Summary
- Projects in Copilot adds a shared workspace for related chats, tasks, files, instructions, and generated outputs.
- Affects Microsoft 365 Copilot users in Cowork, and Frontier users when the new Home experience includes Projects across Chat and Cowork.
- Files and generated documents remain stored in OneDrive and continue to use existing permissions, sensitivity labels, and retention policies.
- No admin configuration or rollout action is required; this is an awareness and user-adoption update.
- Users will see Projects in the Copilot app navigation and can create or add content to projects directly from Copilot.
Primary Service: M365 Copilot
Admin Impact: Low
User Impact: Medium
Release Start: 20 Oct 2026
Release End: 20 Oct 2026
Services: M365 Copilot, OneDrive
Category: Stay informed
Tags: New Feature, User Adoption, Highlighted
History
10/21/2026 Item Added to Message Center
Microsoft Message
Projects in Copilot give you one place for related chats, Cowork tasks, and everything they share: files, instructions, and outputs. Add your context once, and every chat and task in the project builds on it, so you don’t have to re-explain your work. Projects are rolling out to Cowork-tab only now and starting to roll out to the new Home experience across Chat and Cowork on Frontier soon.
Rollout Schedule
Projects in Cowork tab only: Available now (Worldwide, rolled out 10/20/2026) on Windows, Mac, and Web across tier 1 languages. Mobile is coming soon.
Projects across Chat and Cowork (Frontier, new Home experience): We will begin rolling out in late October 2026 and expect to complete by mid-November 2026.
Impact on Your Organization
Who is affected
Users of Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) using Cowork, and Frontier program users once the new Home experience rolls out.
Platforms/Services
- Microsoft 365 Copilot app (Cowork and Chat)
- OneDrive (file storage for project content)
What will happen
- Starting now, users of Cowork will see Projects in the left navigation of the Copilot app. From there they can create a project, add files and context, and start Cowork tasks inside it. Existing tasks can also be added to a project.
- Coming soon, users in the Frontier program will see Projects in the left navigation of the Copilot app. From there they can create a project, add files and context, and start chats or Cowork tasks inside it. Existing chats and tasks can also be added to a project.
- Responses are grounded in the project’s context first, then in the user’s broader Microsoft 365 work context.
- Projects doesn’t store content itself. Files stay in OneDrive under the same permissions, sensitivity labels, and retention policies you already use. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files that Copilot creates are saved to the user’s OneDrive.
Action Required/Recommendations
No action is required to enable Projects.
Compliance considerations
No compliance considerations identified. Review as appropriate for your organization.