Microsoft · Tools

Microsoft 365 Copilot

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At a glance

Price
from 18 $/mo
Vendor
Microsoft

Specifications & properties

Key decision factors

Pricing model
Paid 1
Product focus
  • Office suite
1
Training on user data
No training on user data 1
Data retention control
Yes 1

Pricing

Price from
18 $/mo 1
Free tier
No 1
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Metrics vs. the category

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Microsoft 365 Copilot is Microsoft's paid AI assistant embedded in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams — not to be confused with the free Microsoft Copilot chatbot — with agentic features like Copilot Cowork and the Copilot Business add-on from $18 per user per month (regularly $21).

Profile

Microsoft 365 Copilot is Microsoft's paid AI assistant embedded directly in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams, distinct from the free Microsoft Copilot chatbot. It is built for organizations and professionals already running Microsoft 365 who want AI drafting, analysis, and automation inside the Office apps they use every day. There is no free tier or trial: Microsoft 365 Copilot is sold as the Copilot Business add-on starting from $18 per user per month (originally $21), paid yearly, layered on top of an existing Microsoft 365 subscription.

Who builds it

Microsoft 365 Copilot is built by Microsoft as part of the Microsoft 365 productivity suite. Rather than shipping as a separate chat app, it is woven into apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams that many organizations already run their daily work through, so AI assistance appears inside existing documents, spreadsheets, and meetings rather than in a standalone window.

Core features

  • Embedded across core Office apps — works inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams rather than as a separate tool.
  • Copilot Business add-on — the entry paid tier, priced from $18 per user per month (originally $21), billed yearly, on top of a Microsoft 365 subscription.
  • No training on customer data — Microsoft states that prompts, inputs, and responses are never used to train the underlying models.
  • Permission-aware by design — Copilot inherits your existing Microsoft 365 permissions, sensitivity labels, and retention policies rather than operating outside them.

Who it is for

Microsoft 365 Copilot fits organizations already standardized on Microsoft 365 that want AI features layered onto Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams without adopting a separate assistant. Because there is no free tier and no trial available, teams cannot test it without committing to the paid Business add-on from $18 per user per month — smaller teams or individuals looking for a free way to experiment with AI in Office should plan to pay from day one, or evaluate Microsoft's free Copilot chatbot separately.

Data and privacy

Microsoft states that prompts, inputs, and responses are never used to train its models, and that Copilot inherits your existing Microsoft 365 permissions, sensitivity labels, and retention policies — so a document a user cannot access stays outside Copilot's reach, and existing retention rules keep applying. These facts do not include an explicit EU-hosting guarantee, so DACH organizations with strict data-residency requirements should confirm tenant-level data-residency and processing settings directly with Microsoft before rollout.

Bottom line

Microsoft 365 Copilot is best understood as an add-on that brings AI into the Office apps teams already run their work through, priced and licensed like an enterprise add-on rather than a consumer trial product. The lack of any free tier or trial makes it a considered purchase rather than something to test casually, so buyers should confirm per-user pricing, permission inheritance, and data-residency terms with Microsoft before committing a whole organization.

Frequently asked questions

What does Microsoft 365 Copilot cost?

Microsoft 365 Copilot is sold as the Copilot Business add-on, priced from $18 per user per month when paid yearly — originally $21 per user per month. It is an add-on on top of an existing Microsoft 365 subscription rather than a standalone low-cost product.

Is Microsoft 365 Copilot free?

No. Microsoft is explicit that there is no trial available for Microsoft 365 Copilot, and there is no free tier — pricing starts at $18 per user per month for the Copilot Business add-on. Anyone evaluating it should budget for a paid rollout from the start rather than expecting a free test period.

Where is my data hosted, and does Microsoft 365 Copilot meet DSGVO requirements?

Microsoft states that prompts, inputs, and responses are never used to train its models, and that Copilot inherits your existing Microsoft 365 permissions, sensitivity labels, and retention policies. These facts do not include an explicit EU-hosting guarantee, so DACH organizations with strict DSGVO data-residency requirements should confirm their Microsoft 365 tenant's data-residency settings directly with Microsoft before rollout.

Which Microsoft 365 apps include Copilot?

Microsoft 365 Copilot is embedded in apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams, rather than existing as one separate assistant window. That means AI assistance shows up inside the documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and meetings you already work in.

Microsoft 365 Copilot vs. Google Gemini for Workspace — which should I pick?

Both are AI assistants layered directly into an existing productivity suite rather than standalone tools: Microsoft 365 Copilot works inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams from $18 per user per month with no free trial, while Google Gemini for Workspace is Google's equivalent AI layer across Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Gmail. The right pick largely follows which suite your organization already runs on; compare both vendors' current pricing pages for exact per-user costs and included features.