More on the move from Jira ‘Projects’ to ‘Spaces’

[#1]

As we continue to evolve Jira’s terminology to work better for all types of teams, we’re excited to share more on the terminology update from ‘Projects’ to ‘Spaces’.

In this post, we’ll take a closer look at what’s changing and provide a detailed timeline of when you can expect this terminology updates.

Check out our announcement blog for more on why we’re making these changes

More on what’s changing…

The term ‘Project’ will soon be replaced with 'Space’ across all Jira Cloud products, including Jira Service Management and Jira Product Discovery.

This is purely a terminology change – everything else about how you use these containers remains the same. View the comparisons below to see how we’re planning to implement this update.

BEFORE	AFTER

When can you expect these changes?

We know that adjusting to new terminology can take time, and managing these updates is important for you and your teams. Thanks to your feedback, we’re now sharing more specific rollout dates ahead of time to help you get ready for the change.

Starting September 1, 2025, we’ll begin the transition from 'projects' to 'spaces' for all Jira users.

See the table below to know when you can expect the terminology updates for your sites.

COHORT	TIMELINE	DETAILS
Free and Standard plan	September 1, 2025	We'll begin transitioning all sites on Free and Standard plans to the new terminology. This will be expected to be completed on all Free and Standard sites by September 29th.
Premium and Enterprise	October 20, 2025	We'll start rolling out the new terminology to sites on Premium and Enterprise plans.
100% rollout	November 10, 2025	All users of all plans (except those on Release Tracks) will be updated to the new terminology by this date.
Release Tracks	December 9, 2025	Customers on release tracks can expect these updates to appear on their sites.

Timeline change log:

• Any updates to the above dates will be recorded here.

The rollout will begin at the indicated dates, but may take up to 3-4 weeks to reach all sites.

• Rollout timing is based on PST, typically at 5.45 p.m.
• The timelines are subject to change, and we’ll provide more details as the dates approach.

---

FAQs

Q. When will I see these changes on my site?

We'll start transitioning to the new terminology in September 2025. Please refer to the table above for the specific timeline related to your plan.

Q. Can admins choose what term replaces 'project'?

No, admins will not have the option to decide what term replaces ‘project.’ By default, ‘project’ will be replaced with ‘space’ for all Jira customers at the site level.

Q. Can admins opt out of this terminology change?

As this update is being implemented across all our Atlassian products, we’re unable to provide the option to opt out of this change.

Q. Why rename 'Projects' to 'Spaces' when Confluence spaces already exist? Isn't this confusing?

We’ve intentionally standardized the terminology across our tools to create a more seamless navigation experience for teams.

We’ve heard your concerns about distinguishing between Confluence and Jira spaces and are actively working to address this to ensure a smooth user experience

Q. Will this change be implemented in Jira Data Center as well?

As of now, there are no concrete plans to introduce this change to Jira Data Center in the near future.

Q. How does this change affect Jira Cloud APIs?

There are no changes to existing APIs; they will continue to function as they currently do.

Q. What impact does this change have on JQL and existing filters?

JQL clauses and any existing filters/saved searches will continue to support the term 'project' to maintain backward compatibility.

We'll introduce a new alias for 'space' to support the terminology updates.

Q. What impact does this change have on automation smart values?

There are no changes to your automation smart values at this time, they'll continue to use {{project}} terminology.

We're currently exploring how we'll be updating smart values in the future and will keep you updated.

Q. How does this impact other languages supported by Jira?

We will be updating our terminology across all our supported languages to reflect this change.

All our supported languages will be using Confluence 'Space' terminology to match the standardization of terminology across our tools.

[Dirk Lachowski]

Guys, give us a break. Will you? After the last change, where everything became an „app“., we now have Confluence spaces and Jira spaces?

Great, I now can have a Confluence space that I can use to describe a Project (or is it a space?) in a Jira Space. Who’ss the target group? People who do not have to manage projects and are therefor confused by the word? What’s about Atlas - ah,sorry, it’s Atlassian Home now - projects? Also spaces? Still projects? Something completely different?

You have completely lost the connection to your user base and it‘s getting more anoying every day. 

[Sebastian Wigge]

This feels like one of those changes just for the sake of changing something. Same category as issues being renamed to Work items or Products to apps. No added value for anyone, but only annoying and confusing. 

There are hundreds of feature requests across all your products with 100+ votes that are "gathering interest" for years now. Implementing some of those would actually benefit the admins and the user base. 

[Yatish Madhav]

Thanks for this post @Josh Sherwood  - i like the comparison and the timeline! And the mentioned that any updates or changes to these would be noted here - with the new navigation it seemed to have been a little bit 'all of the show'

1 thing i know some of our users use interchangeably is Projects and Boards - but that I think comes from a mindset of them being PMs or Sprint Managers only.

I also agree with @Dirk Lachowski  a bit ... I am having some 'change fatigue' with this!

Looking forward to this.

Thanks again

[Leo Mazzi]

In the REST API's there are a lot of endpoints that currently ask for project IDs and also there is a whole branch of endpoints under /projects. Once you switch to a different terminology I expect you to have at least wrappers in parameter names and branches that will follow the new terminology and to later on phase out the old names.

[Shelby C]

This timeline, article, FAQ is A+. I do agree that the value this change brings is a little questionable. Would love to see more of a high-level understanding of the recent terminology changes that are being pushed. 

[Shelby C]

Will the changes be pushed to all of our products on September 1, 2025 if we have one standard and other premium products? or will it be pushed to each product on that timeline, not all of them at once if we have different subscription cohorts? 

[James Rickards _SN_]

I'm looking forward to these changes!

Over the last 20 years, I can't explain the number of times I've had a conversation along the line of "are we talking about a project or a project?" or "No, I meant issues in a ticket, rather than 'issue' being a specific issue type that came out of your PMBOK risk register".

So much easier now I can say: "A jira space is how you group work of many different types that have a unique workflow. You can architect your spaces around a specific application, service, a project or a team."

Bring it on!

[Dave Mathijs]

Despite the memory muscle and the fact that it will be very hard to ditch 'Project' as the core concept of Jira, I'm welcoming this change for more consistency between Jira Apps.

'Space' is a more generic term than explaining that a 'Project' in Jira might not necessarily mean a 'project'. A 'Space' can also refer to a team, a product, a 'bucket' of work items.

[Josh Sherwood]

@Leo Mazzi Thanks for your feedback. There are no current plans to update the REST API endpoints. We'll keep teams informed of any changes if and when they occur.

@Shelby C These updates will be rolled out to the above timeline based on the highest edition of the products you have. So, if your team uses multiple Jira products with different subscription levels, these changes will be applied consistently across all your products at once.

[Stacy Moss]

I cannot tell you how excited I am for this change!! Spaces feels so much more fitting as projects implies the term being used in the project management sense (which is not how we've designed our Jira). This will also allow us to use Jira Projects (the other feature that IS referencing projects in the project management sense) without an enormous amount of confusion. Thank you @Josh Sherwood and the Atlassian team for this VERY helpful and welcome change!! 

[Jared Pittman]

So glad to see the Projects terminology going away in Jira!

Just like the recent move from Issues to Work Items, this seemingly small change really helps to break down some of the language barriers that have slowed adoption & understanding within our org. Using words that don't have a bunch of mental baggage attached to them (or at least have less) is a huge help.  These less-prescriptive names are a much better fit for how our org works, and having the concept of Space come over from Confluence seems like a natural fit.

Finally feels like Atlassian is making the long-needed changes to become more enterprise-friendly, accommodating workflows that don't fit into the "project" or "issue" mold.

Big thanks! 👍

[Steve C]

New features great, any chance of backlog items getting actioned???? Your list of things to do is pretty epic, see what I did there.

[Shreeja J]

I can see both sides here. It might take some time to adjust since "Project" has been core to Jira for so long, but I like the idea of having more consistent terminology across Jira and Confluence.

[Paresh Naik]

I do not see significant added value in changing the terminology from Project to Space. Project is already a well-established and commonly understood term among all stakeholders across the company. Introducing a new term may create unnecessary confusion and result in a puzzled user experience. For consistency(outside the Jira world & across the user in the company) and clarity, I would recommend keeping the existing terminology or making it optional for those who want to change.

[Pablo Silva]

A perfect example of when changing only one word has a nefast impact on a whole organization. 

Current Jira naming supports this reality:

• 1 Team - Many Initiatives 
• 1 Initiative - Many Teams

1 Initiative = 1 Backlog = 1 Project ✅

1 Team = 1 backlog = 1 Space ❌

PLEASE STOP AND MAKE THIS OPTIONAL!!

[Wurm Peter]

Thanks for changing the wording for all languages. It's a bit strange that "work item" remains "Vorgang" in German, so almost everyone here will still call it an "issue".

So at least it's "space" for everyone then instead of the misleading "project" (which in fact is something very different in most organizations).

[Gregg Brown]

This is a joke, right? It would have been easier to just come up with different terminology for the much newer "Atlassian Projects", which should have never been called that to begin with knowing full well Jira Projects have been a thing since forever. Instead of just changing a term that is new and still not entirely engrained in everyone's mind, you decide to change the one that is. On top of all that, the term you decide to change it to is the EXACT SAME ONE USED BY ANOTHER TOOL! So you solve the issue of Atlassian Projects vs Jira Projects by just shifting the problem to be Confluence Spaces vs Jira Spaces. 

You all are truly unreal. You act like there are only fifty words in the English language.