Microsoft 365 Copilot: Features, Pricing, and Alternatives (2026)
AI inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams
Best for: Companies already standardized on Microsoft 365 that want AI inside Office
Worth it if your work already lives in Outlook, Teams and SharePoint, because the grounding in your own tenant is something no general chatbot can copy. Price the base licence into the decision, and expect the Office app integrations to be uneven.
- Who it's forSmall and mid-size businesses, Enterprises, Agencies
- Not ideal forIndividuals and teams without a Microsoft 365 subscription
- Price from$18/mo
- In category#2 of 9 in Productivity · category median $18/mo
What is Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Microsoft 365 Copilot puts an assistant inside the apps a company already pays for. In Outlook it drafts replies and summarizes a thread you were copied into late. In Teams it writes the recap, the decisions and the follow-up list from a meeting you missed.
In Excel it builds formulas and pivot views from a plain-language request, in Word it drafts from your own documents, and in PowerPoint it turns a brief into a deck.
What separates it from a general chatbot is the grounding: Copilot reads your tenant, so answers cite your files, your mail and your chats rather than the open web.
Work IQ layers on the signals of how your organization actually works, and the built-in agents named Researcher, Analyst and Facilitator take on longer tasks without a prompt for every step. Copilot Studio lets an admin build agents against internal systems.
The catch is the licensing. Copilot is an add-on: the enterprise seat runs $30 per user per month on top of an existing E3 or E5 subscription, so the real bill is the base suite plus Copilot.
Businesses under 300 seats pay $18 per user per month on promotional pricing through the end of 2026, list price $21.
Made by MicrosoftRedmond, USAFounded 1975Launched Nov 2023
Microsoft 365 Copilot key features
Grounded in your tenant
Answers come from your own mail, files, chats and meetings through Microsoft Graph, with links back to the source.
Meeting recaps in Teams
Notes, decisions and action items from a recorded or transcribed meeting, including ones you did not attend.
Copilot in Excel
Builds formulas, pivot views and charts from a plain-language request, with an agent mode for multi-step analysis.
Drafting in Word and Outlook
Writes a first draft from your existing documents, rewrites for tone, and summarizes long mail threads.
Prebuilt agents
Researcher, Analyst and Facilitator run longer jobs across your data without step-by-step prompting.
Copilot Studio
Admins build custom agents against internal systems and publish them to Teams or the Copilot app.
Enterprise data boundary
Tenant content is excluded from foundation model training and can be kept inside a regional data boundary.
Microsoft 365 Copilot pricing and plans
Copilot Business add-on
$18/month
- Per user, billed yearly
- Promotional price through 31 December 2026, list $21
- Requires a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan
- Up to 300 users
- Work IQ and prebuilt agents
Business Standard with Copilot
$23.5/month
- Per user, billed yearly
- Office apps and Copilot in one plan
- Up to 300 users
Business Premium with Copilot
$32/month
- Per user, billed yearly
- Adds advanced security and device management
- Up to 300 users
Copilot enterprise add-on
$30/month
- Per user, billed yearly
- Requires Microsoft 365 E3 or E5
- No seat ceiling
- Copilot Studio agent building
Pricing checked on August 26, 2026.See Microsoft 365 Copilot's pricing page
Microsoft 365 Copilot pros and cons
Pros
- Answers cite your own mail, files and meetings, not the open web
- Meeting recaps in Teams are accurate enough to replace manual notes
- Enterprise support, SLA and a European data boundary
- Tenant content excluded from model training by default
Cons
- Add-on pricing on top of a base licence makes the real cost two to three times the headline
- Quality is uneven between apps, strongest in Outlook and Teams, weakest in PowerPoint
- No value at all outside the Microsoft 365 ecosystem
Microsoft 365 Copilot platforms, API and integrations
API available
SDKs: C#, TypeScript, Python. API documentation
5 integrations
- Microsoft Teams
- OneDrive
- PowerPoint
- Salesforce
- Jira
10 languages
English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese, Korean, Chinese
Inputs and outputs
Accepts Text, Image, PDF, Spreadsheet, URLProduces Text, Image, Spreadsheet, PDF, Code
3 AI models
GPT-5, Anthropic Claude, Microsoft MAI
Is Microsoft 365 Copilot secure? Privacy, compliance and support
Data privacy
- Does not train on user data
- Retention: Prompts and responses are stored in the user's mailbox under existing Microsoft 365 retention policies and are not used to train foundation models
- Data region: EU Data Boundary available
Compliance
- SOC 2
- GDPR
- HIPAA
- ISO 27001
- CCPA
Team features
- SSO: yes
- Team workspace: yes
Who is Microsoft 365 Copilot best for?
Companies already standardized on Microsoft 365 that want AI inside Office. Microsoft 365 Copilot targets small and mid-size businesses, enterprises, agencies.
Use cases
Categories
- Productivity
- Chatbots & agents
- Meeting notes
- Paid
- Free trial
- Contact sales
Best Microsoft 365 Copilot alternatives
Compare all alternatives
ChatGPT
Chatbots & agents8.7OpenAI's general-purpose assistant for writing, analysis, images and code
- Price
- $20/mo
- Free plan
- Yes
- API
- Yes
Gemini
Chatbots & agents8.6Google's assistant across the Gemini app, Gmail, Docs and Android
- Price
- $4.99/mo
- Free plan
- Yes
- API
- Yes
Notion AI
Productivity7.7AI writing, meeting notes and search built into your Notion workspace
- Price
- $24/mo
- Free plan
- Yes
- API
- Yes
Otter.ai
Meeting notes8.3Meeting notetaker that joins the call and writes the recap
- Price
- $16.99/mo
- Free plan
- Yes
- API
- Yes
Gamma
Presentations8.5Generate presentations, documents and one-page websites from a prompt
- Price
- $10/mo
- Free plan
- Yes
- API
- Yes
n8n
Automation8.7Self-hostable workflow automation where every agent step is visible
- Price
- $24/mo
- Free plan
- Yes
- API
- Yes
Microsoft 365 Copilot FAQ
How much does Microsoft 365 Copilot cost per user?
$30 per user per month on an annual commitment for the enterprise add-on. Organizations under 300 seats pay $18 per user per month through the end of 2026, then $21.
Does Microsoft 365 Copilot need a separate Microsoft 365 licence?
Yes. Copilot is an add-on, so budget the base suite plus the Copilot seat. Business Standard and Business Premium are also sold with Copilot bundled, at $23.50 and $32 per user per month.
Is there a free version of Microsoft 365 Copilot?
No. The free Copilot chat at copilot.microsoft.com is a separate consumer product with no access to your company files. Microsoft 365 Copilot offers a one-month trial instead.
Does Copilot use company data to train Microsoft's models?
No. Tenant content is excluded from foundation model training, and prompts and responses stay under existing Microsoft 365 retention and compliance policies.
Can Copilot write the notes for a Teams meeting?
Yes, when the meeting is recorded or transcribed. It produces a recap, the decisions taken and an action list, including for meetings you did not attend.