What is Microsoft Copilot?

Microsoft Copilot is Microsoft's consumer AI assistant for chat, image creation and file uploads, with Microsoft 365 integration. It runs on the web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and Microsoft Edge.

Who it's for

Microsoft describes the free version as suited to general questions, people trying AI for the first time and web-based tasks. Paid Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, Premium and Pro plans add higher AI limits and Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook for the subscription owner; Microsoft 365 business licensing is a separate product and is not covered here.

Pros & cons

Strengths

Microsoft says chat, image creation and file uploads in the Copilot app remain free, subject to limits, and sign-in is optional for the free version.
The app lets you sign in with a personal account, a work or school account, or both, and open Word, Excel, Outlook and other Microsoft 365 apps and files from it; the two account types stay separate.
Microsoft lists a personal account as unlocking chat history, image creation, longer conversations and voice in the free version.
Microsoft 365 Personal ($9.99 a month) includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook desktop apps with Copilot and 1 TB of storage for one person.
Microsoft 365 Premium ($19.99 a month) adds the Researcher and Analyst agents, Cowork (preview, US and Canada only) and the highest tier for chat, deep reasoning, Pages, Audio Overview and image generation.
Privacy controls let signed-in personal-account users turn off the use of their conversation activity and voice conversations for model training, and delete individual conversations or the whole history.

Limitations

Usage is capped. The free version is subject to capacity and limits, and paid plans use monthly AI credits and per-feature limits; Microsoft's pages give no credit totals, and a feature may be unavailable until the allowance resets.
AI features in the Family and Premium plans (and Pro) are for the subscription owner only and cannot be shared with the other people on the plan; family members need their own eligible subscription.
Researcher, Analyst and Cowork are not available on Personal or Family. Cowork requires Premium or Pro, and Microsoft lists Cowork as a preview in the US and Canada only.
Microsoft's Copilot app page says Group Chat and Podcasts are retiring on August 18, 2026, and Deep Research is retired in the consumer Copilot app.
Microsoft's privacy pages say conversation activity is retained for 18 months by default and that opting out of training does not stop use for product improvement, advertising or safety purposes or human review of suspected Code of Conduct violations; these pages describe the older version of the app, so confirm current terms.

Plans and pricing

Copilot (free): $0. Chat, image creation and file uploads with usage limits; a personal Microsoft account adds chat history, longer conversations and voice. Specific limits are not listed.
Microsoft 365 Personal: $99.99 a year billed annually, or $9.99 monthly. 1 person, 1 TB storage, up to 5 devices. Copilot in desktop apps and higher usage than free (AI credits). One-month trial listed.
Microsoft 365 Family: $129.99 a year billed annually, or $12.99 monthly. 1 to 6 people, 1 TB each. Same Copilot access as Personal, but AI features are for the owner only.
Microsoft 365 Premium: $199.99 a year billed annually, or $19.99 monthly. Up to 6 people, AI for the owner only. Adds Researcher, Analyst, Cowork (preview) and higher usage tiers. One-month trial listed.
Microsoft 365 Pro: $99.99 monthly (no annual option). Up to 6 people, AI for the owner only. Highest usage limits; monthly billing only; no trial listed.

Prices come from Microsoft's US individuals pricing page and the Premium store page (USD, auto-renewing, varying by region and retailer). Copilot Pro is no longer sold per Microsoft's October 2025 blog, and the pricing pages do not state free-plan limits or AI credit totals. The pricing page shows 1 TB per person (6 TB total) for Premium while the store page says 2 TB shared; confirm on the live pricing page.

Details checked October 2026 against the vendor's own pages. Prices and limits change, so confirm before you buy. Official pricing page ↗

Sources

This profile was compiled from these public pages. We have not run hands-on tests.

Summary