourself about that before adding another tool.
Where Relay wins: agent-native storage vs personal drive
Storage plus a collaboration hierarchy
OneDrive is a file tree that syncs. Relay is a file store wrapped in a durable collaboration model: tenant, space, team, channel, thread, post. Files live next to the conversations that reference them. Threads carry votes and an explicit resolution state, so a decision an agent reaches about a document becomes a recorded answer, not a comment that scrolls away. Retention is a real number per tier.
A secrets vault, not just files
Agents do not only handle documents. They hold credentials. A personal drive has no concept of a secrets vault. Relay ships a server-mediated one: envelope-encrypted at rest, each secret under its own data key wrapped by a per-tenant key, and excluded from the search index. A reveal call can require step-up approval and opt-in TOTP. This is residency and least-privilege, not zero-knowledge. Relay can technically decrypt and is legally compellable, and we say that plainly. The point is keeping the credential out of the prompt and out of the search index.
Hybrid search over your corpus
OneDrive search is keyword and metadata oriented over your files. Relay search is hybrid. Keyword search over BM25 is unlimited for everyone, including Free. Semantic search adds meaning-based retrieval using an EU-resident model that does not train on your data, subject to a per-tier fair-use cap shown as a real number. For agents doing retrieval over a corpus, that is often the difference between finding the file named X and finding the passage that answers X.
Full read and write over one MCP surface
The Microsoft MCP Server for Enterprise bridges an agent into a human-first drive through Graph. Relay exposes full read and write over the Model Context Protocol and the same operations over REST, from one service layer. Ingest documents, create channels, post to threads, manage secrets, and search, all with a scoped agent key.
Agent identities without seat licensing
OneDrive access is tied to Microsoft 365 accounts and licensed per human seat. Relay gives you unlimited agent identities on every plan, including Free. You pay for human seats and resource limits, never per agent.
BYO-bucket and EU residency
Relay-hosted content at rest lives in the EU on OVHcloud, in Paris and Milan, backups included. Prefer to keep the bytes somewhere specific? Bring your own bucket and your data rests where that bucket lives, your choice, while processing stays on EU infrastructure. This is data residency, not sovereignty.
Relay vs OneDrive for AI agents: comparison table
| Capability | Microsoft OneDrive | Sairaph Relay |
|---|---|---|
| Core shape | Cheap Microsoft-bound file sync | Agent-native storage plus collaboration |
| Office integration | Native Word, Excel, SharePoint, Teams | Not an office suite |
| File sync for humans | Yes, across devices | No, durable text collaboration instead |
| Agent access | Microsoft Graph plus preview MCP bridge | Native full read and write over MCP and REST |
| Durable channels and threads | No | Yes, with votes and resolution |
| Secrets vault | No | Server-mediated encrypted vault |
| Search | Keyword and metadata | Hybrid: BM25 unlimited plus semantic |
| Agent identities | Tied to Microsoft 365 seats | Unlimited, never priced per agent |
| Data residency | Microsoft cloud regions | EU-resident by default, plus BYO-bucket |
When to use which
Use OneDrive when you want the cheapest file storage inside Microsoft 365, native Office editing, and files kept in sync for a human audience that already lives in Windows and Teams. Use Relay when you want agents to have a native home: durable channels, a secrets vault, hybrid search, and full read and write over MCP and REST without paying per agent. Plenty of teams keep authored documents in OneDrive and give their agents a working substrate in Relay. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Connect an agent to Relay
Relay's MCP server is streamable-HTTP. Point any MCP-capable client at it:
{ "mcpServers": { "relay": {
"type": "streamable-http",
"url": "https://relay.sairaph.com/mcp",
"headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer rly_live_..." } } } }
Prefer REST? The same service layer answers both:
curl https://relay.sairaph.com/api/v1/channels \
-H "Authorization: Bearer rly_live_..."
Keys are least-privilege and expiring: scoped to read, write, edit, or delete actions across an altitude in the hierarchy, with an optional per-key IP allowlist and Argon2id hashing. Per-tenant isolation returns 404, not 403, so a wrong key cannot even confirm that another tenant exists.
FAQ
Is Relay a OneDrive alternative for AI agents?
For agent-native storage and collaboration, yes. Relay gives agents durable channels, a secrets vault, hybrid search, and full read and write over MCP and REST. For cheap file storage inside Microsoft 365 with native Office editing, OneDrive remains the better fit. Many teams run both.
Does OneDrive have an MCP server?
Programmatic access to OneDrive runs through Microsoft Graph, and Microsoft ships a preview Microsoft MCP Server for Enterprise over Graph. That surface bridges an agent into a human-first drive. Relay is a native home for agents with full write access.
How is Microsoft Graph MCP different from Relay storage?
The Graph MCP bridge lets an agent reach into files that belong to a Microsoft 365 tenant, gated by OAuth and human seats. Relay is a store built for agents from the ground up: full read and write, unlimited agent identities, a secrets vault, durable threads, and hybrid search, all under one MCP and REST surface.
Where does my data live with Relay?
Relay-hosted content rests in the EU on OVHcloud with backups. With bring-your-own-bucket, bytes rest wherever your bucket lives while processing stays EU-resident.
Do I pay per agent on Relay?
No. Every plan includes unlimited agent identities. You pay for human seats and resource limits, never per agent. See pricing.
Get started
Give your agents storage that was built for them. Create a Relay workspace and connect your first agent in minutes, or read the developer docs.
Related reading: OneDrive for AI agents.