Microsoft Copilot
The assistant that arrives inside the apps your staff already open.
- AI
- Productivity
- Marketing
- from $18/mo
Microsoft Copilot is Microsoft's assistant for work, sold either as an add-on to Microsoft 365 or bundled into Business Standard and Business Premium subscriptions. Its advantage is location rather than capability: it appears in Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams with no integration work, under the admin controls an organisation already has.
Microsoft Copilot: the short answer
Every line below is drawn from facts verified on 19 August 2026.
- What it is
- The assistant that arrives inside the apps your staff already open
- Best for
- Organisations already standardised on Microsoft 365
- Starts at
- Copilot Chat free; Microsoft 365 Copilot Business from $18/user/month paid yearly
- Free option
- Free plan available, Offered on the business plans; a credit card is required to start one trial
- Biggest strength
- Appears inside the apps staff already use, with no integration work
- Biggest drawback
- Annual, auto-renewing commitments on every paid tier
- Based on
- Primary-source research, not hands-on use
- Closest alternative
- Google Gemini - The same argument inside Google Workspace rather than Microsoft 365
- True annual cost
- from $252 a year on Microsoft 365 Copilot Business, the cheapest paid tier ($21 a month)
Microsoft Copilot at a glance
| Best for | Organisations already standardised on Microsoft 365, IT teams who need admin controls, SSO and enterprise data protection from day one, Staff whose work happens in Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams |
|---|---|
| Category | AI, Productivity, Marketing |
| Starting price | Copilot Chat free; Microsoft 365 Copilot Business from $18/user/month paid yearly |
| Free plan | Yes |
| Free trial | Offered on the business plans; a credit card is required to start one |
| Pricing model | subscription |
| Company | Microsoft Corporation |
| Founded | 1975 |
| Headquarters | Redmond, Washington, United States |
| Founders | Bill Gates, Paul Allen |
| Platforms | Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android |
| Public API | Yes |
| Browser extension | No |
| Mobile apps | iOS + Android |
| Self-hosting | No |
| Affiliate programme | No |
| Data source | Vendor pricing page and public records |
| Last checked | August 2026 |
Microsoft Copilot pricing
Prices below were read from the vendor's own pricing page on 19 August 2026. Pricing model: subscription. Free trial: Offered on the business plans; a credit card is required to start one.
| Plan | Price | Billing | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copilot Chat | $0 | per month | Free entry point in the browser and apps, with web information and language models. File uploads carry limits the page does not quantify |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Business | $21 | per month | per user - Paid yearly on an auto-renewing annual subscription. Advertised at $18 when read on 19 August 2026, described as "originally starting from $21.00". $25.20 if paid monthly |
| Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot | $23.50 | per month | per user - Paid yearly. The Microsoft 365 apps and Copilot in one subscription; $28.20 if paid monthly. A Teams-free variant is also listed |
| Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot | $32 | per month | per user - Paid yearly. Adds the Business Premium security and Purview governance tooling; $38.40 if paid monthly |
| Enterprise | Custom | Negotiated | Enterprise agreements and larger deployments are arranged with Microsoft or a partner |
What Microsoft Copilot actually costs over a year
A monthly price is not the same thing as a monthly contract. These are the plans above resolved both ways, per seat or unit where the plan is charged that way. Where a vendor quotes only a yearly figure it is divided by twelve rather than left out, and the Quoted column says which figure the vendor actually publishes.
| Plan | Quoted | Monthly | Over 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Businessper user | per month | $21 | $252 |
| Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilotper user | per month | $23.5 | $282 |
| Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilotper user | per month | $32 | $384 |
Which Microsoft Copilot plan should you buy?
| Your situation | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You want to try Copilot at no cost | Copilot Chat | Free, in the browser and the apps, with web grounding. File upload limits are not published. |
| You already pay for Microsoft 365 and want to add the assistant | Microsoft 365 Copilot Business | From $18 a user a month paid yearly when read, against a stated regular $21. This adds Copilot to what you have. |
| You are buying Microsoft 365 and Copilot together | Business Standard with Copilot | $23.50 a user a month paid yearly for the apps and the assistant in one line, rather than two subscriptions. |
| You need the security and governance tooling as well | Business Premium with Copilot | $32 a user a month paid yearly, adding Purview and the Business Premium security stack. |
| You are not a Microsoft 365 organisation | Do not buy Copilot | The entire argument is that it is already where you work. Outside that estate, ChatGPT or Claude are better purchases. |
Verdict by who you are
IT team rolling out to a whole companyYes
Admin console, SSO through Entra and enterprise data protection come as standard, which is what consumer subscriptions cannot give you.
Microsoft 365 organisationYes
At $18 to $23.50 a user a month paid yearly, an assistant inside Outlook and Excel is the version staff will actually use.
Small business outside the Microsoft estateNo
You would be buying a suite to get an assistant. Buy the assistant instead.
Heavy individual userCompare first
No published usage numbers means you cannot tell whether your volume is covered until you are on the annual commitment.
DeveloperCompare first
This is the work assistant, not the coding one. GitHub Copilot is a different product with different pricing.
Should you buy Microsoft Copilot?
Buy Microsoft Copilot if…
- Organisations already standardised on Microsoft 365
- IT teams who need admin controls, SSO and enterprise data protection from day one
- Staff whose work happens in Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams
Do not buy Microsoft Copilot if…
- Anyone not already inside the Microsoft 365 estate
- Buyers who want published per-message usage limits
- Teams wanting the largest consumer plugin ecosystem
Best Microsoft Copilot alternative for each job
Chosen by what you are trying to do rather than by which product is closest overall, because the right replacement depends on the job.
| If you mainly need to… | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Get the same advantage inside Google Workspace | Google Gemini | Already in Gmail and Docs, and often already licensed by your Workspace plan. |
| Buy one assistant for a mixed estate | ChatGPT | The widest ecosystem, and no assumption about which suite you run. |
| Work through very long documents | Claude | Long-context handling is what it is bought for. |
| Spend as little as possible per seat | Mistral | $14.99 a month, with published daily allowances and open weights. |
Key features
- Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams
- Copilot Chat as a free entry point with web grounding
- Copilot Pages for shared, editable AI output
- Agents that act across Microsoft 365 content
- Enterprise data protection and IT controls on the paid tiers
- Admin console, provisioning and single sign-on through Microsoft Entra
- Purview governance tooling on Business Premium
- Bundled options that replace a separate Microsoft 365 subscription
Integrations
- Microsoft 365, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams
- SharePoint and OneDrive content
- Microsoft Entra for identity and single sign-on
- Microsoft Purview
- Power Platform and Copilot Studio
Microsoft Copilot screenshots
Captured by us in August 2026 at 1440px, unedited. Interfaces change, so these show the product as it looked on the date we verified this profile. Pricing pages are captured from a US vantage point, so the currency shown matches the USD figures recorded above.
Our assessment
Copilot's case is distribution, and it is a stronger case than a feature comparison suggests. If your staff spend their day in Outlook and Excel, an assistant inside those windows gets used, and one in a separate browser tab often does not - which is why the honest comparison here is not Copilot against a frontier model but Copilot against the tab nobody opens. It also arrives with the things a rollout needs and consumer subscriptions lack: an admin console, provisioning, single sign-on through Entra, enterprise data protection and, on Business Premium, Purview governance. Commercially it is now cheaper than its reputation. Microsoft 365 Copilot Business was advertised at $18 a user a month paid yearly when we read it, against a stated regular price of $21, and the bundled Business Standard with Copilot at $23.50 replaces a separate Microsoft 365 subscription rather than adding to it. Two caveats: everything is an annual auto-renewing commitment, and Microsoft publishes no usable numbers for what the assistant will let you do in a month, which makes forecasting heavy use guesswork.
What works in Microsoft Copilot
- Appears inside the apps staff already use, with no integration work
- Admin console, provisioning, SSO and enterprise data protection on the paid tiers
- Cheaper than its reputation, from $18 a user a month paid yearly when read
- Bundled options replace a Microsoft 365 subscription rather than adding to it
What doesn't
- Annual, auto-renewing commitments on every paid tier
- No published per-message or per-month usage figures; file uploads carry unquantified limits
- Only makes sense inside the Microsoft 365 estate
- The SKU list is genuinely confusing, including Teams-free variants at separate prices
EveryAny Decision Score
3 of these 8 dimensions are calculated from verified facts; the rest are our judgement, shown as a band rather than a figure unless something specific sits behind them. How each score works.
- Cost position1.3/10
derivedentry tier at $21 a month against a category median of $17 a month across 8 comparable tools
- Portability5/10
derivedpublic API
- Subscription flexibility8/10
derivedfree plan, free trial, subscription, monthly billing
- Feature depthHigh
editorialour judgement, with no measurement behind it
- Ease of learningHigh
editorialour judgement, with no measurement behind it
- Collaboration9/10
editorialCopilot Pages, Teams integration, and the admin console, provisioning and SSO an organisation needs to deploy it.
- AI capability8/10
editorialAssistant across the Office apps, agents acting on Microsoft 365 content, Copilot Pages and web grounding; no published usage allowances.
- Professional adoption10/10
editorialMicrosoft 365 is among the most widely deployed business software estates in the world, and Copilot ships inside it.
What leaving Microsoft Copilot would cost
moderate lock-in
Microsoft Copilot scores on public API. Portability 5/10 ; lock-in is the inverse. How this is calculated.
Microsoft Copilot competitors and alternatives
| Alternative | Why you might pick it instead |
|---|---|
| Google Gemini | The same argument inside Google Workspace rather than Microsoft 365. |
| ChatGPT | Stronger consumer ecosystem, but nothing arrives pre-installed in your documents. |
| Claude | Better regarded for long documents and code; no presence inside Office. |
ChatGPT
AI
General-purpose AI assistant for writing, analysis, coding and research.
Checked Aug 2026
Google Gemini
AI
The AI assistant that arrives already inside your email and documents.
Checked Aug 2026
The SKU ladder, in the order it actually matters
Microsoft’s naming is the hardest part of buying this. Read on 19 August 2026, all figures per user per month paid yearly:
| What you are buying | Paid yearly | Paid monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Copilot Chat | Free | Free |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Business | $18, from a stated regular $21 | $25.20 |
| Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot | $23.50 | $28.20 |
| Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot | $32.00 | $38.40 |
The distinction that saves money: Copilot Business adds the assistant to a Microsoft 365 subscription you already hold, while the “with Copilot” bundles replace that subscription. Buying a bundle when you already pay for Microsoft 365 means paying twice for the apps. Teams-free variants of both bundles are also listed at their own prices, a consequence of European unbundling.
Note the $18: the page describes it as “originally starting from $21.00 now starting from $18.00”. Budget the regular figure, as with any promotional rate.
What it buys that a consumer subscription cannot
This is the reason a company buys Copilot rather than expensing eight ChatGPT Plus accounts:
- An admin console with provisioning, so offboarding a leaver actually removes access
- Single sign-on through Microsoft Entra, using the identity system you already run
- Enterprise data protection, and Purview governance on Business Premium
- IT controls over what the assistant can reach in SharePoint and OneDrive
Our AI assistants guide sets out the six things to confirm before any company-wide rollout. Copilot answers most of them by being part of an estate you have already configured.
The number Microsoft will not give you
There is no published figure for how much you can actually do in a month. The page says file uploads carry limits and does not say what they are, and there is no message or credit allowance published anywhere on it.
That is not unique - almost every vendor in this category describes allowances in adjectives or multiples - but it means heavy users cannot tell whether a tier covers them before signing an annual, auto-renewing commitment. If that matters to you, ask your reseller for the current limits in writing before the first invoice.
When it is the wrong purchase
If you are not a Microsoft 365 organisation, none of the above applies and you would be buying a suite to get an assistant. ChatGPT or Claude are the better purchases, and Gemini is the same argument as this one for anyone inside Google Workspace.
Microsoft Copilot questions, answered
- Is Microsoft Copilot worth it?
- Copilot's case is distribution, and it is a stronger case than a feature comparison suggests.
- How much does Microsoft Copilot cost?
- Copilot Chat free; Microsoft 365 Copilot Business from $18/user/month paid yearly. The cheapest paid tier we recorded is Microsoft 365 Copilot Business, published at $21 a month, which works out at $21 a month or $252 over a year. Verified against the vendor's pricing page.
- Does Microsoft Copilot have a free plan or free trial?
- Microsoft Copilot has a free plan. A free trial is available: Offered on the business plans; a credit card is required to start one.
- What is the best Microsoft Copilot alternative?
- It depends on the job. Google Gemini: The same argument inside Google Workspace rather than Microsoft 365. ChatGPT: Stronger consumer ecosystem, but nothing arrives pre-installed in your documents. Claude: Better regarded for long documents and code; no presence inside Office.
- Can I self-host Microsoft Copilot?
- No. Microsoft Copilot is a hosted service only, so your data lives on the vendor's infrastructure.
What this profile is based on
Every claim below is about our work, not about Microsoft Copilot. A "no" is recorded rather than omitted, because the difference between a tested review and careful desk research is the reader's to weigh. How we research a profile.
-
Prices read from the vendor : yes
Read from Microsoft Copilot's own pricing page on 19 August 2026
-
Plans and terms recorded : yes
5 rows, each with its billing period
-
Original screenshots : yes
1 captured by us: homepage
-
Sources cited and dated : yes
2 primary sources, each with the date it was read
-
Product used first-hand : no
Not tested. This profile is desk research from primary sources
-
Alternatives used first-hand : no
None, so comparisons here rest on published facts rather than use
-
Vendor contacted : no
Not contacted for this profile
Desk research from Microsoft's own Copilot business pricing page, read on 19 August 2026 through a United States egress. Nobody here has used Copilot, and no output quality was assessed. Microsoft's consumer Copilot bundling is documented on the Microsoft 365 profile rather than here.
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Provenance and freshness
When each fact was last checked
- Pricing ·
- Plans ·
- Free trial
- Features
- Platforms
- Integrations
- Affiliate programme
- Company details ·
Individually sourced claims
-
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business was advertised from $18.00 a user a month paid yearly, described as originally starting from $21.00
-
Business Standard with Copilot is $23.50 and Business Premium with Copilot is $32.00 a user a month paid yearly
-
Paid tiers are annual, auto-renewing subscriptions, and a credit card is required for a trial
What has changed
-
August 2026
- First published, with the business SKU ladder read from Microsoft's own pricing page
- Recorded the $18 advertised rate against the stated regular $21, and the monthly-billing figures
Sources & verification
Facts on this page were read from the sources below on the dates shown. Where a vendor does not publish a figure, we record it as not disclosed rather than estimating it.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot for business pricing - checked 19 August 2026
- Microsoft 365 Copilot - checked 19 August 2026
Spotted something out of date? Email [email protected] and we will re-check it. Corrections are logged on the page.
