The Copilot app is free on the web, Windows, iPhone and Android. Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook needs Microsoft 365: Personal costs $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, Family $12.99 with AI for the owner only, and Premium $19.99, with the highest limits and the Researcher and Analyst agents. Premium replaced Copilot Pro, which Microsoft no longer sells, and Microsoft 365 Pro costs $99.99 a month. At work, Copilot Chat comes with business accounts, Microsoft 365 Copilot Business costs $18 per user a month on a first-year promotion that ends December 31, 2026 (regularly $21), and Microsoft 365 Copilot for larger organizations costs $30 per user a month, paid yearly.
Reviewed by EdGrows·Updated Oct 3, 2026This analysis is based on documentation, public user reports, and vendor materials — not yet on our own hands-on testing. How we rate
Ask what Microsoft Copilot costs and the useful answer starts with another question: which Copilot? There's a free app. There's Copilot inside the Microsoft 365 apps you pay for at home, a free chat for work accounts, and paid business versions priced differently for small and large companies. And Copilot Pro, the plan many articles still recommend, isn't sold anymore.
The Copilot app is free on the web and in Windows, and on iPhone and Android too. Sign in with a Microsoft account to chat by text or voice and to create images. It can also help with whatever is on your screen or in front of your camera, though limits are lower than on the paid plans. The free app doesn't work inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. For that you need Microsoft 365, and not the cheapest version: Microsoft 365 Basic has no AI features.
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly | People | Copilot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Personal | $9.99 | $99.99 | 1 | In Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, with higher limits than free |
| Microsoft 365 Family | $12.99 | $129.99 | Up to 6 | Same as Personal, for the owner only |
| Microsoft 365 Premium | $19.99 | $199.99 | Up to 6 | Much higher limits, Researcher and Analyst agents, owner only |
| Microsoft 365 Pro | $99.99 | Monthly only | As Premium | The highest usage for agents, voice and vision |
Prices from Microsoft's US page for individuals on October 3, 2026. Yearly billing saves up to 17%.
Personal is the cheapest way to get Copilot into the Office apps, and it comes with the desktop apps and 1 TB of storage. Family adds people and storage but no extra AI, because only the person who owns the subscription gets Copilot. Premium is the plan Microsoft pushes hardest. It's built on Family, gives Copilot much higher limits and adds agents such as Researcher and Analyst, with limited use. Microsoft 365 Pro, at $99.99 a month with monthly billing only, raises every limit again for people who lean on those agents all day.
Copilot Pro was a $20-a-month add-on that put Copilot in the Office apps for one person. Microsoft stopped selling it when Microsoft 365 Premium arrived in October 2025, and its support page lists August 1, 2026 as the end of support for remaining subscribers. Premium costs about the same and adds the apps and storage for up to six people, which Copilot Pro never had. When an older review recommends Copilot Pro, read it as Premium.
Business plans with Teams, yearly billing selected (checked October 3, 2026).
| Plan | Per user a month | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Copilot Chat | Included with work accounts | Secure AI chat with enterprise data protection; agents billed by use |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Business | $18 yearly on promotion, $21 regular, $25.20 monthly | Add-on for organizations with up to 300 users |
| Business Standard with Copilot | $23.50 yearly, $28.20 monthly | Apps, email, Teams and Copilot in one plan, up to 300 users |
| Business Premium with Copilot | $32 yearly, $38.40 monthly | Adds advanced security and data protection, up to 300 users |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | $30 yearly, $31.50 monthly with an annual commitment | Larger organizations, on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan |
The $18 price is a promotion. Microsoft's terms say it runs from July 1 to December 31, 2026, requires an annual commitment and applies to the first year only. After that the add-on costs $21. A company that signs before the year ends gets a cheaper first year and should budget for $21 from the second.
For a small company starting fresh, the bundles are the simpler choice. Since July 1, 2026, Business Standard and Business Premium come in versions with Copilot built in, so the AI arrives in the same license as the apps and email. Both are capped at 300 users.
Larger organizations pay $30 per user a month for Microsoft 365 Copilot, on top of a qualifying plan such as E3 or E5. That buys Copilot in the apps and search across work data with more than 100 connectors. It also covers Copilot Notebooks and on-brand images and videos. Every agent is included, custom ones too. IT gets analytics on usage and adoption, plus SharePoint Advanced Management for tightening who can see what. The small-business version, Copilot Business, comes with three ready-made agents (Researcher, Analyst and Facilitator) along with adoption reports and a choice of models.
Copilot's real advantage is where it sits. In Outlook it can summarize a long thread or draft a reply. In Excel it can turn a table into charts and findings, and in PowerPoint it builds a first draft of a deck from a prompt or a document. In Teams it can catch you up on a meeting you missed.
Two limits come up often. Copilot in Excel needs AutoSave turned on, which means the file has to be saved to OneDrive. At work, Copilot can also find anything the user has permission to open. If a company's file permissions are loose, it will surface documents people were never meant to see. Tightening sharing settings before a rollout saves awkward conversations later.
Copilot uses OpenAI's GPT models among others, so its answers can feel familiar to ChatGPT users. It isn't the same product, though. Work versions draw on your company's email and documents, and Microsoft 365 Copilot lets organizations pick Anthropic's Claude models in places like the Researcher agent.
If your company runs on Google Workspace, Gemini is the equivalent and comes with Workspace plans. For a single AI subscription that isn't tied to an office suite, ChatGPT and Claude are the usual picks, and our ChatGPT alternatives guide compares them. Developers looking for Copilot in their code editor want GitHub Copilot, a separate product with its own plans.
Yes. The Copilot app on the web, Windows, iPhone and Android is free with a Microsoft account, with lower usage limits than paid plans for things like image creation, voice and screen help. Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook needs a paid Microsoft 365 plan, starting with Personal at $9.99 a month. Microsoft 365 Basic has no AI features.
Microsoft stopped selling it. Its support page says existing subscribers could keep it until they cancelled or until support ended on August 1, 2026, and it points people to Microsoft 365 Premium. Premium costs $19.99 a month and combines Microsoft 365 Family with the Copilot features and usage that Copilot Pro used to sell.
No. Family and Premium cover up to six people for the apps and storage, but Copilot features belong to the subscription owner and can't be shared. Anyone else in the family who wants Copilot in the apps needs a plan of their own.
It uses OpenAI's GPT models among others, which is why answers can feel similar, but it's a separate Microsoft product. Work versions answer from your company's email, files and meetings, and Microsoft 365 Copilot also lets organizations use Anthropic's Claude models, for example in the Researcher agent.
Companies with up to 300 users can add Microsoft 365 Copilot Business for $18 per user a month, paid yearly. That's a first-year promotion available until December 31, 2026; the regular price is $21, or $25.20 paid monthly. Bundles with Copilot built in cost $23.50 for Business Standard and $32 for Business Premium. Larger organizations pay $30 per user a month for Microsoft 365 Copilot, on top of a qualifying plan.
Anthropic's assistant, built around long-context reasoning and code. Strong at $20; the usage limits are the unpublished part.
Google's assistant, bundled with storage and Workspace access. Plus is $4.99, Pro $19.99 with a 1 million token context, and Ultra from $99.99.
Visual automation with 3,000+ apps, billed in credits: a free plan with 1,000 a month, then $9 to $29 a month billed yearly for 10,000 credits.