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Site Policy Comparison Report

The Site Policy Comparison report uses AI to find SharePoint sites that hold similar content but carry weaker security policies. Part of SharePoint Advanced Management, it compares up to 5 baseline sites you trust against up to 10,000 target sites, flags sites whose content is at least 80 percent similar, and highlights every difference across five policy settings. If two sites store the same kind of material, they should be protected the same way, and this report finds the ones that are not.
Related Features
Change History Report, Sensitivity Label Snapshot Report, Site Permissions Across Your Organization

Common Use Cases

  • Finding policy drift: spotting lookalike sites with weaker protection than your baseline
  • Baseline enforcement: comparing trusted sites against the rest
  • Catching the open sister site: one HR site locked down, its twin wide open
  • Pre-Copilot consistency: ensuring similar content carries similar protection
  • Large-scale comparison: up to 10,000 target sites at once
  • Five-policy gap check: sensitivity label, external sharing, conditional access, block download, restricted access

Benefits

  • AI content matching: finds sites with similar content automatically
  • Surfaces protection gaps: flags 80%+ similar sites with differing policies
  • Five policies compared: the settings that matter most for protection
  • Gaps jump out: mismatches marked with exclamation points
  • Baseline-driven: compare against up to 5 sites you trust
  • Scales wide: up to 10,000 target sites per comparison

How It Works

  • Lives in the SharePoint Admin Center: App Launcher, Admin, SharePoint admin center, Site Policy configuration under Reports, New report
  • Two-step wizard: pick the reference sites, then define the target scope
  • AI compares content: up to 5 reference sites against up to 10,000 targets, flagging 80%+ content similarity
  • Compares five policies: sensitivity label, external sharing, conditional access, block download, and restricted site access
  • Admin only: only SharePoint administrators can create and view it; site owners and regular users have no access
  • Licensing: the tenant needs either the SharePoint Advanced Management add-on license or a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, which includes Advanced Management

Limits and Nuances

  • Reference and target scope: compare up to 5 reference sites you trust against up to 10,000 target sites, defined by a site properties filter or a CSV with a SiteURL column
  • Five policies compared: sensitivity label, external sharing, conditional access, block download, and restricted site access, against an 80 percent content-similarity threshold
  • Generation time: large comparisons can take up to 48 hours to generate
  • Matching accuracy: the AI matches content using a handful of recently used files per site, so if your reference sites’ files are not alike, accuracy drops
  • No review from here: you cannot initiate a site access review from this report

Common Questions About the Site Policy Comparison Report

What does the Site Policy Comparison report do?

It uses AI to compare the content of up to 5 reference sites against up to 10,000 target sites, flags targets whose content is at least 80 percent similar, and highlights differences across five policy settings – sensitivity label, external sharing, conditional access, block download, and restricted site access.

How does the AI matching work?

The AI reads a small set of the most recently used files in each site and scores content similarity. Sites scoring 80 percent or higher are flagged for policy comparison. If the files in your reference sites are not alike, accuracy drops – so pick coherent baselines.

What license is required to run this report?

You need either the SharePoint Advanced Management add-on license or a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, which includes Advanced Management. Licensing packages change often, so check Microsoft’s official requirements before planning around it.

Who can run it?

Only SharePoint administrators. The report lives under Reports in the SharePoint Admin Center, which is not accessible to site owners or regular users.

How big can the comparison be, and how long does it take?

Up to 5 reference sites against up to 10,000 target sites, defined by a site properties filter or an uploaded CSV with a SiteURL column. Large comparisons can take up to 48 hours to generate, so plan it as a scheduled exercise rather than an on-demand check.

How does this report help with Microsoft 365 Copilot readiness?

Policy drift is how lookalike sites end up with unequal protection – one HR site locked down, its sister site wide open. Copilot will happily read the open one. Running this comparison before enabling Copilot ensures sites holding similar content carry the same protections.