Office 365 · by Microsoft

Copilot: only as good as your Office habit.

Microsoft's AI is a different purchase from the others: you're not buying a chatbot, you're buying AI inside Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint. Outside Office, there's little reason to pick it.

Plans

Microsoft Copilot pricing, July 2026.

PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Basic Copilot in Windows, Edge and the web
Copilot Pro$20/moGPT-5.4 Pro access, 100 image boosts/day, Office integration — requires Microsoft 365
M365 Premium$16.58/mo ($199/yr)6 family accounts, full Office apps, 1 TB OneDrive each, premium Copilot
Strengths
  • AI where your documents already live
  • M365 Premium bundles Office + storage + AI for a family at less than one ChatGPT Plus
  • Drafts email replies in Outlook while you read
Weaknesses
  • Standalone chatbot is the weakest of the majors
  • Copilot Pro needs a separate Microsoft 365 subscription to shine
  • Little reason to choose it if you don't use Office
Best for: Small-business owners, freelancers and households that spend hours a week in Word, Excel and Outlook. For a family, M365 Premium at $199/year is quietly one of the best bundles in AI.

Our verdict: Buy the ecosystem, not the chatbot. If Office is your day, Copilot earns its price in saved minutes; if not, look elsewhere.

Want Microsoft Copilot and the other majors together?

AI bundles bundles ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok and Perplexity into one workspace from $8.99/month, with side-by-side comparison and verification built in.

Read AI bundle guide

Deep buyer guide

How Microsoft Copilot should actually apply to you.

The plan table tells you the price. The part below tells you whether that price makes sense for your work.

Best fit

Microsoft Copilot is strongest for Microsoft 365 households, Office-heavy workers, Excel/PowerPoint users, and Windows-first teams.

Be careful

Avoid making Microsoft Copilot your first paid plan if you are mainly people who do not live in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook or Teams.

Free tier reality

Copilot Free is fine for web answers and casual drafting, but the paid story is really Microsoft 365 integration.

Paid tier reality

Copilot Pro and Microsoft 365 bundles should be judged by how much time they save inside Office documents, not by raw model quality.

Before you pay

Three questions to answer first.

  1. Do you already pay for Microsoft 365?
  2. Will AI help inside Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint, or only in a browser tab?
  3. Are you buying for one person or a whole household/team?

Sources checked

Prices, tier names and limits change often. Verify the current offer before checkout, especially if a feature or limit is the whole reason you are buying.

Official Microsoft pricing or product page · Official help/support

Alternatives

Compare before you commit.

FAQ

Microsoft Copilot questions.

Do I need Microsoft 365 for Copilot Pro?

For the Office app integration — the main reason to buy it — yes. The $16.58/month M365 Premium bundle (Office + 1 TB OneDrive × 6 accounts + premium Copilot) is usually the better purchase.

Is Copilot's chatbot as good as ChatGPT?

Taken standalone, no — it uses OpenAI models but the experience trails ChatGPT's own apps. Its value is location: inside Word, Excel and Outlook.

What if I want Copilot-style help plus other models?

A multi-model workspace like AI bundles covers the model side (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity) with document and spreadsheet Studios, though it doesn't sit inside Office itself.