Microsoft Copilot memory
Copilot's built-in memory: things you ask it to remember, and details it picks up from your past chats, stored in your Microsoft account.
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In short
Copilot remembers you in a few ways. Saved memories are kept when you say “remember this” or when Copilot spots something that seems important and asks to save it. Copilot also draws inferences from your past chats, and on work accounts from your email, Teams chats and meetings, and uses them in later answers. You can list and delete saved memories in settings and ask “What do you know about me?”. In Copilot Chat on the web (Microsoft 365), Sources under an answer show which memories and past chats shaped it. On work accounts, memories sit in a hidden folder in your Exchange mailbox, under your organization's controls.
Who it’s for
Anyone using Microsoft Copilot or Copilot Chat, with a personal Microsoft account or a work or school account. Nothing to install. For work accounts, Microsoft's admin page still calls personalization and memory a preview.
What it remembers
Your job role, communication style, favourite topics, goals, recurring tasks and preferences, from saved memories, past chats and custom instructions. On work accounts, depending on the plan, also “work insights” from your emails, Teams chats and meeting transcripts.
- Memory lives
- Microsoft's cloud (work accounts: a hidden folder in your Exchange mailbox)
- API keys
- None: sign in with a Microsoft account or a work or school account
- Works with
- Microsoft Copilot app (web, desktop, mobile), Copilot Chat in Microsoft 365
- License
- Closed sourceProprietary
- Price
- Comes with Copilot and Copilot Chat; no separate charge for memory is documented
Under the hood
- Who writes memories
- You, by asking it to remember; Copilot, which asks before saving something that seems important; and Copilot again, inferring details from your past chats (and work content on work accounts).
- Where they're kept
- On Microsoft's servers. On work accounts, in a hidden CopilotMemory folder in the user's Exchange mailbox, encrypted at rest like other mailbox data.
- How they're found
- Saved memories become part of the context for answers; inferences from past chats are used when they help. Sources under an answer show which were used.
- Extra AI calls
- No separate memory charge is documented; it comes with Copilot and Copilot Chat. On a personal account without Microsoft 365, ads may use it unless you turn ads personalization off.
How it works
- 1You chatOr ask it to remember something; it may also ask to save what seems important.
- 2It learnsSaved memories, plus inferences from past chats (and work content on work accounts).
- 3You reviewList or delete saved memories in Settings > Personalization, or ask what it knows.
- 4Next answerMemories shape the reply; in Copilot Chat on the web, Sources show which were used.
What stands out
- On work accounts, memory is stored as mailbox data in a hidden Exchange folder, with the same security protections as other mailbox data (such as encryption at rest and Customer Lockbox), and admins can find it with eDiscovery and delete it through Microsoft Graph and Purview.
- Memory citations (Copilot Chat on the web, released October 2026): under an answer, Sources has a Personalization tab showing the custom instructions, saved memories, memories learned from conversations and past chats that shaped it.
- One admin switch, Enhanced personalization, turns all memory features off for a whole organization or a group of users, and it can be set through Microsoft Graph.
- Set deletion rules (work and school accounts): chat history inferences go 30 days after you switch them off, and every trace of a detail goes within seven days once you delete all the chats it came from.
What it doesn’t do
- It lives inside Copilot. There's no documented way to use it from other AI tools or to run it yourself.
- Saved memories don't fade: each stays until you delete it. Deleting a chat, or turning saved memories off, doesn't delete saved memories.
- How memories are chosen, linked or weighted isn't published, and nothing says old versions are kept when a memory is updated.
- For organizations: admins can't limit what kind of information goes into memory, Purview retention policies don't apply to it, and memory actions leave no audit log entries in Purview.
- On a personal account without a Microsoft 365 subscription, personalized ads in Copilot might use your chat history and saved memories unless you turn ads personalization off.
Measured against human memory
0 built, 8 partly, 3 not known of the Field Guide’s 11 mechanisms
Encoding
Salience
Decides what's worth keeping, and how much, as a memory is written.
When Copilot comes across something that seems important, it asks whether to save it, and it saves what you tell it to. There's no documented importance score. source
Emotion
Gives memories written with feeling more weight.
Microsoft doesn't say whether feelings in a conversation affect what's kept.
Storage
Forgetting
Lets unused memories fade over time on its own.
Details inferred from chat history may be updated or discarded “as it learns what's most helpful to retain”, but saved memories stay until you delete them. source
Interference
When a new memory closely matches an old one, notices and lets the newer one win.
Copilot manages saved memories by merging related ones and updating outdated details. How it spots them, or decides which is newer, isn't documented. source
Retrieval
Retrieval
Remembering something makes that memory stronger.
Whether using a memory makes it stronger isn't documented.
Association
Links memories, so recalling one brings its neighbours.
Links between memories aren't documented. Related saved memories get merged, not linked.
Prospective
Brings a memory back at the right time without being asked.
Cowork can run a prompt you schedule at a set time or on a recurring basis. Nothing documented brings a memory back on its own. source
Transformation
Consolidation
Reworks memories between sessions: strengthening, merging, reorganising.
Copilot merges related saved memories and updates outdated ones on purpose, but when this happens, between sessions or during a chat, isn't documented. source
Reconsolidation
Corrects a memory when it's contradicted, and keeps what it used to say.
Outdated details get updated, and you can delete any saved memory, but keeping what a memory used to say isn't documented. source
Gist
Turns many specific moments into general knowledge.
Making inferences from your chat history is its own feature, with its own switch: Copilot keeps what matters to you from past chats, not every detail. How it checks them isn't documented. source
Schemas
Forms beliefs about people and projects, and weighs new facts against them.
It keeps a picture of you (communication style, favourite topics, work goals, recurring tasks) and summarizes it when you ask “What do you know about me?”, but weighing new facts against it isn't documented. source
Not every system is trying to be a human memory, so a hollow dot isn’t a flaw. It just says what the system doesn’t do. What the mechanisms are.
Microsoft Copilot memory’s makers haven’t shared what they’re building next, so only today shows here. Makers can add their roadmap the same way they correct an entry.
Compare Microsoft Copilot memory with the others, side by sideQuestions
- Who is Microsoft Copilot memory for?
Anyone using Microsoft Copilot or Copilot Chat, with a personal Microsoft account or a work or school account. Nothing to install. For work accounts, Microsoft's admin page still calls personalization and memory a preview.
- Where does Microsoft Copilot memory keep its memories?
Microsoft's cloud (work accounts: a hidden folder in your Exchange mailbox). On Microsoft's servers. On work accounts, in a hidden CopilotMemory folder in the user's Exchange mailbox, encrypted at rest like other mailbox data.
- Does Microsoft Copilot memory forget?
Forgetting: a little (work or school accounts, preview). Details inferred from chat history may be updated or discarded “as it learns what's most helpful to retain”, but saved memories stay until you delete them. source
- Does Microsoft Copilot memory correct a memory when it turns out to be wrong?
Reconsolidation: a little. Outdated details get updated, and you can delete any saved memory, but keeping what a memory used to say isn't documented. source
- Is Microsoft Copilot memory open source?
No, it's closed source. License: Proprietary.
- Does Microsoft Copilot memory need an API key?
API keys: None: sign in with a Microsoft account or a work or school account.
- How much does Microsoft Copilot memory cost?
Price: Comes with Copilot and Copilot Chat; no separate charge for memory is documented.