Is Microsoft Copilot Free? What You Get at No Cost, and What You Pay For
Microsoft now sells at least four things called Copilot, and only some of them are free. This guide sets out exactly what the free Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat include, what changed in April 2026, and when a paid Microsoft 365 Copilot licence is worth it for a UK business.
Quick answer: is Microsoft Copilot free?
Yes, partly. The consumer Copilot app is free for anyone, and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is included at no extra cost with eligible Microsoft 365 business plans. The full Microsoft 365 Copilot, which works with your organisation's emails, files, meetings and chats, is a paid add-on licence.
- Microsoft Copilot (consumer): free at copilot.microsoft.com and in the Copilot app on Windows, iOS and Android.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat: free with eligible work and school Microsoft 365 plans, with enterprise data protection and web-grounded answers.
- Copilot inside Word, Excel and PowerPoint: since 15 April 2026, unlicensed users only keep it in organisations with fewer than 2,000 Microsoft 365 seats, under "standard access".
- Microsoft 365 Copilot (paid): adds grounding in your work data through Microsoft Graph. Copilot Business is listed at £16.10 per user per month (annual, ex VAT) for organisations up to 300 users.
1. Which Copilot Are You Asking About?
Most confusion about whether Microsoft Copilot is free comes from the name. "Copilot" covers a free consumer chatbot, a free chat tool for business users, an AI allowance inside home subscriptions and a paid business licence. They share a brand and a similar interface, but they differ in what data they can see and what they cost.
| Version | Who It's For | Cost | Sees Your Work Data? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Copilot | Anyone, using a personal Microsoft account or none at all | Free | No. Web-based answers, writing help and image generation. |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat | Staff signed in with a work or school (Microsoft Entra) account | Included with eligible Microsoft 365 plans | Not across the organisation. It works with the web, files you upload and content you have open. |
| Copilot in Microsoft 365 Personal, Family & Premium | Home users | Part of the subscription; Premium gives higher usage limits | Your own personal files only |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | Businesses on a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan | Paid add-on per user | Yes. Emails, files, meetings and chats the user already has permission to access. |
The simplest way to tell them apart
Ask Copilot "what did my team agree in last week's project meeting?" The free versions cannot answer, because they cannot read your organisation's meetings, mailboxes or SharePoint sites. Only the paid Microsoft 365 Copilot licence can.
2. What Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat Includes for Free
For most businesses, the useful answer to "is Microsoft 365 Copilot free?" is Copilot Chat. Microsoft includes it at no additional cost for users with an eligible Microsoft 365 subscription, including the Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium plans that most SMEs run on, along with enterprise, frontline and education plans.
Copilot Chat is a meaningful step up from the consumer app because it runs under your organisation's account. With the free Microsoft Copilot Chat tier, your staff get:
- Enterprise data protection: prompts and responses are covered by the same commercial data protection terms as the rest of Microsoft 365, rather than consumer terms.
- Web-grounded answers on current AI models, useful for research, drafting and summarising public information.
- File upload: users can upload a document and ask Copilot to summarise, rewrite or analyse it.
- Copilot in Outlook and the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, plus Copilot Chat inside Teams.
- Agents on a metered basis: organisations can publish custom agents to Copilot Chat users and pay only for what those agents consume.
- Admin controls that let IT decide who can use it and how agents are managed.
What Copilot Chat does not do is search across your tenant on a user's behalf. It will not pull together a summary of every email about a client, or find the latest version of a proposal buried in a SharePoint library, unless the user hands it that content directly.
↑ Back to Contents3. The April 2026 Change to Copilot in Word, Excel and PowerPoint
For a short period, unlicensed business users could open Copilot Chat directly inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. On 15 April 2026 Microsoft split that experience by organisation size, announced through two admin Message Center posts (MC1253858 and MC1253863).
| Organisation Size | Unlicensed Users Since 15 April 2026 |
|---|---|
| Fewer than 2,000 Microsoft 365 seats | Copilot stays inside Word, Excel and PowerPoint under "standard access". Responses may be slower at busy times and users see prompts to upgrade to the paid licence. |
| More than 2,000 Microsoft 365 seats | Copilot is removed from inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Users keep Copilot Chat in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, on the web and in Outlook. |
Most UK SMEs sit well under the 2,000-seat threshold, so they still have in-app Copilot without paying. Larger organisations that saw the Copilot button stop responding were not dealing with a broken install; the feature had been withdrawn for anyone without a paid licence.
↑ Back to Contents4. What the Paid Microsoft 365 Copilot Licence Adds
The paid licence is where Copilot becomes an assistant for your organisation rather than a general chatbot. The difference comes down to one thing: access to your work data through Microsoft Graph, always limited to what the individual user is already permitted to see.
Answers grounded in your work
Copilot can search across a user's mailbox, OneDrive, Teams chats and the SharePoint sites they have access to, then answer questions like "what's the current status of the Henderson contract?" with references to the source documents.
Teams meeting recaps and actions
Licensed users can ask Copilot what was decided in a meeting, who owns each action and what questions were left open, based on the transcript.
Full Copilot inside every Office app
Priority access in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote, with the ability to draft a document from existing files, build a presentation from a Word report or analyse a spreadsheet using company context.
Agents that use company knowledge
Agents built for HR policies, IT queries or sales enablement can draw on internal content for licensed users, rather than relying on metered billing.
5. How Much Does Microsoft 365 Copilot Cost in the UK?
Microsoft lists UK business prices in sterling, excluding VAT. Every Copilot add-on below sits on top of the Microsoft 365 licence each user already needs, except the bundle, which includes it.
| Plan | Listed Price | Who It Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat | £0 (included) | Every business on an eligible Microsoft 365 plan |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Business | £16.10 per user/month, paid yearly | Organisations up to 300 users on Business Basic, Standard or Premium |
| Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot | £24.60 per user/month, paid yearly | SMBs buying Microsoft 365 security and Copilot together |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot (enterprise) | £24.70 per user/month, paid yearly | Organisations on enterprise plans such as E3 or E5 |
| Microsoft 365 Premium (consumer) | £18.99/month or £189.99/year, inc VAT | Individuals and families, not businesses |
Prices from Microsoft UK, checked October 2026. Microsoft has been running promotional first-year pricing on annual Copilot Business subscriptions, so the price you are quoted may be lower.
You do not have to license everyone. Copilot licences can be assigned to individual users, which is how most sensible rollouts begin: a small group of heavy Microsoft 365 users first, with wider deployment only once the value is clear.
↑ Back to Contents6. Is the Free Version of Copilot Enough for Your Business?
For many teams, Copilot Chat covers the everyday jobs: rewriting an email, summarising a long PDF, drafting a policy outline or researching a supplier. The paid licence earns its cost when people spend their day hunting for information that already exists inside your organisation.
✔ Free Copilot Chat is usually enough if
- Work is mostly drafting: staff need help writing, editing and summarising content they already have in front of them.
- Research is web-based: questions are about public information, not internal records.
- You're under 2,000 seats: you keep standard in-app Copilot in Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
- You're still testing: Copilot Chat is the low-risk way to build AI habits before spending on licences.
✘ You'll likely need the paid licence if
- Knowledge is scattered: answers live across mailboxes, Teams chats and SharePoint libraries.
- Meetings drive the work: managers want recaps and actions from Teams meetings without taking notes.
- Roles are document-heavy: bid writers, account managers and finance teams build new documents from existing ones.
- You want internal agents: staff need answers drawn from company policies and procedures.
7. Before You Switch On Copilot: Permissions and Security
Microsoft 365 Copilot only shows users content they are already allowed to open. That sounds reassuring until you look at how permissions have built up over the years. Old "Anyone" sharing links, sites opened up to the whole company for convenience and HR folders with inherited access are all common, and Copilot makes that content far easier to find.
Before buying paid licences, it is worth reviewing three areas. First, SharePoint and OneDrive sharing: who can see what, and which sites are overshared. Our SharePoint consultancy team regularly finds sensitive libraries open to every employee. Second, identity and device controls such as multi-factor authentication and conditional access, which are core to our cyber security services. Third, sensitivity labels and retention policies, so confidential documents stay restricted when Copilot is summarising content.
A practical starting point
Switch on and promote Copilot Chat for everyone, run a permissions review in parallel, then pilot paid licences with a small group whose access you have checked. Our Microsoft 365 support team can handle the configuration, licensing and user guidance for each stage.
8. Copilot Across SharePoint, Power BI and Business Central
Copilot also appears in Microsoft products outside the core Office apps, and each has its own licensing rules. It helps to know which ones need extra spend before you plan a budget.
SharePoint
SharePoint is the main source of company knowledge for Microsoft 365 Copilot, so the quality of its answers depends on how well your libraries are structured, named and permissioned. A tidy SharePoint environment is the single biggest factor in useful Copilot results. If you are unsure where files should live, our guide to Microsoft Teams vs SharePoint explains the difference.
Power BI
Copilot in Power BI can build report pages and explain data in plain English, but it is not covered by the free Copilot Chat tier and typically requires paid Fabric capacity rather than a standard Pro licence. Our Power BI consultants can confirm whether your current setup supports it.
Dynamics 365 Business Central
Business Central includes its own built-in Copilot features, such as help with sales lines, bank reconciliation and product descriptions, which are separate from the Microsoft 365 Copilot licence. Availability varies by version and region, so speak to your Business Central partner about what is switched on in your environment.
↑ Back to Contents9. Frequently Asked Questions
Is Microsoft Copilot free?
Yes, in part. The consumer Microsoft Copilot app is free for anyone, and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is included at no extra cost with eligible Microsoft 365 business plans. The full Microsoft 365 Copilot, which uses your organisation's emails, files and meetings, requires a paid licence.
Is Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat free?
Yes. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is available at no additional cost to users signed in with a work or school account on an eligible Microsoft 365 plan, including Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium. Custom agents used through Copilot Chat are billed on a metered basis.
Is Microsoft 365 Copilot free with my Microsoft 365 subscription?
No. Microsoft 365 business subscriptions include Copilot Chat, but the full Microsoft 365 Copilot is a separate paid add-on. In the UK, Copilot Business is listed at £16.10 per user per month, paid yearly and excluding VAT, for organisations up to 300 users.
What is the difference between Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Microsoft Copilot is the free consumer assistant for web-based answers, writing and images. Microsoft 365 Copilot is the paid business version that works inside Microsoft 365 apps and can answer questions using the emails, files, chats and meetings a user already has permission to access.
Can I still use Copilot in Word and Excel without paying?
It depends on the size of your organisation. Since 15 April 2026, unlicensed users in organisations with fewer than 2,000 Microsoft 365 seats keep Copilot in Word, Excel and PowerPoint under standard access. In organisations with more than 2,000 seats, it has been removed from those apps for unlicensed users.
Is there a free trial of Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Microsoft does not offer a broad free trial of the business Copilot licence. Most organisations use the free Copilot Chat tier to test how staff work with AI, then license a small pilot group before deciding on a wider rollout.
Is Copilot Chat safe to use with business information?
When staff sign in with their work account, Copilot Chat includes enterprise data protection, so prompts and responses fall under your organisation's Microsoft 365 commercial terms. Staff should use their work account rather than a personal one when handling business information.
Do I need to license every user for Microsoft 365 Copilot?
No. Microsoft 365 Copilot licences are assigned per user, so you can license only the people who will benefit most while everyone else continues using the free Copilot Chat.
Not Sure Which Copilot Your Business Needs?
As a Microsoft Solutions Partner and managed IT services provider, we can review your licences, check your permissions and tell you plainly whether the free Copilot Chat is enough or a paid pilot makes sense.
Speak With a Microsoft 365 Consultant 0161 834 9345
