Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft Copilot is the AI assistant that Microsoft sells in two main ways. For individuals it is bundled into Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, Premium and Pro subscriptions, where it works inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook and in a separate Copilot app for chat. For businesses, Microsoft sells Copilot per user as an add-on to eligible Microsoft 365 Business plans, with Copilot Chat included at no extra cost in those plans.

The vendor says Copilot helps create content, find information, summarise documents, emails and meetings, analyse data and complete multi-step tasks. It is built to work with files and permissions that already exist in a Microsoft 365 tenant, which is its main difference from stand-alone chatbots.

• Copilot inside Office apps. The assistant works in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote. The vendor says you can reference a file to create a Word document or a presentation, and generate images from the chat pane in Word and PowerPoint.
• Researcher and Analyst agents. Pre-built agents handle research across sources and data analysis. The business pricing page lists Researcher, Analyst and Facilitator as agents unlocked by a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, and the consumer page describes Researcher for finding and synthesising information.
• Cowork for multi-step tasks. Microsoft describes Cowork in Copilot as a collaborator that plans and completes complex, multi-step work while the user stays in control. On the business page Cowork is billed by usage through Copilot Credits.
• Tiered usage limits. Personal and Family plans give higher usage than the free version, Premium gives extensive usage and Pro the highest, including for image creation, audio in English and visual assistance from screen or camera.
• Enterprise Data Protection. For business, Microsoft states that prompts and responses stay within the Microsoft 365 service boundary, are not used to train the underlying large language models, follow existing permissions and are available for eDiscovery under retention policies.
• Copilot Studio agents. A Microsoft 365 Copilot licence covers internal agents built in Copilot Studio. The vendor says a separate Copilot Studio licence is needed for external channels and for users without a Copilot licence.

• A freelancer on Microsoft 365 Personal. Draft proposals in Word, summarise long email threads in Outlook and tidy spreadsheets in Excel with the subscription already paid for, accepting the usage limits that apply to that tier.
• A 40-person company on Business Standard. Add the Copilot Business add-on for selected staff who write reports and summarise meetings, keeping existing Microsoft 365 permissions, rather than buying a separate AI tool.
• A finance analyst needing deeper research. Use Researcher and Analyst agents for source gathering and data analysis, under a plan with higher usage limits such as Premium or Pro for individuals.

For individuals, choose a Microsoft 365 plan on the Microsoft site, sign in with a Microsoft account and open Copilot in the Office apps or the Copilot app. The vendor offers a one-month free trial of Microsoft 365 Premium.

For businesses, you need an existing eligible Microsoft 365 Business plan, then administrators assign Copilot licences per user and can set usage controls in Cost Management in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Copilot in Teams also requires a Teams licence. Microsoft provides a Copilot learning center with short videos, and an opt-in Frontier program for experimental features.

Copilot for individuals is bundled into Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, Premium and Pro, with a one-month trial, and businesses add it per user.

The consumer terms require a Microsoft account and do not apply to work or school accounts. Because pricing runs through the Office subscription, a team that only wants a chat assistant pays for suite features it may not use.

In our AI chatbots and assistants ranking Microsoft Copilot stands at #10 of 14: it follows Google Gemini and comes before Meta AI. No numeric score is attached; established products follow the challengers in their ranked order.

Counting headquarters, 6 out of 14 sit in North America; for Microsoft Copilot that is the United States.

Pricing as recorded: Bundled in Microsoft 365 subscriptions, published; business add-on per user.

Consumer prices in US dollars on Microsoft's page: Personal $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, Family $12.99 a month or $129.99 a year, Premium $19.99 a month or $199.99 a year, Pro $99.99 a month with monthly billing only. For business (US dollars per user): Copilot Business add-on $18.00 a month paid yearly or $25.20 monthly, with the yearly price reduced from $21.00 for the first year in a July to December 2026 offer. Business Standard with Copilot is $23.50 yearly or $28.20 monthly; Business Premium with Copilot is $32.00 or $38.40. Cowork, Code, Autopilot and Work IQ APIs are billed by usage through Copilot Credits.

Source: the pricing material on copilot.microsoft.com, as read for Best AI Chatbots and Assistants in 2026 and last reviewed on 6 November 2026.

Premium carries higher usage limits than Personal, and Pro the highest.

The Copilot terms say you must sign in with a Microsoft account, and Microsoft Corporation lists Redmond, Washington.

Microsoft states that Copilot follows the organisation's existing Microsoft 365 security settings and that prompts and responses are not used to train the underlying large language models. Under Enterprise Data Protection, data stays within the Microsoft 365 service boundary, supporting GDPR and ISO/IEC 27018, with logging under retention policies. Consumer Copilot AI features are for the subscription owner only. Specific hosting regions are not stated on the pages fetched.

Integrations the vendor names (10):

• Word
• Excel
• PowerPoint
• Outlook
• OneNote
• Teams
• OneDrive
• SharePoint
• Microsoft Defender
• Copilot Studio

Also in our records:

• The individual price is a Microsoft 365 subscription, so you pay for the Office suite as well.
• Catalogue tags that point to the ecosystem: Microsoft 365.

Shared tags and a similar price model decide who is listed here; where none match, the neighbours in the ranking fill in.

A full write-up exists: Microsoft Copilot alternatives, with reasons buyers leave and what moving involves.

• Claude (#3 of 14): A stand-alone assistant from Anthropic PBC that is not tied to an office suite. Free is $0, Pro is $17 a month on an annual plan ($20 monthly), Max starts at $100, and Team seats are $20 a month billed annually for 2 to 150 people. Its pricing page lists a Microsoft 365 connection on paid plans. Switch if you want a chat assistant with a flat per-seat price that is separate from your Office licences.
• Poe (#5 of 14): Quora, Inc. runs Poe as a platform where one account reaches many bots built on different models. Its terms say limits can be expressed in messages, points or compute points, and points have no cash value and are non-refundable. You choose between models, where Copilot gives you Microsoft's choice. Switch if you want to compare several models from one account and accept a points system.
• Grok (#8 of 14): An assistant from xAI. The vendor domains blocked automated requests this session, so we could not read its plan page ourselves and make no price claim. Whether an Office-style suite surrounds it we could not check, which is the main contrast to read for against Copilot. Switch if you want a stand-alone consumer assistant and have checked its current tiers on the vendor site.

When Microsoft Copilot is still the right call: Microsoft Copilot stays the right choice when the organisation already runs on Microsoft 365 and wants the assistant inside Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams under the same identity and admin controls. The business page lists Enterprise Data Protection and management controls, which stand-alone chat assistants have to match with their own enterprise tiers. Moving to a stand-alone tool means a second contract and a second place to manage users.

Read from the vendor’s own pages on 5 November 2026.

• microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot/for-individuals: consumer plans, prices, usage tiers, FAQ, trial
• microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-copilot/pricing: business prices, licence requirements, usage-based billing, Enterprise Data Protection, trial and refund

Feature lists tell little, so positions rest on setup effort, the true price, portability and fit. The result for Microsoft Copilot: #10, out of 14 ranked. Read the editorial process for the method and where paid visibility fits in.