Flex Routing for Microsoft Copilot in EU and EFTA

Did you read the recent announcement that Microsoft introduces flex routing for Copilot in case there is high demand to deliver answers in time and in quality in Copilot/s? Did you also read that this means that data (partially) could be routed outside for EU data boundaries in such phases of high load and demand in EU/EFTA data centers? The recent announcement showed up in the Microsoft Message Center as MC1269223.

This is a new capability designed to ensure a consistent and reliable Copilot experience during periods of high demand. Beginning April 17, 2026, organizations in the European Union (EU) and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) using Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Chat, and Copilot features in Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Copilot Studio will see this change take effect.

The change affects all organizations (tenants) in the EU and EFTA that use Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Chat, or Copilot capabilities in Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Copilot Studio. Any tenant operating these Copilot experiences within these regions will be subject to the new flex routing behavior.

What is flex routing?

Flex routing allows large language model (LLM) inferencing to temporarily occur outside the EU Data Boundary during high-load periods as far as I understood. This should ensure performance stability and availability when demand spikes.

Microsoft says its commitment to data protection:

Data in transit and at rest remains encrypted
Customer data at rest continues to reside within the EU Data Boundary
Only limited pseudonymized data may be stored outside the boundary for operational and security purposes
Flex routing is enabled by default, but organizations retain full control and can adjust the setting at any time.

Compliance Considerations

Flex routing may allow LLM inferencing to occur outside the EU Data Boundary during peak demand, and a small amount of pseudonymized data may also be stored outside the region for operational and security purposes, as far as I read and understood it. All other customer data should remains encrypted and stored within the EU boundary as mentioned in the notification.

Microsoft 365 Administrators retain full control over this behavior through a dedicated setting in the Microsoft 365 admin center. The same configuration applies to Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Copilot Studio unless a more restrictive setting is defined within the Power Platform environment.