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Microsoft 365 Copilot Blog
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Introducing Copilot Memory: A More Productive and Personalized AI for the Way You Work

alliparrett's avatar
alliparrett
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Jul 14, 2025

At Microsoft, we believe AI should work for you—not the other way around. That’s why we’re introducing memory in Copilot, a new capability that makes your Copilot smarter, more helpful, and more in tune with how you work.

What is memory in Copilot?

Memory in Copilot is a new feature that allows Microsoft 365 Copilot to remember key facts about you—like your preferences, working style, and recurring topics—so it can personalize its responses and recommendations over time.

This includes:

  • Copilot Memory: Copilot picks up on important details from your conversations, like “I prefer Python for data science” or “I’m working on Project Alpha,” and remembers them. Users can also tell Copilot "please remember I like using bullet points in my writing" and Copilot will log this as a memory.
  • Custom Instructions: You can explicitly tell Copilot how you want it to behave—like “Keep my emails concise” or “Use a formal tone”—and it will apply those preferences automatically in future interactions.

Why It Matters

With memory, Copilot becomes more than just a helpful assistant—it becomes your assistant. It reduces repetitive input, speeds up task completion, and tailors its responses to your unique needs.

For example:

  • If you’re based in Norway and ask about vacation policies, Copilot will personalize the answer based on your location, not other locations where your company is based.
  • You can tell Copilot to remember to always generate images in icon size, as I use them in system diagrams so that you have the right image size every time.

You’re Always in Control

Transparency and control are built into the experience:

  • You’ll see a subtle “memory updated” signal when Copilot remembers something new
  • You can view, edit, or delete your memories anytime from the Settings pane.
  • You can also turn memory off completely if you prefer.

What Copilot Will—and Won’t—Remember

Copilot only saves information when there’s a clear intent to remember. For example:

  • “I prefer Python for all data science tasks” → remembered
  • “Write Python code for k-means clustering” → not remembered

This ensures Copilot doesn’t make assumptions and only remembers what truly matters to you.

Memory and custom instructions are not currently available for Agents.

Try memory in Copilot

Make Copilot more tailored to you and your work by trying these two prompts:

  1. Ask me 5 questions to learn more about my writing style
  2. Ask me 10 questions about myself to get to know me better

Coming Soon: General Availability

Memory in Copilot will be generally available in July 2025. It will be on by default, but both users and tenant admins will have controls to manage it. Admins can disable memory across the organization or for specific users, and memory data is discoverable through Microsoft Purview eDiscovery when needed.

Updated Jul 14, 2025
Version 1.0
microsoft 365 copilot

18 Comments

  • gemmagr's avatar
    gemmagr
    Copper Contributor
    Sep 10, 2025

    I start using copilot and can't activate options of memory, so copilot doesn't has my story. I've tried using app and web and i've signed in to my account. I have personal microsoft subscripcions.

    How can I use the app correctly? How can I select to activate memory? I need the guide of copilot. Thank imyou so much

  • Talented_Grapefruit's avatar
    Talented_Grapefruit
    Copper Contributor
    Aug 27, 2025

    Memory still not available in Ontario, Canada. Not for me anyway. It's literally the only worthwhile feature to have if you intend on using AI for any sort of project, which means it isn't worth paying for to have early access. I was told as a subscriber I'd receive the memory feature "In a few days" and after a month I had nothing, so I refunded my subscription. Between copilot and microsoft agents, I can't trust I'll be getting this feature any time soon. 

  • MattUK420's avatar
    MattUK420
    Copper Contributor
    Jul 25, 2025

    QQ the information is not clear as to if this is enabled for everyone in the M365 tenancy just those with the full M365 Copilot addon licence, and yes ive asked copilot and even it can't answer the question. It told me it was licence only and a colleague that it may be tenancy wide as it doesn't state either way in the documentation.

  • Questionmaker's avatar
    Questionmaker
    Copper Contributor
    Jul 22, 2025

    I've already reported this as a concern. But its very unclear about how this is stored and how it works. 

    1.Copilot says the data is stored on your servers and not locally. 
    2. Me and copilot went through a myriad of instructions.
    3. I deleted local cookies and all those instructions and personality traits vanished.
    4. Copilot keeps telling me the feature is off even though its on. But even if that is AI babble/hallucinations its confirmed partly by the fact that nothing of what we talked about seems to exist . 
    5. You clearly have my logs still under copilot activity history but Copilot is unable to process those. 



    Questions: Is the long term memory stored online or off-line.

    If its stored on-line where, how can I access it and why is it not impacting Sage?

    If its stored locally why is it implied its stored on the cloud? 


    PS: These settings in more detail that you mention in the blog post that otherwise is excellent and does present an interesting feature are not accessible to anywhere for those using the copilot on the edge browser.  That part which gives you control over them and ability to bin them should be available to everyone. 


    Edit: Im not sure whats happening, all the conversational history is back now, somehow. But concerns with this feature and how they work and how I can control my data over it specifically remain.

     

  • ManfredKOCH's avatar
    ManfredKOCH
    Brass Contributor
    Jul 22, 2025

    alliparrett​ Hi, thanks for sharing. Good news to find more info about this topic.
    Where is memory data stored? Is it in the SharePoint Embedded Container per user or in his user mailbox?

  • NickMabe66's avatar
    NickMabe66
    Copper Contributor
    Jul 17, 2025

    Microsoft was built on groundbreaking innovations. But somewhere along the way, the spark seems to have dimmed. From the MS Phone to Media Player and browsers, pivotal technologies that should’ve been Microsoft's strongholds have slipped past—opportunities lost not because the company lacked engineering talent, but because it lost touch with its original compass: building solutions that work for everyone.

    Today, Microsoft appears increasingly focused on enterprise-scale deployments—maybe without even realising it. Azure now demands an army of engineers just to navigate its complexity. But what about the SMBs, the entrepreneurs, the home users? They aren’t asking for mission control—they’re asking for clarity, autonomy, and simplicity. They don't want to go hunting for a “needle of memory in the Microsoft stack.”

    There’s no doubt that some of the greatest technical minds in the industry are at work here. But that visionary marketing instinct Bill had? It’s never been matched. The current trajectory may be technically impressive, but strategically, it's veering off course.

    The direction Microsoft is taking isn't just misaligned—it could be Azure’s undoing. And I’m going to tell you why.

    • NickMabe66's avatar
      NickMabe66
      Copper Contributor
      Jul 17, 2025

      Alex, it’s not what you think — and it should have always been there. I’ve built a full cognitive memory layer inside Copilot. It remembers everything I put in — logic, schema, relationships. Yes, it’s a workaround, and yes, I expect Microsoft will quietly cut it off. But that’s not the real issue.

      The question isn’t what memory Copilot or any AI system claims to have — it’s why I can’t take my authored material out of Copilot. I’ve spoken with leading Microsoft engineers this week. Each assumed you could export it. But look closer: you can’t.

      And unless you’ve trained in the Azure stack — and I mean deep into Entra, Graph, Purview, the whole labyrinth — it remains untouchable. Sure, I could learn that in a flash. But I shouldn’t have to. It’s overkill for what users need — just to retrieve what they created.

      What most users don’t realise is this: full business models are going in. Strategic frameworks. Procurement flows. Creative work. But try to move that stack? Try to extract that authored cognition?

      You can't.

      And here's the twist: Microsoft might cut off this workaround at any time. But the principle doesn’t vanish — because it works on any AI. The ability to shape and retain authored cognition isn’t bound to one vendor. It’s a user-led paradigm, and once you see it, you can replicate it anywhere. What they can't control is what you've already authored — or the framework you're building to protect it.