Microsoft Copilot is an AI assistant available on the web, in Edge, in Windows, and inside Microsoft 365 applications. On September 25, 2026, Microsoft announced a redesigned work Copilot with Home, Code, and Autopilot. It is rolling out to early-access business customers first. We will review it once it is widely available.
The free tier deserves genuine credit. GPT-4o-powered conversations, Bing web search with cited sources, DALL-E image generation, and basic file analysis, all at no cost, no account required. For casual questions, quick research, and image generation, it’s a strong entry point that most people overlook because of the branding confusion.
The naming situation is genuinely confusing and worth addressing. “Microsoft Copilot” refers to the free/Pro consumer chatbot. “Microsoft 365 Copilot” is the enterprise product embedded in Office apps at $30/user/mo on top of your existing M365 license. These are different products with different capabilities and different pricing, but they share a name, and Microsoft’s marketing doesn’t make the distinction clear.
Inside Office apps is where the value appears for paid users. Copilot in Word drafts and rewrites documents using your existing content. In Excel, it generates formulas, creates charts, and analyzes data from natural language. In Outlook, it summarizes email threads and drafts responses based on conversation context. In PowerPoint, it generates slide decks from documents or prompts. For someone who spends 6+ hours a day in Microsoft 365, these features eliminate real friction.
Microsoft 365 Premium costs $19.99 a month and replaces the old Copilot Pro subscription. Microsoft stopped selling Copilot Pro in October 2025, and support ended on August 1, 2026. The current plan combines Microsoft 365 apps with higher Copilot access, voice, and Deep Research. It makes the most sense for people who already work in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams every day.
