Microsoft Purview | Information Protection – Auto-labeling scale increase for SharePoint and OneDrive

What and Why

Microsoft Purview auto-labeling policies help organizations automatically apply sensitivity labels to files stored in SharePoint and OneDrive based on administrator-defined conditions. With this update, the daily processing capacity for existing content increases from 100,000 files to as many as 500,000 files per tenant per day, allowing organizations to label and protect large volumes of content more rapidly.

Rollout Schedule

• Public Preview: Rollout begins in early September 2026 and is expected to complete by late September 2026.
• General Availability (Worldwide): Rollout begins in early October 2026 and is expected to complete by late October 2026.

Impact on Your Organization

• Who is affected: Organizations using Microsoft Purview auto-labeling policies for SharePoint Online and OneDrive.
• Platforms: SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Purview Information Protection.
• The increased processing limit will automatically apply to existing active auto-labeling policies.
• Policy configuration, labeling conditions, and label settings will not change.
• Organizations may see faster labeling of existing content and improved sensitivity label coverage across their tenant.
• No end-user experience changes are expected.

Action Required / Recommendations

No action is required for organizations currently using auto-labeling policies.

If you are not currently using auto-labeling, we recommend:

• Create an auto-labeling policy for SharePoint or OneDrive in simulation mode.
• Review simulation results to validate expected labeling outcomes.
• Enable the policy after validation to take advantage of the increased daily processing limit.
• Monitor labeling activity through the Policy Activity Overview and the Auto-labeling Coverage Report in Microsoft Purview > Information Protection > Reports.

For more information, see: Apply sensitivity labels automatically to Microsoft 365 data

Compliance Considerations

• This update does not introduce new labeling conditions, data storage locations, or protection capabilities.
• This update increases the processing capacity of existing Microsoft Purview auto-labeling policies, enabling faster classification and protection of existing content.
• The change may improve organizations' ability to demonstrate compliance through broader and faster sensitivity label coverage.