Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft's AI assistant across Windows, Edge, Office and Teams. Runs OpenAI's GPT-5.4 and GPT-5.5 Thinking alongside Microsoft's in-house Project Polaris and Anthropic models via Foundry.
About Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft Copilot is not one product but an AI layer stretched across everything Microsoft ships — Windows, Edge, Bing, the Office apps, Teams and the Azure developer stack. If your organisation runs on Microsoft 365, Copilot is the assistant that already has permission to see your documents, mail and meetings.
What is Microsoft Copilot?
Copilot spans a free consumer assistant, the $20 Copilot Pro subscription, and Microsoft 365 Copilot, the enterprise add-on that grounds answers in your organisation's own Graph data. The model story changed materially in 2026. OpenAI's GPT-5.4, released 5 March 2026, is the flagship, and Copilot Chat added GPT-5.5 Thinking for multi-step reasoning and structured analysis. Microsoft also shipped its own in-house model, Project Polaris, running exclusively on Microsoft's Maia AI accelerators inside Azure, and made Anthropic's Claude models available inside Microsoft Foundry for agent workloads. It is now a genuinely multi-vendor system that routes work to different models depending on the task.
Key Features
- Office integration: Drafting in Word, formula and analysis help in Excel, deck generation in PowerPoint, inbox triage in Outlook.
- Copilot Chat: Secure AI chat for work available to all Microsoft 365 users, now with inbox and calendar awareness plus Word, Excel and PowerPoint agents.
- Teams meeting intelligence: Live transcription, recaps, action items and follow-ups.
- Copilot Studio: Build and deploy custom enterprise agents against internal data and systems.
- Multi-model routing: GPT-5.4 and GPT-5.5 Thinking, Project Polaris on Maia, and Claude models via Foundry.
Who Should Use Microsoft Copilot?
Copilot is the default for organisations already standardised on Microsoft 365, because it is the only assistant with native, permission-aware access to your SharePoint, Exchange and Teams data. Individuals get real value from the free tier in Windows and Edge, and Copilot Pro at $20 mainly buys priority access inside the Office desktop apps. Small businesses should look hard at the new bundled SKUs rather than stacking the $30 add-on. Organisations not on Microsoft 365 will find better standalone assistants elsewhere.
Pricing
Copilot is free via Windows, Edge and Bing. Copilot Pro is $20/month for individuals. Microsoft 365 Copilot costs $30 per user per month — $360 per user annually — as an add-on to a qualifying Microsoft 365 base licence. On 1 July 2026 Microsoft introduced new bundles: Business Standard + Copilot at $23.50/user/month, Business Premium + Copilot at $32/user/month, and the E7 Frontier Suite at $99/user/month, combining M365 E5, Copilot, Agent 365 and Entra Suite. The M365 Copilot Business promotional price of $18/user/month has ended, replaced by a $21/user/month list price for eligible SMB tenants.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Permission-aware access to your own Microsoft 365 data | $30/user/month add-on sits on top of an existing licence |
| Routes across OpenAI, Anthropic and Microsoft's own models | The $18 SMB promotional price has ended |
| New bundled SMB SKUs cut the total cost | SKU and licensing sprawl is hard to navigate |
| Copilot Chat now reaches all M365 users | Output quality is uneven across Office apps |
Bottom Line
Copilot's advantage was never the model — it is the data access and the distribution. In 2026 the model gap closed too, with GPT-5.4, GPT-5.5 Thinking, Project Polaris and Claude all available depending on the workload. For Microsoft 365 organisations it is the assistant with the least integration work and the clearest compliance story. For everyone else, the standalone competition is stronger and cheaper.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Deeply embedded in Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams
- Multi-vendor models including OpenAI, Anthropic and Microsoft's own
- New bundled SMB SKUs lower the entry price
- Copilot Chat available to all Microsoft 365 users
Cons
- Full M365 Copilot is a $30/user/month add-on on top of a base licence
- The SMB promotional $18/user price has ended
- Licensing and SKU sprawl is genuinely confusing
- Quality varies noticeably between Office apps
Use Cases
Tags
Company Info
- Company
- Microsoft
- Founded
- 2023~
- HQ
- Redmond, USA~
- Pricing
- freemium
- Last verified
- 2026-08-29
~ Approximate. Verify at the official website.
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Is Microsoft Copilot free?▾
Microsoft Copilot offers a free plan with limited features. Paid plans unlock additional capabilities. Free via Windows, Edge and Bing. Copilot Pro $20/month. Microsoft 365 Copilot $30/user/month add-on. Since 1 Jul 2026: Business Standard + Copilot $23.50/user/month, Business Premium + Copilot $32/user/month, E7 Frontier Suite $99/user/month. M365 Copilot Business list price $21/user/month for eligible SMB tenants.
What is Microsoft Copilot used for?▾
Microsoft's AI assistant across Windows, Edge, Office and Teams. Runs OpenAI's GPT-5.4 and GPT-5.5 Thinking alongside Microsoft's in-house Project Polaris and Anthropic models via Foundry. Key use cases include: Drafting and summarising in Word and Outlook, Excel data analysis, Meeting recaps in Teams.
What are the pros and cons of Microsoft Copilot?▾
Pros: Deeply embedded in Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams; Multi-vendor models including OpenAI, Anthropic and Microsoft's own; New bundled SMB SKUs lower the entry price. Cons: Full M365 Copilot is a $30/user/month add-on on top of a base licence; The SMB promotional $18/user price has ended.
Who makes Microsoft Copilot?▾
Microsoft Copilot is developed by Microsoft, founded in 2023.
What are the best alternatives to Microsoft Copilot?▾
Top alternatives to Microsoft Copilot include ChatGPT, Perplexity AI, Manus. You can compare them all on AIFans.
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