Microsoft Loop

Microsoft Loop is the co-creation app in Microsoft 365. It has three nested layers: components, which are live blocks of content such as a table, task list or paragraph that stay in sync everywhere they are pasted; pages, which are flexible canvases that hold components; and workspaces, which group related pages for a team or project. A component pasted into a Teams chat, an Outlook email and a Loop page is one piece of content in three places, and editing it anywhere updates it everywhere.

Part of the SharePoint reference · Storage and licensing verified against Microsoft documentation · Last reviewed 1 September 2026

The three layers

Almost all confusion about Loop clears up once you see that it is three things nested inside each other, not one thing. Most people meet only the smallest layer — a component dropped into a Teams chat — and assume that is all Loop is.

1. ComponentA live block: a table, task list, checklist, paragraph, poll or Q&A. Lives inside a Loop page but can be pasted into Teams, Outlook and other surfaces, where it stays editable and in sync. This is the layer most people have seen.
2. PageA flexible canvas holding components alongside ordinary text and images. Starts small and grows; no fixed template or structure.
3. WorkspaceA container grouping related pages for a team, project or initiative, with its own membership. Stored in a SharePoint Embedded container behind the scenes, which is why its storage and permissions behave the way they do.

What teams actually use it for

• Meeting agendas and notes several people edit at once, during the meeting
• Running task lists shared into a Teams chat, where they stay live
• Project brainstorms and early-stage planning before structure exists
• Status trackers updated in place rather than re-sent as a new table
• Briefs assembled from several people’s contributions

Loop compared with OneNote, Planner and SharePoint

These three comparisons account for most of the questions people ask about Loop, and each has a clean answer.

The SharePoint comparison is the one worth internalising: these are not alternatives but consecutive stages. Work starts loose in something like Loop and, once it settles, gets published somewhere durable and findable. Teams that skip the second step end up with decisions buried in workspaces nobody outside the project can search.

How Microsoft Loop fits into Microsoft 365

• Microsoft TeamsThe most common place people meet Loop. Components pasted into a chat or channel stay live and editable without anyone opening the Loop app.
• OutlookA component sent in an email is editable by recipients in place, so the table in the message is the current version rather than a snapshot.
• SharePointLoop content is stored on SharePoint infrastructure and counts against your SharePoint quota. SharePoint is also where Loop output usually ends up once it is finished.
• OneDriveComponents created inside another app are stored as .loop files in the creator's own OneDrive — worth planning for when that person leaves.
• M365 CopilotCopilot Pages and Copilot Notebooks share the same user-owned SharePoint Embedded container as Loop My workspace. Copilot features inside Loop need a Copilot licence.
• Planner and To DoTasks created in a Loop component can surface in Planner and To Do, so a task list in a chat is not a dead end.

Storage, licensing and limits

Loop’s storage model is the part administrators most often get wrong, largely because it changed in 2024 and a lot of published guidance still quotes the old figures.

Governance notes

• Two controls, not one. Restricting Loop needs both Cloud Policy and SharePoint PowerShell. Cloud Policy alone does not cover the Teams experiences, so a partial configuration leaves a gap.
• Frontline plans are excluded. Loop is not in Business Basic, F1 or F3. If your deskless population is on frontline licensing, they cannot participate, which affects any process you build around it.
• Ownership follows the creator. Components made inside Teams or Outlook sit in that person’s OneDrive. Leaver processes need to account for this or content quietly disappears.
• Two retirement dates to note. Loop components can no longer be inserted in Word for the web, and OneNote for the web follows from mid-September 2026. Existing components are not deleted — they become links to the corresponding Loop pages.

Loop and the intranet

Loop is deliberately not an intranet tool, and it is worth being clear about that rather than trying to make it one. Loop is optimised for a small group shaping something quickly. An intranet is optimised for hundreds or thousands of people finding something reliably, months later, with the right permissions and a clear owner.

The failure mode is predictable: a team does excellent work in a Loop workspace, the decision gets made, and then nothing gets published. Six months on, the policy, the process or the answer exists only inside a workspace nobody outside the original group can search. The fix is not to stop using Loop — it is to have somewhere obvious for the finished version to land.

Common questions about Microsoft Loop