How Microsoft 365 Copilot Notebooks works

How does Copilot Notebooks work?

Copilot Notebooks operates as an intelligent, scoped workspace. When you create a notebook, you can add references such as Word documents, PowerPoint decks, Excel sheets, Copilot pages, and more. Copilot then uses only this curated content to help you: 

• Receive focused answers tailored to your notebook's content.

• Continue adding references that update in real-time as your project evolves.

• Personalize Copilot’s responses by setting instructions for delivering prompts.

• Listen to audio overviews for a more engaging way to catch up on your material on the go.

• Accomplish anything from small tasks to larger projects without ever leaving the Copilot app.

What can Copilot Notebooks do?

• Summarize and analyze: Ask Copilot to extract key points, identify themes, or summarize documents in your notebook. For example:

  Summarize the key takeaways from the Q2 strategy deck and meeting notes.

• Draft content: Generate emails, plans, or reports grounded in your selected materials. For example:​​​​

  Draft a go-to-market plan using the uploaded product brief and customer feedback.

• Answer questions: Get focused answers based on your notebook’s content. For example:​​​​

  What licensing options are mentioned in these documents?

• Stay in flow: Copilot Notebooks is integrated with Microsoft 365 and accessible from the Copilot app and OneNote, so you can work across tasks without switching apps.

What are the current limitations of Copilot Notebooks?

• No image generation or data visualizations: You can’t create charts, graphs, or images directly within the notebook.

• Limited file grounding: Copilot can use up to 300 files in a notebook to generate answers. When you add a shared location, such as a SharePoint folder or site, Copilot considers the files you have access to in that location and selects up to 300 that are most relevant to your prompt to use for grounding. To make sure a specific file is included, add it directly to your notebook.

• No general web grounding: Copilot won’t pull in information from the internet—only from your notebook and selected references.

• Deleting notebooks: Deleting a Copilot page or notebook is currently permanent and can’t be undone. Notebook recovery is coming with a recycle bin that’s in development, and a Copilot Pages recycle bin will become available sooner to restore deleted pages.

What does Copilot Notebooks have access to?

Copilot doesn't access your entire OneDrive, email, Teams chats, or the web, and only uses the references you’ve added to the notebook to generate responses. This ensures that all outputs are grounded in the specific context you’ve defined—nothing more, nothing less. You remain in full control of what Copilot sees and uses.

For more information about data, privacy, and security, view the following resources:

• Summary of governance, lifecycle, and compliance capabilities for Copilot Pages, Copilot Notebooks, and Loop

• Overview of Copilot Pages, Copilot Notebooks, and Loop workspaces storage and permissions

• Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft 365 Copilot

What file formats are supported?

Copilot Notebooks supports the following file formats:

• .docx

• .pptx

• .xlsx

• .pdf

• .page

• .loop

• OneNote pages

What languages are supported?

Copilot Notebooks is available in the same languages as Microsoft 365 Copilot. Learn more about supported languages for Microsoft Copilot.

The audio overviews feature, for both input and output, is currently limited to English, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, and Chinese.

More ways to work with Copilot Notebooks​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Get started with Microsoft 365 Copilot Notebooks

Compare Microsoft 365 Copilot Notebooks and Microsoft OneNote

Frequently asked questions about Microsoft 365 Copilot Notebooks