What Microsoft Copilot is
Copilot is not one product but a family. The pieces most people meet are:
- Copilot (the app). A free chat assistant at copilot.microsoft.com, in Windows, in the Edge browser and on phones. It searches the web through Bing and can see your screen if you allow it.
- Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps (personal). AI inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote, included with Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, Premium and Pro subscriptions.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot (work). The business version that can work across a company's email, files, chats and meetings, sold as an add-on per user. Copilot Chat, a lighter web-grounded version, is included with eligible work accounts.
There is also GitHub Copilot for programmers, a separate product reviewed in our GitHub Copilot review.
Key features
Chat, search and images
The free Copilot app answers questions with Bing results and sources, writes and rewrites text, and creates images. Paid Microsoft 365 plans raise the usage limits on advanced chat and image creation.
Vision and voice
Copilot can look at your screen or camera and talk you through what it sees, and you can speak to it. Microsoft lists "visual AI assistance from your screen or camera" and AI-generated audio (English only) with higher limits on paid plans.
Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
In Word it drafts and rewrites; in Excel it explains data, suggests formulas and builds charts; in PowerPoint it turns a document or outline into slides; in Outlook it summarizes threads and drafts replies. For many subscribers this is the main reason to care about Copilot.
Researcher, Analyst and Cowork
Microsoft's agent features include Researcher (finds and synthesizes information into a report), Analyst (works through data) and Cowork (plans and carries out multi-step tasks). On personal plans, these "agentic" features have limited usage on Premium and the highest usage on Microsoft 365 Pro.
Work features
Microsoft 365 Copilot for business can answer questions across your mail, calendar, Teams chats, meeting transcripts and SharePoint files, respecting each user's existing permissions. Companies can also build custom agents with Copilot Studio.
Pricing (as of October 2026)
Personal prices are from Microsoft's plan comparison page, checked October 2026. Business prices are from Microsoft partner and pricing sources, as Microsoft's business pricing page did not load for us; confirm with Microsoft or your reseller.
| Plan | Price (US) | Copilot included |
|---|---|---|
| Copilot app | Free | Chat, search, images, vision and voice, with usage limits. |
| Microsoft 365 Personal | $9.99/month or $99.99/year | Copilot in desktop Office apps, higher limits than free. 1 person. |
| Microsoft 365 Family | $12.99/month or $129.99/year | Same as Personal for up to 6 people, but AI is for the subscription owner only. |
| Microsoft 365 Premium | $19.99/month or $199.99/year | Family plus extensive Copilot usage and limited agentic research and analysis. Replaced Copilot Pro. |
| Microsoft 365 Pro | $99.99/month (monthly only) | The highest Copilot usage limits and 5 TB of storage. |
| Copilot Chat (work) | Included with eligible Microsoft 365 work plans | Web-grounded chat with enterprise data protection. |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot (work) | Reported at $30/user/month (annual); about $21/user/month for Copilot Business under 300 users | Copilot across the organization's mail, files, chats and meetings. Requires a qualifying Microsoft 365 license. |
Microsoft measures personal Copilot usage with monthly AI limits rather than message counts, and those limits differ by plan.
Strengths
- It is already there. Copilot is built into Windows, Edge and the Office apps, so there is nothing new to learn or install.
- Strong free app. The free version covers chat, search with sources, images and vision.
- Office integration. Drafting in Word, summarizing in Outlook and building slides in PowerPoint are things standalone chatbots cannot do as directly.
- Business data protection. Work accounts get enterprise data protection and Microsoft's existing compliance and admin tools.
- Good value if you already subscribe. Copilot now comes with Microsoft 365 Personal and Family at no separate charge.
Weaknesses
- Confusing product names. Several products share the Copilot name, and features differ between personal and work accounts and between apps.
- Price creep. Microsoft raised Microsoft 365 Personal and Family prices when it bundled Copilot in, and the top tiers ($19.99 and $99.99 a month) are steep.
- Usage limits. Paid plans describe usage as "higher than free" or "extensive" rather than giving numbers, which makes it hard to compare.
- Family plan catch. On Family, only the subscription owner gets the AI features.
- Mixed results in Office. A common pattern in user feedback is that Copilot is helpful for drafts and summaries but less reliable for complex Excel work or polished slides.
- Business cost. The work add-on is a large per-user expense, and organizations need tidy file permissions before turning it on.
Privacy and security
What Microsoft states, as of October 2026:
- For work and school accounts, Copilot runs with enterprise data protection: prompts and responses are covered by the same commitments as other Microsoft 365 data and are not used to train foundation models.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot only shows users content they already have permission to see.
- Personal accounts have privacy settings in the Copilot app to control whether conversations are used to train models and whether Copilot remembers details about you.
- Vision features only see your screen or camera when you start a session.
Platforms
- Copilot app: Windows, macOS, web, iPhone and Android
- Edge browser sidebar and Bing
- Microsoft 365 apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote on Windows and Mac, plus web and mobile versions
- Teams (work accounts get meeting recaps and transcript questions)
Alternatives
- ChatGPT: a broader standalone assistant. See Copilot vs ChatGPT.
- Claude: favored for writing and long documents, with Microsoft 365 access on paid plans.
- Perplexity: for searched answers with detailed sources.
- Grammarly: if what you want in Word and Outlook is mainly writing correction.
Who should use Microsoft Copilot
Use the free Copilot app if you are on Windows and want a capable assistant with no setup. If you already pay for Microsoft 365 Personal or Family, Copilot in the Office apps is a useful extra. Premium is worth it only if you hit the usage limits regularly. For businesses, start with Copilot Chat, which is included, and pilot the paid add-on with the teams that spend the most time in email, documents and meetings.