Microsoft Copilot

The Microsoft 365 assistant, not GitHub Copilot

by Microsoft

Overview

Microsoft Copilot is the assistant across Microsoft products, and its entitlement depends entirely on which account and licence you hold, so this page keeps the three routes apart: a personal Copilot account, a personal Microsoft 365 subscription, and an organisational account with a work licence. The free tier chats, searches the web, handles images and accepts uploaded files within limits, and it is not the full set of Office AI features or a research agent.

Personal Microsoft 365 plans on the US store are Personal at $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year for one person with 1TB of storage and Copilot in the listed Office apps but no Researcher or Analyst; Family at $12.99 a month or $129.99 a year for up to six people, where the AI features belong to the subscription holder rather than to all six; and Premium at $19.99 a month or $199.99 a year for up to six people with the AI features again limited to the holder, plus higher usage and the research and analysis agents. The September 2026 limits documentation adds a Pro plan and replaces the older fixed counts with Standard, More, Extensive and Highest use bands, so Personal and Family do not include Researcher or Analyst and Premium and Pro are Extensive use without a published fixed number - Extensive is not the same as unlimited, and the older figures of 25 agent tasks or 60 credits a month are superseded.

The app update of 18 August 2026 keeps personal and organisational data separate and moves uploads and generated files towards OneDrive, while consumer Deep Research has been retired and its former users are pointed to Researcher; Researcher is available on personal Premium and Pro and through qualifying enterprise Copilot licences, gathers web and permitted file sources and produces a sourced report, and administrators can restrict models and features. On files, consumer uploads allow up to 20 files per conversation at no more than 50MB each, covering PDF, Office documents, images and common text formats; the older storage wording on that page should not be read as an 18-month deletion promise for every new entry point.

Organisation pricing is separate: Microsoft 365 Copilot is $30 per user a month billed annually, with $31.50 per user a month being the annual subscription paid monthly, and it needs a qualifying base licence, while Copilot Chat is included for eligible Entra and Microsoft 365 users and agents can be metered on their own.

Editor's take

Worth choosing when your work happens inside Windows, Office or a Microsoft 365 tenant, because the assistant runs within those apps rather than beside them. Work out which route you are on first - free account, personal Microsoft 365 or a work licence - since Office features, Researcher and organisational data access all depend on it.

Our reading of who this suits, based on the sources above. Opinion, offered to help you decide - not a lab result.

Key Features

Grounded chat, file analysis and image creation, with web answers carrying citations to check rather than a guarantee of accuracy
Free tier: chat, web search, images and uploads within limits, on a personal account and not the full Office AI set
Personal Microsoft 365: 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, with the AI features restricted to the subscription holder on Family and Premium
Limits are bands - Standard, More, Extensive and Highest use - and Personal and Family plans exclude Researcher and Analyst; Extensive is not unlimited
Researcher is a separate entry point on personal Premium and Pro and on qualifying enterprise licences, producing sourced reports from web and permitted files
Organisational licensing: Microsoft 365 Copilot $30 per user a month billed annually, needing a qualifying base licence, with Copilot Chat included for eligible Entra and Microsoft 365 users
Organisational audit records: on a work account, requests, responses and search queries are logged and can be audited by IT administrators

Use Cases

Drafting, summarising and answering questions inside Microsoft 365 apps
Research reports with sources on Premium, Pro or a work licence
Everyday chat, image creation and file analysis on a personal account
Reading permitted work files and web sources on an organisational licence

Pros

✓Office apps, Windows and Edge are already integrated, so the assistant sits where the work is
✓Microsoft 365 Personal, Family and Premium include Copilot in the listed Office apps at consumer prices
✓The updated personal Copilot app states that prompts, responses and file contents are not used to train foundation models, and the older app follows the previous privacy FAQ instead

Cons

✕The free tier is not the Office AI set or a research agent, and Researcher needs Premium, Pro or a qualifying enterprise licence
✕On Family and Premium the AI features belong to the subscription holder, not to every member of the household
✕Personal and Family plans exclude Researcher and Analyst, and current limits are usage bands rather than published counts
✕Consumer Deep Research has been retired and Tasks became a Cowork preview on Premium and Pro only
✕Organisational logging is auditable by IT, with separate Microsoft 365 and work-account privacy rules

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Microsoft Copilot cost?

The free tier is $0 on a personal account. Personal Microsoft 365 pricing on the US store is Personal at $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, Family at $12.99 a month or $129.99 a year, and Premium at $19.99 a month or $199.99 a year; AI features on Family and Premium belong to the subscription holder. Organisational Microsoft 365 Copilot is $30 per user a month billed annually and needs a qualifying base licence, where $31.50 is the annual subscription paid monthly rather than a monthly commitment. We did not verify the current public price of the Microsoft 365 Pro plan.

Is the AI shared across a family subscription?

No. On Microsoft 365 Family and Premium the AI features belong to the subscription holder, so a six-person plan is not six AI seats. Each person who needs them needs their own entitlement.

Where did Deep Research go, and what is Researcher?

Consumer Deep Research has been retired, and the retirement page points Premium users to Researcher. Researcher is available on personal Premium and Pro and with qualifying enterprise Copilot licences, gathers web and permitted work sources and produces a structured sourced report; administrators can restrict which models and features staff may use. Existing reports can be saved as Word documents, which does not mean every new research result exports the same way, and we did not run a report to test it.

Do the usage limits mean a fixed number of tasks?

No. The limits documentation we read is the September 2026 version, which replaced earlier fixed counts with Standard, More, Extensive and Highest use bands and added a Pro plan; Personal and Family do not include Researcher or Analyst, Premium and Pro are Extensive use without a published fixed number, and the older figures of 25 agent tasks or 60 credits a month no longer apply. Extensive is a band, not unlimited.

How much can I upload in one conversation?

Consumer uploads allow up to 20 files per conversation at no more than 50MB each, covering PDF, Office documents, images and common text formats such as TXT, JSON, CSV and Markdown. The page also carries older storage wording, and uploads are moving to OneDrive, so we do not repeat an 18-month deletion promise for every entry point. Whether ten PDFs are read in full still needs testing.

Is my data used for training?

It depends on the account and the version. The new personal Copilot app states that prompts, responses and file contents are not used to train foundation models, and voluntary feedback is not either. Organisational use has its own data protection terms: prompts and responses are not used to train foundation models, but requests, responses and search queries are logged and can be audited by IT administrators, with Bing retrieval handled under separate rules. Older, not-yet-updated Copilot apps follow the previous privacy FAQ instead.

What regional support does Microsoft publish?

Microsoft's September 2026 support page states that Copilot serves more than 170 markets across personal, work/school and free Chat experiences, with exceptions including China excluding Hong Kong SAR and embargoed markets; new features may arrive later by region or language. This records Microsoft's published support scope, not a country-by-country reachability test. The Copilot app-update guide documents personal-account access on web, desktop and mobile and work/school access on Windows, Mac and mobile. Mobile users may need the updated app.

Source: Microsoft — Copilot supported languages and regions · Microsoft - Copilot app changes (18 August 2026)

Task guides for this product

T8 · Compare ten PDFs in a Chinese evidence table

Key facts and where they come from

PriceDocumented: US store prices: Personal $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, Family $12.99 or $129.99, Premium $19.99 or $199.99; subscriptions renew automatically and the final charge follows your location. Family and Premium AI features belong to the subscription holder, and the annual amount should not be divided by twelve and presented as a monthly price with no commitment. The Microsoft 365 Pro plan price was not verified.Source: Microsoft - compare Microsoft 365 products
AvailabilityDocumented: Microsoft's September 2026 support page states that Copilot serves more than 170 markets across personal, work/school and free Chat experiences, with exceptions including China excluding Hong Kong SAR and embargoed markets; new features may arrive later by region or language. This records Microsoft's published support scope, not a country-by-country reachability test. The Copilot app-update guide documents personal-account access on web, desktop and mobile and work/school access on Windows, Mac and mobile. Mobile users may need the updated app.Source: Microsoft — Copilot supported languages and regions · Microsoft - Copilot app changes (18 August 2026)
Commercial useNot established: Microsoft's services agreement claims no ownership of AI inputs or outputs and leaves assessment of output IP rights and usability to the user. This does not establish the full commercial-output conditions for both consumer and organizational Copilot offerings.Source: Microsoft - Copilot in-apps-for-work pricing · Microsoft - activity history · Microsoft - data protection for work or school
Training on your dataDocumented: For the new personal Copilot app, prompts, responses and file contents are not used to train foundation models and voluntary feedback is not either; activity history can be exported and deleted, and older apps follow the previous privacy FAQ.Source: Microsoft - activity history
API billingDocumented: Describes separate tenant or user licences and Azure metered paths, so Copilot Studio is not an unlimited API behind the free personal chat.Source: Microsoft Learn - Copilot Studio licensing
Export formatsDocumented: States that consumer Deep Research is retired and points Premium users to Researcher. Existing reports can be saved as Word documents, which does not mean every new research result carries the same export button - we did not run a report to test it.Source: Microsoft - Deep Research retirement
Usage limitsDocumented: Consumer uploads allow up to 20 files per conversation at no more than 50MB each, covering PDF, Office documents, images and TXT, JSON, CSV and Markdown. The page also carries older storage wording and the new app moves uploads to OneDrive, so an 18-month deletion promise cannot be applied to every entry point.Source: Microsoft - file upload in Copilot

Official sources

The vendor pages we read for the claims on this page, what each one states, and the day we read it.

Microsoft - Copilot app changes (18 August 2026) ↗
The Copilot app-update guide documents personal-account access on web, desktop and mobile and work/school access on Windows, Mac and mobile. Mobile users may need the updated app. Historical registered scope read on 2026-09-23, not rechecked in full on 2026-10-15: Personal and organisational experiences were updated from 18 August 2026 with account data kept separate; free chat, images and uploads remain subject to limits and capacity. Consumer Deep Research is retired, Tasks became a Cowork preview available on Premium and Pro with Personal and Family no longer included, and uploads and generated files are moving to OneDrive.
Read on October 15, 2026
Microsoft - Deep Research retirement ↗
States that consumer Deep Research is retired and points Premium users to Researcher. Existing reports can be saved as Word documents, which does not mean every new research result carries the same export button - we did not run a report to test it.
Read on September 23, 2026
Microsoft - compare Microsoft 365 products ↗
US store prices: Personal $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, Family $12.99 or $129.99, Premium $19.99 or $199.99; subscriptions renew automatically and the final charge follows your location. Family and Premium AI features belong to the subscription holder, and the annual amount should not be divided by twelve and presented as a monthly price with no commitment. The Microsoft 365 Pro plan price was not verified.
Read on September 23, 2026
Microsoft - AI credits and limits (September 2026) ↗
The September 2026 version adds a Pro plan and replaces fixed counts with Standard, More, Extensive and Highest use bands. Personal and Family plans do not include Researcher or Analyst, Premium and Pro are Extensive use without published fixed numbers, and the earlier figures of 25 agent tasks or 60 credits a month are superseded. Extensive is not unlimited, and this document cannot be published as a number of tasks.
Read on September 23, 2026
Microsoft - file upload in Copilot ↗
Consumer uploads allow up to 20 files per conversation at no more than 50MB each, covering PDF, Office documents, images and TXT, JSON, CSV and Markdown. The page also carries older storage wording and the new app moves uploads to OneDrive, so an 18-month deletion promise cannot be applied to every entry point.
Read on September 23, 2026
Microsoft - Copilot transparency note (18 August 2026) ↗
Text and voice input with text, image and voice output; grounded answers carry web citations, with image generation and editing, file analysis and authorised cloud drive connections supported. Citations are there to be checked rather than to guarantee accuracy, and the note does not give the free chat a native video generation quota.
Read on September 23, 2026
Microsoft - Researcher ↗
Available on personal Premium and Pro and with qualifying enterprise Microsoft 365 Copilot licences; gathers web and permitted file and work sources into a structured sourced report, and administrators can restrict models and features. It is not the same entry point as ordinary grounded chat or the retired Deep Research.
Read on September 23, 2026
Microsoft - Copilot in-apps-for-work pricing ↗
Microsoft 365 Copilot is $30 per user a month billed annually, with $31.50 per user a month being the annual subscription paid monthly rather than a monthly commitment, and it requires a qualifying base Microsoft 365 licence. Copilot Chat is included for eligible Entra and Microsoft 365 users and agents can be metered separately. SMB Copilot Business, promotions and regional taxes were not fully verified.
Read on September 23, 2026
Microsoft Learn - Copilot Studio licensing ↗
Describes separate tenant or user licences and Azure metered paths, so Copilot Studio is not an unlimited API behind the free personal chat.
Read on September 23, 2026
Microsoft Learn - agent credit consumption ↗
Agent usage is not included in ordinary Microsoft 365 Copilot seats, so a paid enterprise seat does not cover every agent.
Read on September 23, 2026
Microsoft - activity history ↗
For the new personal Copilot app, prompts, responses and file contents are not used to train foundation models and voluntary feedback is not either; activity history can be exported and deleted, and older apps follow the previous privacy FAQ.
Read on September 23, 2026
Microsoft - privacy controls ↗
Memory, cross-Bing-Edge-MSN experiences, web grounding and ad personalisation are controlled separately, and users without a Microsoft 365 subscription may see ads - so not training foundation models is not the same as not storing, personalising or showing ads.
Read on September 23, 2026
Microsoft - data protection for work or school ↗
Inputs and outputs are not used to train foundation models, but requests, responses and search queries are recorded and can be audited by IT administrators, with Bing retrieval data handled under separate rules - this is not a zero-retention or invisible-to-everyone guarantee.
Read on September 23, 2026
Microsoft - Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps for home ↗
Home Microsoft 365 apps state that inputs, responses and file contents are not used to train foundation models, which is a separate policy from the organisational terms.
Read on September 23, 2026
Microsoft — Copilot supported languages and regions ↗
Microsoft's September 2026 support page states that Copilot serves more than 170 markets across personal, work/school and free Chat experiences, with exceptions including China excluding Hong Kong SAR and embargoed markets; new features may arrive later by region or language. This records Microsoft's published support scope, not a country-by-country reachability test.
Read on October 15, 2026

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