MC1060858 – M365 Change Digest

One-line summary

Copilot in Word now supports referencing folders, up to 20 items, and larger documents (1.5M words/3,000 pages); features roll out April–December 2025 across Word for web, Windows, and Mac.

Similar updates

Details

Summary

Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word now allows referencing entire folders, supports larger documents up to 1.5 million words or 3000 pages, and can reference up to 20 items. These features will be generally available by early December 2025. Folder referencing is available now for Word for the web and coming to other platforms in July 2025.

Body (from Message Center)

We heard that customers would like to be able to reference more data, more quickly, when creating, reviewing, and finalizing Word documents using the Draft feature with Copilot in Word. We’re happy to share three improvements, developed based on your feedback.

Reference folders when using Copilot: Up until now, when using Copilot, you could reference files, emails, and even meetings, but had to add them one by one. Today, we are enabling you to reference a whole folder (stored on OneDrive or SharePoint).
NOTE: Copilot will use the 10 most recent files as the basis of the content it generates.
Support for larger documents in Word Copilot: We continue to expand the size limits of what we support, and we are expanding our ability to referencing large documents up to 1.5 million words or 3000 pages.
More files can be referenced in Draft with Copilot in Word: You can now reference up to 20 items such as files, emails, and meetings when using the Draft with Copilot command.

[When this will happen:]

General Availability (Worldwide): Rollout has begun and expected to complete by early December 2025.

[How this will affect your organization:]

This further extends the richness of grounding support for customers, enabling more complex scenarios with Copilot in Word that support a broader set of customer document and folder reference needs.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

The ability to reference a folder is available to all Word for the web users and coming to Word for Windows and Word for Mac users with an Enterprise Copilot license (learn more about licenses for businesses) in July 2025.

Other capabilities coming later in April 2025 in Word for the web, Word for Windows, and Word for Mac:

The ability to reference up to 20 files when drafting a document with Copilot
The ability to reference larger files (up to 1.5 million words or 3,000 pages

You can manage Copilot for specific apps or users through either the Microsoft 365 Admin center or Group Policy.

Raw JSON (for debugging)

Expand/collapse the full payload below.

Show/hide raw

{
  "snapshot_item": {
    "action_required_by": null,
    "ai_action_required_by": null,
    "ai_actions": [
      "Inform users of new Copilot referencing capabilities",
      "Review Copilot license requirements",
      "Manage Copilot access via Admin center or Group Policy"
    ],
    "ai_master_tags": [
      "User",
      "Admin",
      "Copilot License"
    ],
    "ai_model": "gpt-4.1",
    "ai_summary": "Copilot in Word now supports referencing folders, up to 20 items, and larger documents (1.5M words/3,000 pages); features roll out April\u2013December 2025 across Word for web, Windows, and Mac.",
    "ai_topics": [
      "Microsoft 365 Apps",
      "Copilot",
      "Word",
      "OneDrive",
      "SharePoint"
    ],
    "category": "planForChange",
    "details_map": {
      "Summary": "Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word now allows referencing entire folders, supports larger documents up to 1.5 million words or 3000 pages, and can reference up to 20 items. These features will be generally available by early December 2025. Folder referencing is available now for Word for the web and coming to other platforms in July 2025."
    },
    "id": "MC1060858",
    "importance": 2,
    "is_major_change": false,
    "last_modified": "2025-04-23T16:35:52Z",
    "ms_products": [
      "Microsoft 365 Apps",
      "Copilot"
    ],
    "platforms": null,
    "roadmap_ids": [],
    "services": [
      "Microsoft 365 apps",
      "Microsoft Copilot (Microsoft 365)"
    ],
    "severity": "normal",
    "tags": [
      "New feature",
      "User impact"
    ],
    "title": "Expanding reference capabilities with Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word"
  }
}