Understand Microsoft Copilot, its free assistant and Microsoft 365 plans, with current pricing, a published hands-on test, privacy controls, and practical prompts.
Microsoft Copilot is easiest to understand when you start with the job you want done. The free assistant can help you research a question, revise a message, or discuss a document. Copilot inside Microsoft 365 can work closer to the file itself. A workplace account adds a different licensing and data-protection layer.
That distinction matters more than the logo. An answer in a chat window, a change inside Word, and a response grounded in your organization's files are different experiences.
This guide explains which Copilot to use, current pricing, practical prompts, and the checks that turn a promising draft into useful work.
Documentation and US pricing checked October 9, 2026. Belliste has not conducted an original hands-on benchmark. The published test below is attributed to its author and date.
Microsoft Copilot is Microsoft's AI assistant for conversation, writing, research, and supported visual or document tasks. You can access consumer experiences through the web and supported desktop and mobile apps.
Microsoft also uses the Copilot name for productivity features, workplace chat, and agent-building products. They share branding, but their permissions, subscriptions, and available tools differ.
| Product or experience | Main purpose | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer Microsoft Copilot | Everyday questions, writing, research, voice, and creative help | Personal account, available modes, privacy settings |
| Copilot in individual Microsoft 365 plans | AI help inside supported productivity apps | Subscription, app version, feature limits |
| Copilot Chat for work or school | Protected chat with an organizational account | Eligible license and administrator settings |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | Broader app integration and organizational context | Separate commercial license and access permissions |
| Copilot Studio | Building and managing agents |
| Deployment, consumption, and governance requirements |
GitHub Copilot is another separate product, focused on software development. A Microsoft 365 subscription should not be treated as a universal license for everything named Copilot.
Starting price: Free $0/month · Microsoft 365 Personal from $9.99/month.
Microsoft's individual pricing page lists:
| Plan | US monthly price | Main reason to consider it |
|---|---|---|
| Free Copilot | $0 | Try the assistant before subscribing |
| Microsoft 365 Personal | $9.99 | Productivity apps with Copilot and higher usage than free |
| Microsoft 365 Family | $12.99 | A household productivity subscription |
| Microsoft 365 Premium | $19.99 | More AI usage and advanced capabilities |
| Microsoft 365 Pro | $99.99 | The highest listed individual usage tier |
These are individual subscriptions, not business seats. Regional pricing, billing cycles, and benefits can differ.
Older guides often focus on a standalone $20 Copilot Pro subscription. Check Microsoft's current offer rather than assuming that remains the most relevant purchase.
On October 9, The Verge reported an upcoming expansion of AI sharing. However, Microsoft's support and pricing pages checked for this guide still contained owner-only AI language.
Do not promise every family member access based on either statement alone. Confirm the entitlement shown for your account and renewal date. Microsoft's sharing support page separately dates pooled-storage changes from October 7 for new Family and Premium subscriptions, with existing subscribers transitioning at renewal from April 1, 2027.
The enterprise pricing page lists Microsoft 365 Copilot at $30 per user per month, paid yearly, requiring a separate qualifying Microsoft 365 license.
Smaller-business offers have their own pricing and commitment options. Microsoft's business page lists a $25.20 per-user monthly-commitment option for Copilot Business. Confirm the annual quote separately and avoid expired promotional prices.
Eligible organizational subscriptions include Copilot Chat at no additional charge. Paid Copilot adds broader app and work-context capabilities; custom-agent consumption can introduce separate costs.
Microsoft's conversation-mode documentation lists:
Some modes require sign-in. The same documentation describes Think Deeper as uncapped, with paid subscribers receiving priority when capacity is constrained.
A mode name does not establish a universal context-window size, knowledge cutoff, or model version for every Copilot product. Check the specific experience rather than assigning one specification to the entire family.
Start with tasks you can judge independently:
For productivity work, select the app where the final output belongs. A Word task may benefit more from Word's integrated controls than from asking the standalone assistant to produce an attachment.
In his April 24, 2026 PCWorld test, Mark Hachman compared document creation through the Copilot app and integrated Office tools.
He found Word's experience more useful: it asked follow-up questions and let him see changes in the document. But requested artwork was missing. A PowerPoint attempt produced a substantial presentation, yet did not follow the requested source-document workflow and included a chart without a legend.
His account illustrates a practical trade-off: generation saved time, but the result still needed correction. It is one reviewer's dated test, not proof that every current account behaves identically.
Our editorial takeaway is to inspect the actual file. A polished description of what Copilot supposedly created is not enough.
Use a personal account for personal tasks. For company material, use the workplace experience approved by your organization. Confirm which account is active before attaching files.
Specify the audience, length, format, and source material. “Summarize this” is weaker than “Give the purchasing team five findings, each linked to a section of this report.”
Microsoft's file-upload guide documents a maximum of 20 files per conversation, with 50 MB per file. Supported formats and limits can vary by experience.
Name the attachment in your prompt. Ask Copilot to identify missing information rather than inventing it.
Use Search for current information, a reasoning mode for trade-offs, and Study and learn for understanding. When editing an Office file, check whether the interface is offering discussion or direct changes.
Verify totals, dates, citations, and source coverage. For slides, inspect legends and labels. For documents, check whether requested visuals actually exist.
Ask for a specific revision: “Keep the structure, replace unsupported claims with sourced statements, and mark unresolved questions.”
Open the deliverable outside the conversation. Formatting, references, and formulas can fail even when the chat sounds confident.
Goal + Source + Audience + Constraints + Output format + Verification rule
> Using the attached report, draft a 500-word briefing for a small retail team. Separate confirmed findings from recommendations. Include section references, preserve all quoted figures, and list any information the report does not provide.
For Excel:
> Explain how to calculate monthly growth in this table, including how to handle a zero value in the previous month. Show the formula and a worked example before changing the workbook.
For PowerPoint:
> Create a six-slide outline from this document. Give each slide one main point, cite the relevant source section, and specify what data each chart would require. Do not invent missing data.
Microsoft's October 2026 usage guide distinguishes feature limits from AI credits. Availability can depend on the plan, entry point, device, and system conditions.
The current table gives Premium and Pro access to Researcher and Analyst that Personal and Family do not have. Some newer capabilities remain in preview or limited markets.
Check Services & subscriptions and in-product notices. A historical monthly-credit number should not be presented as the universal limit for every current tool.
Voice can make brainstorming or follow-up questions more natural. Microsoft's wake-word guide says the Windows “Hey Copilot” setting is off by default and that voice sessions can have limits.
The current Vision documentation describes sharing a screen or mobile camera during a voice session. It also notes that Vision cannot directly manipulate the screen and does not retain visual input for long-term recall.
Sharing a chart for explanation is different from authorizing an agent to change a file. Check the controls for the exact feature you are using.
For consumer use, Microsoft's privacy controls separate personalization, memory, and model-training choices. You can opt out of future conversation training while keeping personalization enabled. Deleting memory does not automatically delete conversation history.
The file-upload page states that uploaded file content is not used for model training and can be stored for up to 18 months. Conversations about files still require attention to the applicable privacy settings.
For work or school, Microsoft's data-protection guidance says prompts and responses are not used to train foundation models. It also says activity is logged and administrators can inspect it through audit tools.
“No model training” does not mean “no retention” or “invisible to your employer.” Confirm organizational policy and the signed-in account.
Copilot is worth testing if your work already lives in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, or Teams. The useful question is whether it reduces the time between your source material and a checked final file.
For standalone chat, compare it with other assistants on the same brief. Measure how much correction each result needs, how clearly it cites evidence, and whether its controls fit your data.
Microsoft Copilot offers an accessible free assistant and deeper productivity features through individual and workplace subscriptions. Its value depends on the specific account, app, and task.
Start with a document you know well. Ask for a bounded result, inspect the evidence and output, and upgrade only when an actual limit interrupts recurring work. Open Copilot to try that first task.
Microsoft Copilot is Microsoft's AI assistant for conversation, writing, research, and supported document or visual tasks. Consumer chat, workplace chat, and integrated Microsoft 365 features have different licensing and controls.
A free consumer experience is available. Individual Microsoft 365 subscriptions add productivity-app features and higher usage. Availability and limits vary by account and feature.
US individual monthly prices checked October 9, 2026 are $9.99 for Microsoft 365 Personal, $12.99 for Family, $19.99 for Premium, and $99.99 for Pro. Workplace licenses are separate.
No. Eligible organizational subscriptions include Copilot Chat without an additional chat charge. A paid Microsoft 365 Copilot license adds broader app integration and organizational context.
Microsoft documents Smart mode as using GPT-5 and Think Deeper as using OpenAI reasoning models. The model and available modes can differ across Copilot experiences.
The current consumer file-upload guide documents up to 20 files per conversation and a 50 MB maximum per file. Check the supported formats and limits in your specific experience.
Consumer accounts have training controls. Microsoft's workplace guidance says organizational prompts and responses are not used to train foundation models, but activity can be retained and audited.
The current Vision guidance says it can analyze shared screen or camera content during voice sessions but cannot directly manipulate items on the screen. Other agent features have separate controls.
