Microsoft Copilot

0:17 Microsoft Copilot is Microsoft's AI assistant, and it has a free tier: anyone can chat with it, and paying for Microsoft 365 Personal ($9.99 a month), Family ($12.99) or Premium ($19.99) raises the limits and puts Copilot inside the desktop Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote, as of Nov 6, 2026. Since Aug 2026, Microsoft has been merging the consumer Copilot app with its work app into one app called Microsoft Copilot, and it retired several consumer features on the way, including Mico, its animated character.

Copilot is the natural choice if you already pay for Microsoft 365 and want AI in your own documents and on Windows. For a standalone assistant, ChatGPT and Gemini offer more on their free plans and publish which models they run, and Claude is stronger for coding. Companies buying Copilot for staff should read Microsoft 365 Copilot, the business product. The Best AI Chatbot guide compares them all.

Quick facts

Is Microsoft Copilot free?

Yes, with limits. Microsoft describes its paid plans as giving higher usage than free for chat, image creation, AI audio and visual help from your screen or camera, which means the free tier has all of these at lower limits. What the free tier does not get is Copilot inside the desktop Office apps. Microsoft 365 Basic, the cheapest storage plan, includes no AI features at all.

Plans and prices

Prices as of Nov 6, 2026. In the Family plan, Copilot's AI features cannot be shared with the other members. Microsoft introduced Premium on Oct 1, 2025 as Family plus what Copilot Pro offered, and stopped selling Copilot Pro.

Features

Chat, images, voice and vision. The core of Copilot is a chat assistant that can create images, talk out loud (in English for AI audio) and look at your screen or camera to help, with limits set by your plan, per Microsoft's plan page.

Copilot in Office. On Personal, Family and Premium, Copilot works inside the desktop Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook, drafting, summarizing and analyzing your own files.

0:44 Cowork, Researcher and Analyst. Cowork plans and carries out multi-step tasks while asking for your approval; Researcher finds and explains information from many sources; Analyst works through data. Microsoft lists the research and analysis agents as a Premium feature.

4:56 One app. Microsoft began combining the consumer Copilot app and the Microsoft 365 Copilot app in Aug 2026, with files made in the old app moving to OneDrive.

What Microsoft removed in 2026

On Aug 18, 2026, consumer Copilot lost Group Chats, AI-generated podcasts, Copilot Labs and consumer Deep Research, and Mico, the character introduced in Copilot's Oct 2025 update, was dropped. TechCrunch reported that Jacob Andreou, the executive who oversees Copilot, had told staff in Jul 2026 that the app had to earn its place in customers' lives. Paying professional users get Researcher in place of Deep Research.

Microsoft Copilot vs the alternatives

ChatGPT gives free users unlimited everyday text chats on GPT-6 and says which model each plan runs; its $20 Plus costs about the same as Microsoft 365 Premium but includes no Office apps or storage.

Gemini is the equivalent bundle for Google users: Google AI Pro at $19.99 a month includes Gemini in Gmail and Docs and 5 TB of storage, and Google's models rank first and second on LMArena Text (Oct 27, 2026).

Claude is the stronger choice for coding and long agent work, first on LMArena WebDev with Claude Opus 5.5 (Oct 27, 2026).

Microsoft 365 Copilot is the business version, sold to companies; CNBC put its price at $30 a user a month.

Frequently asked questions

Is Microsoft Copilot free? Yes. Microsoft Copilot has a free tier with chat, image creation, voice and vision at lower limits; Microsoft 365 Personal, Family and Premium raise the limits and add Copilot in the Office apps, as of Nov 6, 2026.

Is Copilot Pro still available? No. Microsoft stopped selling Copilot Pro when it launched Microsoft 365 Premium on Oct 1, 2025; Premium costs $19.99 a month and includes what Copilot Pro offered.

What happened to Mico? Microsoft dropped Mico, Copilot's animated voice character, in Aug 2026, when it began merging its consumer and work Copilot apps.

What is the difference between Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot? Microsoft Copilot is the assistant for individuals, free or with Microsoft 365 Personal, Family or Premium; Microsoft 365 Copilot is the business product sold per user to organizations.

Is Microsoft Copilot better than ChatGPT? Microsoft Copilot is better for people who work in Word, Excel and Outlook, since it acts on their own files there; ChatGPT has the more generous free plan and more tools of its own.

Sources

• Compare Microsoft 365 plans, Microsoft, read Nov 6, 2026
• Microsoft Copilot for individuals, Microsoft, read Nov 6, 2026
• Meet Microsoft 365 Premium: Your AI and productivity powerhouse, Microsoft, Oct 1, 2025
• Microsoft kills off unsuccessful AI features while merging its separate Copilot apps, TechCrunch, Aug 13, 2026
• Microsoft touts Copilot app with coding, Autopilot to chase Anthropic, CNBC, Sep 25, 2026
• Text leaderboard and WebDev leaderboard, LMArena, read Nov 6, 2026
• Google Meet's Gemini-powered 'Take notes for me' comes to Google AI Pro, Ultra, 9to5Google, Jun 29, 2026
• Microsoft Copilot Just Got a Massive Upgrade, Kevin Stratvert, Sep 28, 2026 (video)