What is Microsoft Copilot?
AI assistant embedded across Microsoft 365 - Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams and Windows - grounded in your organisation's own tenant data via Microsoft Graph. Also available as a free consumer chat assistant.
Organisations whose day already runs through Outlook, Teams, Word and Excel.
Main features
- Copilot in Word (draft/rewrite/summarise), Excel (formulas, analysis, charts), PowerPoint (deck generation), Outlook (triage and drafting), Teams (meeting recap and action items)
- Copilot Chat (web-grounded, no extra cost)
- Copilot Studio for custom agents
- Agent 365
- Copilot Credits for metered agent work.
Practical use cases
- Meeting recaps and action items from Teams
- inbox triage in Outlook
- first-draft documents grounded in SharePoint content
- Excel analysis
- deck generation from a Word doc
- custom agents over internal data.
Who is it for?
- Organisations already standardised on Microsoft 365; enterprise IT, finance, HR, sales and operations teams.
Pricing, free access & limits
Per-user add-on licence on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 base plan; plus consumption-based Copilot Credits
Plans described in the source
Microsoft 365 Copilot (Enterprise) $30/user/mo, annual commitment - requires a qualifying base licence (E3, E5, Business Standard/Premium, E1, F1/F3). Microsoft 365 Copilot Business $21/user/mo annual ($25.20 monthly) for orgs up to 300 users; a promotional $18/user/mo runs 1 July - 31 December 2026 (annual commitment, first year only, not on trials). Bundles introduced 1 July 2026: Business Standard + Copilot $23.50/user/mo; Business Premium + Copilot $32/user/mo; E7 Frontier Suite $99/user/mo. Copilot Studio from $200/mo per tenant. Copilot Credits $0.01 each pay-as-you-go, or $200 for 25,000 credits/mo prepaid.
Free plan
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is included at no extra per-user cost for many M365 users (web-grounded chat only, not in-app Copilot). A free consumer Copilot app also exists.
Free trial
Trials available through Microsoft and partners; promotional pricing explicitly excluded from trial subscriptions.
Usage limits to consider
Copilot cannot be bought standalone - a qualifying M365 licence is mandatory. Business SKU capped at 300 users and Microsoft can enforce that limit. Agent actions consume Copilot Credits, so complex multi-step tasks cost more than simple ones. Pay-as-you-go credits require an Azure subscription.
Confirm current plans and pricing ↗Strengths & tradeoffs
These points summarize the supplied research, rather than hands-on test results.
Strengths noted in the source
- Tenant-grounded answers using your real documents and email
- unmatched depth inside Office apps
- enterprise-grade compliance, data residency and admin controls
- no data leaves the Microsoft compliance boundary.
Limitations to consider
- The $30 headline is never the total - add the base suite and the real all-in figure is roughly $66-90/user/mo on E3/E5. Every assigned seat costs the same whether used or not
- Microsoft reports ~15M paid seats against 450M+ commercial users (~3.3% penetration). Gartner's 2026 assessment says value realisation is not guaranteed.
Platforms, languages & integrations
Platforms
- Windows, web, iOS, Android, Microsoft 365 desktop and web apps, Teams, Edge
Languages
- Broad Microsoft 365 language coverage incl. Arabic, French, English
API access
Indirect - Copilot Studio, Microsoft Graph API, Azure AI Foundry
Integrations and exports
- Entire Microsoft 365 / Graph estate, SharePoint, OneDrive, Dynamics 365, Power Platform, Teams
- third-party connectors via Copilot Studio
Evaluation notes
In most small offices only two to four people per ten get real value - typically those whose day is the inbox, the Teams meeting and long Word/Excel files. Licensing the rest is how a $756 decision becomes a $2,520 one.
Frequently asked questions
What is Microsoft Copilot best for?
Organisations whose day already runs through Outlook, Teams, Word and Excel.
What free access does Microsoft Copilot offer?
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is included at no extra per-user cost for many M365 users (web-grounded chat only, not in-app Copilot). A free consumer Copilot app also exists.
What limits should I check before using Microsoft Copilot?
Copilot cannot be bought standalone - a qualifying M365 licence is mandatory. Business SKU capped at 300 users and Microsoft can enforce that limit. Agent actions consume Copilot Credits, so complex multi-step tasks cost more than simple ones. Pay-as-you-go credits require an Azure subscription.
Does Microsoft Copilot provide an API?
Indirect - Copilot Studio, Microsoft Graph API, Azure AI Foundry
Sources & editorial notes
Based on the directory editor’s supplied research. The source marks this row as checked on 2026-09-12. Importing a record does not independently verify every product claim.
Additional references named in the research
microsoft.com/microsoft-365/copilot pricing pages; Microsoft licensing FAQ; Microsoft 1 July 2026 SKU announcement