Microsoft 365 Copilot: what it is, who it is for and alternatives
Category: Productivity suites and copilots
Microsoft 365 Copilot is Microsoft’s workplace assistant inside apps such as Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Teams. It is licensed as an add-on or as part of certain Microsoft 365 bundles for organisations — not the same product as GitHub Copilot for coding.
It fits companies already standardised on Microsoft 365 that want AI in day-to-day Office workflows, with seat rules, qualifying base licences, and sometimes annual commitments. Buyers comparing “Copilot” products should separate GitHub Copilot (developers) from Microsoft 365 Copilot (knowledge work in M365).
Current plan prices for enterprise add-ons, business bundles, and Copilot Chat notes, plus any gaps we could not verify, are on our Microsoft 365 Copilot pricing page, drawn from official sources. Unverified seat prices are not shown as dollars in calculators.
Typical jobs it handles
Typical work includes summarising long Outlook threads, drafting Word documents from existing files, building PowerPoint decks from an outline, analysing Excel tables in natural language, and recapping Teams meetings with action items. Copilot Chat can ground answers in work data the user already has permission to see, and agents can be built or added for specific business processes.
Who should look elsewhere
Software developers want GitHub Copilot, a separate product. Home users on personal Microsoft accounts are looking at the consumer Microsoft Copilot app or personal Microsoft 365 bundles. Organisations running Google Workspace should compare Gemini for Workspace, which plays the same role inside Gmail, Docs and Meet.
How it differs from close peers
The name causes confusion: Microsoft 365 Copilot is the paid work add-on tied to Entra ID and Microsoft Graph; Microsoft Copilot is the consumer assistant; GitHub Copilot serves coders. Versus Gemini for Workspace, the decision mostly follows which productivity suite a company already runs. Versus ChatGPT Business, the main advantage is native access to tenant data and existing compliance controls.
Plan posture
Licensing is generally a per-user add-on on top of qualifying Microsoft 365 business or enterprise plans, with Copilot Chat available more broadly and pay-as-you-go options for agents. Terms differ by agreement and region, so confirm figures on the official Microsoft pages and on our pricing page, which marks anything we could not verify.
Pricing: Microsoft 365 Copilot pricing · disambiguation: GitHub Copilot pricing · which AI plan quiz (M365 path).