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Figma: Nested Folders Replace Projects

FigmaView original changelog

Figma renamed Projects to Folders across every part of the product and, for the first time, made folders truly nestable, up to 10 levels deep on paid plans. The migration happened automatically with no user action required, and existing project links redirect to their new folder equivalents. Alongside the nesting, Figma simplified permissions down to two states, inherited and limited, replacing the old three-option model, and added folder color-coding for faster visual scanning. The rollout begins August 3, 2026 and completes over the following weeks across all plans.

Key Takeaways

  • Projects have been renamed to Folders across all of Figma's interfaces, with the migration applied automatically and no action required from users.
  • Paid plans (Professional, Organization, Enterprise) can now nest folders up to 10 levels deep, ending years of workarounds where teams faked hierarchy through file-naming conventions.
  • Starter plans remain limited to a single, non-nestable folder, reserving the full organizational upgrade for paying customers.
  • Figma collapsed its sharing model into two simpler states, inherited and limited, removing the old "Same as team," "Disable," and "View only" options.
  • Permission control over nested folders is plan-gated: Organization/Enterprise admins can restrict any folder, while Professional admins can only restrict top-level folders.
  • The change was bundled with account-management updates, including seat-type assignment at invite time and a single unified "admin" role replacing the separate team-owner designation.

Projects Are Now Folders

Figma has restructured how teams organize their work, renaming Projects to Folders everywhere in the product, from the file browser to sharing modals to admin settings. The name change is cosmetic on its own, but it sets up the larger shift underneath: for the first time, folders in Figma can be nested inside other folders.

The transition required no action from users. Figma states that "your files are in the same place and have not moved," and the migration ran automatically, preserving file names, contents, and members exactly as they were. Existing links to old projects continue to work and now redirect to the corresponding folder.

True Nesting, Up to 10 Levels Deep

The headline change is nesting. On Professional, Organization, and Enterprise plans, teams can now create folders inside folders, up to 10 levels deep, with no limit on the total number of folders. Starter plans are more limited, supporting only a single folder without nesting.

This has been one of the most frequently requested features on Figma's own community forum for years, as teams managing large design systems or many concurrent client projects previously had to fake hierarchy using naming conventions in file and project titles. New folders can also be color-coded, giving teams a faster way to visually distinguish between initiatives at a glance.

A Simpler Permission Model

Nesting also forced Figma to rethink how access control works. The previous three-state sharing model has been collapsed into two clearer states:

  • Inherited access ("Anyone in [Parent name] can access") replaces the old "Same as team" setting; top-level folders follow team-level permissions by default.
  • Limited access ("Only people added to [Resource name] can access") replaces "Disable," restricting a folder to explicitly invited people.

The old "View only" setting was removed entirely; anyone who previously had view-only access was automatically converted to an individual viewer during migration. Permission flexibility still varies by plan: Organization and Enterprise admins can limit access on any folder, nested or not, while Professional plan admins can only limit top-level folders, with nested folders always inheriting from their parent. Starter plans have no permission customization at all.

Bundled Account Changes

Figma paired the folder overhaul with two smaller account-management changes on Starter and Professional plans: admins now assign a seat type (Full, Collab, Dev, or View) directly when inviting new members, and plans now use a single "admin" role instead of a separate team-owner designation. A new "Limited Access" badge also flags members whose access is scoped to specific folders or files rather than the whole team.

Why It Matters

For any team that has outgrown Figma's flat project structure, this closes a long-standing organizational gap. Design systems teams, agencies juggling multiple clients, and larger orgs with deep folder hierarchies in tools like Google Drive or Notion can now mirror that same structure natively in Figma, rather than relying on naming hacks or scattered top-level projects. The rollout is gradual, beginning August 3, 2026 and completing over several weeks across all plans, with full documentation available in Figma's help center.