What Is “Copilot”? The 5 Microsoft Copilots Explained
(and the 5 ChatGPTs)
Microsoft markets at least five distinct products under the “Copilot” brand. Most comparison articles treat them as one thing. This page catalogues all five, explains what each actually includes, and maps them to the five ChatGPT tiers for an apples-to-apples comparison.
The Names Microsoft Should Have Used
| What Microsoft calls it | What it actually is | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Copilot | Bing Chat successor, web/mobile AI chat | Free |
| Copilot Pro | Office-app AI add-on (needs M365 Personal) | $20+M365 |
| M365 Copilot Chat | Free tenant-bound AI chat (already included) | Free |
| M365 Copilot Business | SMB in-app AI for Office + Teams | $18-21 |
| M365 Copilot Enterprise | Large enterprise AI with full compliance stack | $30 |
| GitHub Copilot | IDE coding assistant, completely separate product | $10-39 |
The Five Copilots
Microsoft Copilot (Free)
The renamed-from-Bing-Chat consumer product. Available at copilot.microsoft.com, in the Windows 11 taskbar, and as a mobile app. Powered by GPT-5.2 with web grounding. Includes Designer image generation (limited daily credits) and voice mode. Free with any Microsoft account. This is not the same as Copilot inside Word or Excel.
- +GPT-5.2 web chat
- +Web browsing and grounding
- +Designer image generation (limited)
- +Voice mode
- +Windows 11 integration
- +Edge sidebar
- !No in-app Office integration
None. Free with Microsoft account.
Copilot Pro ($20/user/mo)
Unlocks priority GPT-5.2 access during peak hours, Think Deeper extended reasoning mode, more Designer image generation boosts per day, and critically, Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. The last feature is why most people pay for Pro, but it only works if you also have a separate Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription ($9.99-$12.99/mo). Real combined cost: $30-33/mo.
- +Priority GPT-5.2 access
- +Think Deeper reasoning
- +Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote (needs M365 Personal/Family)
- +More Designer boosts per day
- +GPT-5.2 in Copilot mobile
Microsoft 365 Personal ($9.99/mo) or Family ($12.99/mo) for Office integration. Without M365, Pro only upgrades the web chat.
M365 Copilot Chat (Free inside your tenant)
Many M365 Business, E3, and E5 users already have access to Copilot Chat at copilot.cloud.microsoft without paying for a Copilot Pro or M365 Copilot licence. This tier provides enterprise data protection (prompts stay within your Microsoft tenant), GPT-5.2 chat, and basic file analysis. It does not include in-app Copilot inside Word, Excel, or Teams, but it is a legitimate, tenant-bound AI assistant for work chat at zero additional cost.
- +Tenant-bounded GPT-5.2 chat
- +Enterprise data protection
- +Basic file analysis
- !No training on your data
Any Microsoft 365 Business Basic/Standard/Premium, E3, or E5 subscription and Entra ID authentication.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business ($18-21/user/mo)
The SMB enterprise tier. Adds Work IQ (Copilot's ability to reason over your Microsoft Graph data: emails, meetings, documents, conversations), in-app Copilot across all Office apps including Teams meeting summaries, Copilot Studio for building custom agents, and full tenant-bound data protection. Requires a qualifying M365 Business Basic ($6/user/mo), Business Standard ($12.50), or Business Premium ($22) base licence. Cap of 300 users.
- +Work IQ over Microsoft Graph
- +Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams
- +Teams meeting summaries
- +Copilot Studio (custom agents)
- +Tenant-bounded, data stays in your M365 tenant
- +Up to 300 users
M365 Business Basic ($6/user/mo), Standard ($12.50/user/mo), or Premium ($22/user/mo) base licence.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Enterprise ($30/user/mo)
The full enterprise tier. Everything in Business plus: full Copilot Studio with agent orchestration, Purview integration (eDiscovery, sensitivity labels, DLP enforcement), advanced compliance certifications (HIPAA, FedRAMP High in GCC High), and support for the new E7 Frontier Suite ($99/user/mo bundled option launching May 2026 that includes M365 E5 + Copilot + Entra Suite + Agent 365). Requires E3 ($36/user/mo) or E5 ($57/user/mo) base licence.
- +Full Work IQ
- +Full Copilot Studio with agent orchestration
- +Purview eDiscovery and DLP integration
- +HIPAA BAA, FedRAMP High (GCC High)
- +Advanced admin controls and audit
- !No 300-user cap
Microsoft 365 E3 ($36/user/mo) or E5 ($57/user/mo) base licence.
GitHub Copilot ($10-39/user/mo)
The coding assistant. Completely separate from all Microsoft Copilot products despite the shared brand name. An IDE extension for VS Code, JetBrains, Neovim, and others that provides inline code completions, Copilot Chat sidebar, and agentic code editing. The Pro+ tier ($39/mo) adds Claude Opus 4.6 as a selectable model alongside GPT-5. The Business and Enterprise tiers add admin controls, policy management, and IP indemnity.
- +IDE inline autocomplete (Tab to accept)
- +Copilot Chat sidebar (VS Code, JetBrains)
- +GPT-5 default model
- +Claude Sonnet 4.6 selectable (Pro+: Claude Opus 4.6)
- +Business: admin controls, IP indemnity
- +Enterprise: SAML SSO, audit logs
GitHub account. No Microsoft 365 required.
The Five ChatGPTs
ChatGPT Free
GPT-5.2 access with daily rate limits, falling back to GPT-4o-mini for speed when limits are hit. Web browsing is available but limited. No Advanced Voice mode, no Deep Research, no custom GPTs, no o-series reasoning models. File upload for analysis is available. Good for light daily use before hitting limits.
- +GPT-5.2 (rate-limited, GPT-4o-mini fallback)
- +Limited web browsing
- +File upload and analysis
- +Memory (limited)
- +Mobile and desktop apps
Daily message limits; no Advanced Voice, Deep Research, o-series models, or custom GPTs.
ChatGPT Plus ($20/mo)
Priority GPT-5.2 access with no daily message limits (within reason), Advanced Voice mode for real-time spoken conversation, GPT Image 1.5 for conversational image generation (replaced DALL-E 3 on 12 May 2026), custom GPT creation and usage, Deep Research mode (autonomous multi-source research with citations), and o3/o4 reasoning models for complex analytical tasks. Flat $20/mo, no prerequisites.
- +Priority GPT-5.2 (no daily limits)
- +Advanced Voice mode (~300ms latency)
- +GPT Image 1.5 (conversational image editing)
- +Deep Research with o3/o4 (autonomous multi-source)
- +Custom GPTs creation and usage
- +128k context window
- +Desktop app
Soft rate limits during peak times; o3/o4 usage has separate caps.
ChatGPT Team ($25-30/user/mo)
Everything in Plus, plus a guarantee that your conversations are not used to train OpenAI models, a shared workspace for teams, admin console for user management, higher rate limits than Plus, and SSO/SAML integration. Minimum 2 seats. No regional data residency or advanced audit logs (those are Enterprise features).
- +Everything in Plus
- +No training on your data
- +Shared team workspace
- +Admin console
- +Higher rate limits
- +SAML SSO
No data residency controls; no eDiscovery/audit logs; no SCIM provisioning.
ChatGPT Enterprise (custom, ~$60/user/mo)
SSO/SAML with Okta, Entra ID, OneLogin, and others. SCIM user provisioning. 128k+ context windows. No training on your data. Configurable data retention and regional residency. SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001/21001/22301/42001, GDPR, CCPA, CSA STAR, HIPAA BAA on request. OpenAI Copyright Shield covers outputs. Admin console with feature flags, model version pinning, and audit log export.
- +SAML SSO and SCIM provisioning
- +128k+ context window
- +No training, configurable retention
- +Regional data residency
- +SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA BAA
- +OpenAI Copyright Shield
- +Usage analytics and audit logs
Pricing is quote-based; minimum seat counts typically apply.
ChatGPT Go (select markets)
A lower-cost mobile-only tier available in select markets as of early 2026. Provides basic ChatGPT access at a reduced price point. Features and availability vary by region. Not universally available; check openai.com for current market availability.
- +Basic ChatGPT access
- +Mobile-only
- +Reduced feature set vs Plus
Not available in all markets; limited to mobile use.