The short answer
In the Copilot vs Copilot 365 question, the plain answer is this: Microsoft Copilot is the AI chat assistant anyone can use for free, Microsoft 365 Copilot is the paid work license that puts Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams with your company data, and Copilot Studio is the tool companies use to build their own AI agents. Most people only ever need the first one; however, offices pay for the second, and IT teams buy the third.
- Free Copilot: limited free use, subject to capacity and limits
- Copilot at home: Microsoft 365 Personal ($9.99/month), Family ($12.99/month) or Premium ($19.99/month)
- Copilot Pro: no longer sold; Microsoft points buyers to Microsoft 365 Premium
- Microsoft 365 Copilot at work: $30 per user per month (enterprise add-on, paid yearly); the Business add-on is $18 on a promo through Dec. 31, 2026
- Copilot Studio: $200 per month for 25,000 Copilot Credits, or pay-as-you-go through Azure
Free
Basic Copilot chat
$19.99
Microsoft 365 Premium per month
$30
Microsoft 365 Copilot per user/month
$200
Copilot Studio pack per month
In this article
Microsoft uses the word “Copilot” for several different products, so it is easy to get confused. In fact, its own pricing pages use the name for a consumer chat app, home Office plans, a work license and an agent-building platform. This guide sorts them out using only Microsoft’s own pricing, support and documentation pages, checked October 24, 2026. We have not hands-on tested every plan; instead, every price and limit below comes from each plan’s published details.
First, three quick definitions. Microsoft Copilot is Microsoft’s AI assistant, an app and website that answers questions, writes and creates images. Microsoft 365 Copilot is a paid license for work accounts that connects Copilot to your emails, files, meetings and chats. Copilot Studio is a low-code platform where organizations build, test and publish their own AI agents.
Copilot vs Copilot 365: What Is the Difference?
The real difference in Copilot vs Copilot 365 is what the AI can see and where it works. Free Copilot works mainly from the web and whatever you paste or upload, while Microsoft 365 Copilot also reads the work data you already have permission to open and lives inside the Office apps.
Microsoft says a Microsoft 365 Copilot license adds Work IQ, its “intelligence layer” that grounds answers in your Microsoft 365 content, plus Copilot in Teams, Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and prebuilt agents such as Researcher, Analyst and Facilitator. By contrast, Copilot Chat, the free chat that comes with eligible work plans, is “primarily web grounded,” according to Microsoft Learn. Meanwhile, Copilot Studio is not an assistant at all; it is where you build assistants.
Copilot vs Copilot 365 vs Copilot Studio at a glance
| Microsoft Copilot (free or home plans) | Microsoft 365 Copilot (work) | Copilot Studio | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | AI chat assistant for individuals | Paid AI license for work accounts | Platform to build AI agents |
| Who it is for | Anyone with a Microsoft account | Employees of a company on Microsoft 365 | IT teams, makers and developers |
| Price | Free (limited); or in Microsoft 365 Personal $9.99, Family $12.99, Premium $19.99, Pro $99.99 per month | $30 per user/month enterprise add-on; Business add-on from $18 (promo) or $21 | $200/month per 25,000 Copilot Credits, prepurchase, or pay-as-you-go |
| Works with your work data | No (only what you share) | Yes, through Work IQ and Microsoft Graph | Yes, through connectors you set up |
| Inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint | Yes on Personal, Family (owner only) and Premium | Yes, with priority access | No; agents can be published into Copilot and Teams |
| Needs another license | No | Yes, a qualifying Microsoft 365 business or enterprise plan | An Azure subscription for agents |
| Data protection | Consumer privacy terms | Enterprise data protection; prompts not used to train models | Managed in the Power Platform admin center |
In other words, the “365” in the name signals a work license tied to an organization. Even so, Microsoft also sells home plans called Microsoft 365 Personal, Family and Premium that include Copilot, which is why so many searchers ask whether “Copilot 365” is something they already own.
Which Copilot Do You Have, and Which Do You Need?
You can usually tell which Copilot you have from the account you sign in with: a personal Microsoft account means consumer Copilot, while a work or school account means Copilot Chat or Microsoft 365 Copilot. Microsoft also shows in-app labels, so check those next.
According to Microsoft Learn, a label reading “Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium)” or “(Pro)” means the user has the paid add-on license. Meanwhile, “Microsoft 365 Copilot (Basic)” means standard access in the Office apps without the add-on, and “Copilot Chat (Basic)” means chat only, without Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
| If you… | You probably have | What to buy, if anything |
|---|---|---|
| Use Copilot on the web or phone with a personal account and no subscription | Free Microsoft Copilot | Nothing, unless you hit usage limits |
| Pay for Microsoft 365 Personal or Family | Copilot in the desktop apps (Family: subscription owner only) | Premium if you want extensive usage and agentic features |
| Want the most Copilot at home for up to six people | Not yet | Microsoft 365 Premium, $19.99/month or $199.99/year |
| Sign in with a work account but see no Copilot in Word | Copilot Chat (Basic) | Ask IT about a Microsoft 365 Copilot license |
| Run a small business on Microsoft 365 Business plans | Copilot Chat included | Copilot Business add-on, or a Business plan “with Copilot” |
| Need a customer-facing bot on your website | None of the above | Standalone Copilot Studio |
| Bought Copilot Pro in the past | Copilot Pro (no longer sold) | Microsoft 365 Premium when your plan ends |
Pro tip. If you see Copilot on a work PC, your company controls it. Therefore, ask your IT admin before you buy a personal plan to use with work files, because company policy decides what you can connect.
What Do You Get With Free Microsoft Copilot?
Free Microsoft Copilot gives you AI chat, web answers, writing help and image creation at no cost, but Microsoft calls it “a limited free version” that depends on available capacity. When you hit a limit, you can wait or upgrade.
Notably, Microsoft does not publish exact daily caps for the free tier on its pricing page. Instead, the paid home plans are described with relative labels: “higher usage than free” for Personal, “extensive” for Premium and “highest” for Microsoft 365 Pro. As a result, nobody outside Microsoft can honestly quote a fixed number of free prompts per day.
Is Copilot free with Microsoft 365?
Yes, Copilot is included in Microsoft 365 Personal, Family and Premium, although usage limits vary by plan. However, on Family, the AI features belong to the subscription owner only; Microsoft says other family members need their own eligible subscription to get Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
Is Copilot free for students?
Not automatically, but many students get it through school. Microsoft says some schools provide Microsoft 365 at no extra cost, and eligible students may qualify for discounted plans, with pricing that varies by school and region.
What Happened to Copilot Pro, and What Does It Cost Now?
Copilot Pro is no longer available for purchase, and Microsoft now steers people who want heavy Copilot use toward Microsoft 365 Premium at $19.99 a month. That makes “copilot pro price” a question with a new answer.
According to Microsoft’s Copilot Pro support page, existing subscribers can keep using it until they cancel or support ends on August 1, 2026. Since that date has passed, longtime subscribers should check the Services and subscriptions page of their Microsoft account to see what is active.
Microsoft Copilot free vs Premium vs Pro: home plans compared
| Plan | Price (US) | People | Cloud storage | Copilot usage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Copilot | $0 | 1 | 5 GB with a Microsoft account | Limited, capacity-based |
| Microsoft 365 Personal | $9.99/month or $99.99/year | 1 | 1 TB | Higher than free |
| Microsoft 365 Family | $12.99/month or $129.99/year | 1 to 6 (AI for owner only) | 2 TB shared | Higher than free, owner only |
| Microsoft 365 Premium | $19.99/month or $199.99/year | 1 to 6 (AI for owner only) | 2 TB shared | Extensive, plus agentic features |
| Microsoft 365 Pro | $99.99/month (monthly only) | Up to 6 | 5 TB shared | Highest |
So which one is worth it? For most people, Personal is the sweet spot because it adds Copilot to the desktop Office apps you may already pay for. Premium, in turn, makes sense if you hit limits often or want features Microsoft reserves for Premium and Pro, such as advanced research. Finally, the $99.99 Microsoft 365 Pro tier targets very heavy AI users; most households will never need it.
Watch out. On every home plan, Microsoft notes that the AI features are “only available to subscription owner and cannot be shared.” Consequently, buying Family or Premium for a household does not give each member their own Copilot.
Copilot Chat vs Microsoft 365 Copilot: What Changes at Work?
Copilot Chat is the secure AI chat that comes free with eligible Microsoft 365 work plans, while Microsoft 365 Copilot is the paid add-on that grounds answers in your organization’s data and works inside the Office apps and Teams.
What is Copilot Chat?
Microsoft describes Copilot Chat as a web-grounded assistant included at no additional cost for Microsoft Entra (work account) users with an eligible Microsoft 365 subscription. It also includes Copilot in Outlook and the Microsoft Copilot app. In addition, users can upload files, create images and use custom agents their company builds, which are billed on a metered basis.
What does a Microsoft 365 Copilot license add?
The paid license adds Work IQ grounding across your mail, files and meetings, Copilot in Teams, Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and the Researcher, Analyst and Facilitator agents. Licensed users can also use internal custom agents at no extra cost, and admins get analytics on adoption and impact. Microsoft says prompts and responses are “not used to train the underlying large language models.”
How much does Microsoft 365 Copilot cost?
| Plan | Price (US, paid yearly) | Who it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Copilot Chat | Included with eligible Microsoft 365 plans | Every work user, as a starting point |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Business (add-on) | $18 per user/month promo (regular $21) | Existing Microsoft 365 Business customers |
| Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot | $23.50 per user/month | Small firms buying apps and Copilot together |
| Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot | $32 per user/month | Small firms that also need advanced security |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot (enterprise add-on) | $30 per user/month | Enterprises with a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan |
Beyond the license fee, Microsoft now bills some advanced AI work by usage. Specifically, its business FAQ lists Copilot Cowork, Code, Autopilot and the Work IQ APIs as usage-based, paid with Copilot Credits. Admins can set spending controls in the Microsoft 365 admin center, so check those before you switch them on.
Copilot business vs Copilot 365: is there a difference?
Yes, mostly in who can buy it. The Business add-on is for existing customers on eligible Microsoft 365 Business plans, while the $30 enterprise add-on requires a qualifying enterprise or business plan, and you add it through your Microsoft representative. Both include Copilot in the Office apps and Teams, along with the prebuilt agents.
Is GitHub Copilot the same thing?
No. GitHub Copilot is a separate coding assistant for developers, sold through GitHub with its own plans. However, Microsoft now lets standalone Copilot Studio customers build agents with a “GitHub Copilot harness,” which is one reason the names keep overlapping.
Copilot vs Copilot Studio: Do You Need to Build Agents?
You only need Copilot Studio if your organization wants to build its own AI agents, and you need the standalone version only if those agents must reach people outside your company or users without Copilot licenses.
Microsoft defines Copilot Studio as “an end-to-end conversational AI platform” for creating agents with natural language or a graphical interface. In fact, it absorbed the older Power Virtual Agents product. Agents can answer questions from company knowledge, take actions in other systems and run workflows on their own.
Copilot Studio included vs standalone
Every Microsoft 365 Copilot license already includes Copilot Studio for building and using internal agents inside Microsoft 365 at no extra cost. In contrast, the standalone license lets you publish agents to websites, apps and social platforms, lets non-licensed users use them, and adds the GitHub Copilot harness and more pricing options.
How much does Copilot Studio cost?
| Option | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Included with Microsoft 365 Copilot | No added cost for internal agents | Teams customizing Copilot at work |
| Copilot Credit pack | $200 per month for 25,000 Copilot Credits | Steady, predictable agent use |
| Prepurchase plan | Prepaid Copilot Credit Commit Units, up to 20% savings | Firms that can commit up front |
| Pay-as-you-go | Billed monthly for credits used, through Azure | Pilots and variable workloads |
Credits are the key idea here. Each time an agent completes an action or response, it uses a varying number of Copilot Credits, so cost depends on how busy and complex your agents are. Also, Microsoft says the credit packs and the pay-as-you-go meter have no feature differences; only the billing changes. Before you commit, it offers a free trial and a $200 Azure credit for new Azure accounts.
Pro tip. Start with the lightweight Agent Builder inside Copilot if you only need a simple helper for your team. Then move to full Copilot Studio when you need external channels, premium connectors or autonomous agents.
Who Should Not Pay for Each Copilot?
Each Copilot is a good buy for one group and a waste of money for another, so here is a quick Copilot vs Copilot 365 vs Copilot Studio fit check based on Microsoft’s published plan details.
1. Free Microsoft Copilot: Best for casual users
Start here. It covers everyday questions, drafts and images, and it costs nothing.
- Best for: students, home users and anyone testing AI
- Skip it if: you need Copilot inside desktop Word or Excel, or you keep hitting limits
- Price: free, with capacity-based limits
2. Microsoft 365 Personal, Family or Premium: Best for home Office users
These plans make sense if you already rely on Word, Excel and Outlook at home.
- Best for: freelancers and families who use Office apps daily
- Skip it if: you expect every family member to get Copilot; only the owner does
- Price: $9.99, $12.99 or $19.99 per month
3. Microsoft 365 Copilot: Best for companies on Microsoft 365
This is the license that lets Copilot summarize your meetings, search your mail and draft from your files.
- Best for: teams that live in Outlook, Teams and SharePoint
- Skip it if: your staff only need web-grounded chat, which Copilot Chat already covers
- Price: $30 per user/month enterprise; Business add-on from $18 promo
4. Copilot Studio: Best for building custom agents
Pick this when off-the-shelf Copilot is not enough and you need agents tied to your own systems.
- Best for: IT teams, customer service bots and workflow automation
- Skip it if: you are an individual; it is sold to organizations and needs Azure for agents
- Price: $200 per 25,000 credits per month, or pay-as-you-go
Our verdict
For most readers, the Copilot vs Copilot 365 decision is simple: use free Copilot until it stops being enough. Then, if you work in Office apps at home, Microsoft 365 Personal is the cheapest way to get Copilot in Word and Excel, and Premium is the upgrade for heavy users now that Copilot Pro is gone.
At work, let Copilot Chat prove its value first, and then buy Microsoft 365 Copilot for the people who spend their days in email, meetings and documents. Finally, treat Copilot Studio as a separate project: it is a platform for building agents, not a better version of Copilot.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Microsoft Copilot free to use?
Yes. Microsoft offers a limited free version of Copilot that works on the web and in the Copilot mobile app, subject to available capacity and limits. When you reach a limit, you can wait or upgrade. For Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, you need an eligible Microsoft 365 plan, such as Personal at $9.99 a month or a work license.
Is Copilot Pro still available?
No. Microsoft says Copilot Pro is no longer available for purchase. Existing subscribers could keep it until they cancel or support ends on August 1, 2026. For extensive Copilot use, Microsoft now points people to Microsoft 365 Premium, which costs $19.99 a month or $199.99 a year in the US and covers up to six people, with AI for the owner.
What is the difference between Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Copilot Chat is a web-grounded AI chat included at no extra cost with eligible Microsoft 365 work plans. Microsoft 365 Copilot is a paid add-on, $30 per user per month for enterprises, that grounds answers in your work data through Work IQ, works inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Teams, and adds agents such as Researcher and Analyst.
Does Copilot come with Microsoft 365?
It depends on the plan. Home plans such as Microsoft 365 Personal, Family and Premium include Copilot in the desktop apps, with usage limits that vary by plan. Work plans include Copilot Chat at no extra cost, but full Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Teams requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot license or a business plan sold with Copilot.
How much does Copilot Studio cost?
Copilot Studio comes included for internal agents with each Microsoft 365 Copilot license. The standalone version costs $200 per month for a pack of 25,000 Copilot Credits, or you can pay as you go through an Azure subscription, or prepurchase credits for up to 20 percent savings. Agents use a varying number of credits per action or response.
Can Microsoft 365 Family members use Copilot?
Not on the owner’s subscription. Microsoft says Family benefits like apps and OneDrive storage can be shared with up to five people, but Copilot features in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook are available only to the subscription owner. Family members who want Copilot need their own eligible Microsoft 365 subscription, though anyone can still use the free Copilot app.
