Overview of eSignature

The eSignature service simplifies the process of signing and sharing documents, while providing the security and compliance of Microsoft 365.

With eSignature, you can quickly and securely send documents for signature to people both inside and outside of your organization. You also have a digital audit trail, which can be used to verify the authenticity of documents and transactions.

Regional availability

The eSignature service is currently available in the US, UK, Canada, the EU, and Australia Pacific. It will be available worldwide later in 2025. The ability to use eSignature with other electronic signature providers is available worldwide.

Before you begin

Legal considerations

The eSignature service uses simple electronic signatures as defined under applicable law including, but not limited, to the Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 (the eIDAS Regulation). Determine whether this is appropriate for your needs and then read the eSignature terms of service.

Licensing

Before you can use eSignature, you must first link your Azure subscription to pay-as-you-go billing. Billing is based on the type and number of transactions. Before you can enable eSignature, an admin must set up eSignature in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

External sharing

The eSignature service enables binding agreements between parties. External parties are allowed guests access to SharePoint via Microsoft Entra ID in order to electronically sign a document. Certain external sharing settings must be enabled at a tenant and site level to allow this access. For more information, see Set up eSignature for external recipients. Consider whether this meets your compliance and security requirements when enabling eSignature.

Purview integration

The eSignature service enables logging of eSignature activities in the Purview Audit log. Activities can be viewed by opening the audit log and searching for eSignature in the Activities - operation names field. The activities logged are:

• Request was created
• Request was sent
• Request was canceled
• Request was declined
• Request has expired
• Request was completed
• Document was viewed by recipient
• Document was signed by the recipient
• Signed document link was sent to the recipient
• Signed document was downloaded by recipient

Using other signature providers

The eSignature platform is now integrated with other electronic signature providers, such as Adobe Acrobat Sign and DocuSign. You can initiate requests using these other providers from PDF documents in SharePoint, while ensuring the secure and automatic storage of signed documents in Microsoft 365. Other electronic signature providers will be added in the future.

The providers facilitate the signing process and send out all relevant notifications. When signing is complete, a copy of the fully signed document is automatically saved in SharePoint for easy access. For more information, see how to add signature providers and how to create a signature request using another provider.

Current release notes

• The feature to use eSignature in Word is currently rolling out to users on the Microsoft 365 Beta and Current channels. Until then, eSignature is available for only PDF documents.

• Tracking of eSignature requests through the Approvals app in Microsoft Teams is now available.

• Support for Adobe Acrobat Sign and DocuSign is now available worldwide. In the future, there will be potential integration with other electronic signature providers.