What is Copilot and how it can help you be more productive

2026-09-07

Microsoft assistant guide · Updated September 2026

Copilot isn’t just autocomplete for Office anymore. What launched in February 2023 as Bing Chat – a chat sidebar bolted onto Microsoft’s distant-second search engine – has grown into Microsoft’s umbrella brand for AI across Windows, Edge, Microsoft 365, GitHub, and a fast-expanding stack of autonomous agents. Microsoft 365 Copilot crossed 30 million paid seats in July 2026, and that August Microsoft merged the personal and work Copilot apps into a single experience.

In this guide we explain what Copilot is in 2026, how GPT-5.6 and Microsoft’s own MAI models work together, what GitHub Copilot, Copilot Studio, and Cowork can do, what the plans cost, and how to use it well.

Feb 2023First public release, as Bing Chat

GPT-5.6 · MAIOpenAI’s preferred model plus Microsoft’s own lineup

GitHub Copilot · Studio · CoworkAgentic surfaces across code, agents, and desktop work

01 · What it is

What is Copilot?

Copilot isn’t one lab’s model the way Claude or Gemini is – it’s Microsoft’s brand for AI stitched across the entire company. Microsoft AI, the division that owns consumer Copilot, was formed in March 2024 around the acquisition of much of Inflection AI’s team, bringing in DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman as CEO. In 2026 the group split again: Suleyman focuses on building models, while a dedicated leadership owns the Copilot assistant experience itself, commercial and consumer combined.

Copilot reached the public on February 7, 2023 as Bing Chat, running on a GPT-4-class model before GPT-4 was even public – it drew a million-person waitlist within 48 hours. Bing Chat Enterprise followed that July, Microsoft 365 Copilot was previewed that September, and at Ignite in November 2023 Microsoft folded Bing Chat, Bing Chat Enterprise, and Microsoft 365 Chat into one unified “Copilot” brand, reaching general availability on December 1, 2023.

That’s why the name is confusing. In 2026 there are four Copilots you’ll actually touch:

Answer questions & explain concepts
Search the live web & ground answers in Bing
Draft, summarize & rewrite documents, emails & decks
Analyze spreadsheets & run Python in Excel
Generate & edit images
See your screen & talk in real time
Write, review & ship code as an agent
Remember context via Memory
Take multi-step actions across apps
Work across Word, Teams, GitHub & 1,400+ connectors

Copilot – the models

Copilot doesn’t run on a single family of models. OpenAI’s GPT-5.x series remains the default in most surfaces, Microsoft’s own in-house MAI models increasingly handle cost- and latency-sensitive tasks, and Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini are selectable in some surfaces too. Which model answers you depends on the task, the surface, and what your admin has enabled.

Copilot – the products

The consumer Copilot app (web, iOS, Android, Windows, macOS) is the most visible surface, but the same brand covers Microsoft 365 Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams, GitHub Copilot for developers, Copilot Studio for building custom agents, and verticals like Security Copilot and Dynamics 365 Copilot.

02 · The model family

Copilot’s models: GPT-5.6, MAI, and model choice

Unlike Claude, Gemini, or Grok, Copilot was never built around one lab’s models – it’s designed to route between them. For most of 2023–2025 that meant OpenAI almost exclusively; 2026 is the year Microsoft started building real alternatives of its own, without dropping OpenAI as the anchor. On July 9, 2026 OpenAI named GPT-5.6 the new “preferred model” across Microsoft 365 Copilot – a public reaffirmation of the partnership.

Preferred model · Microsoft 365 Copilot · Jul 9, 2026

GPT-5.6

OpenAI’s flagship series and the default reasoning model across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Copilot Chat, and Cowork. Two modes – Quick Response for fast everyday work, Think Deeper for step-by-step reasoning – and the model Microsoft leans on for the most complex requests.

Anchor model across Microsoft 365Default

Flagship reasoning · Private preview

MAI-Thinking-1

Microsoft’s frontier in-house reasoning model: a sparse mixture-of-experts design with roughly 35B active parameters out of about 1 trillion total and a 256,000-token window. Trained from scratch with no third-party distillation, aimed first at tasks where cost and latency matter.

Microsoft’s first in-house frontier model

Default coding model · GitHub Copilot · Jun 26, 2026

MAI-Code-1-Flash

A compact 137B-parameter sparse MoE model (about 5B active) that became the default completion model in GitHub Copilot across all tiers, using up to 60% fewer tokens than the models it replaced.

Cheapest, fastest coding tier

Selectable since Jan 2026 · Studio, Researcher, GitHub

Claude & Gemini

Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini are available as picks inside Copilot Studio agents, the Researcher agent, and GitHub Copilot’s model picker – billed at the same rates as Microsoft’s own models, admin opt-in required.

Cross-vendor model choice

Behind the headline models sit Phi-4, a family of small MIT-licensed models for on-device and edge scenarios – Phi-4-mini already ships on Copilot+ PCs for offline code completion. Most everyday interactions run through an automatic “Auto” router rather than a model you pick by hand.

03 · How it works

How does Copilot work?

Underneath the chat window sits Work IQ, the grounding layer that connects Copilot to Microsoft Graph – your emails, meetings, files, and chats – so answers can draw on your actual work rather than only training data. Copilot is strictly permission-aware: it only ever surfaces what you could already see yourself, which matters as much for what it can’t do as for what it can.

A typical request moves through several stages, combining the underlying model with tools and your organization’s data:

1
Understand the request
Copilot reads your prompt, the conversation so far, any files you’ve shared, and – where allowed – Work IQ context from your emails, meetings, and chats.
2
Reason through the problem
For complex requests, a reasoning model like GPT-5.6 Thinking or MAI-Thinking-1 works through the problem step by step rather than answering in one pass.
3
Decide which tools to use
Live Bing search, Python execution in Excel, the Researcher or Analyst reasoning agents, browser actions in Edge, or a connector into one of 1,400+ external apps.
4
Generate the response or take the action
The answer, the spreadsheet, the slide deck, the pull request, or the completed multi-step task.
5
Refine with follow-ups
Notebooks keep a persistent multi-source workspace open across a project, and Pages keeps a document or plan editable in place instead of restarting the conversation.

04 · What you can do

What can you do with Copilot?

Research and information

Copilot grounds everyday answers in live Bing results. The Researcher agent goes further: it plans a multi-step approach across the web and your own work content and returns a structured, cited report.

Writing and editing

Draft, rewrite, summarize, and translate directly in Copilot Chat. Notebooks can turn a pile of notes into a Word document, an Excel spreadsheet, or a PowerPoint deck.

Coding and DevOps

GitHub Copilot spans inline completions, Agent Mode across multiple files, an asynchronous cloud coding agent that opens pull requests, and a CLI – now on usage-based AI Credits since June 2026.

Data analysis

The Analyst agent takes your files and a question, then calculates statistics, finds trends and outliers, and writes it up with charts using visible, checkable Python. Excel can now run Python directly against a workbook.

Images and design

Microsoft’s own image models generate and edit images and are built into PowerPoint and OneDrive; PowerPoint’s Agent Mode builds a full deck grounded in your own files, meetings, and emails through Work IQ.

Voice and vision

Copilot Voice holds real-time spoken conversations. Copilot Vision can look at your screen or camera and talk through what it sees, and Copilot+ PCs run small models like Phi-4-mini locally.

Windows and Edge

Copilot in Windows adjusts settings, troubleshoots, and acts on what’s on screen. Copilot Mode in Edge completes multi-step browser tasks like filling forms or comparing prices across tabs, with your explicit permission.

Enterprise and governance

Microsoft 365 Copilot reasons over Graph data under Enterprise Data Protection, reaches 1,400+ connectors via Copilot Studio, and Agent 365 gives IT visibility and lifecycle controls over every agent.

05 · From assistant to agent

The agentic shift: GitHub Copilot, Studio, Cowork, and Agent 365

Copilot’s biggest change since 2023 mirrors the rest of the industry: less “you ask, it answers,” more “you delegate, it works and reports back.” Four products carry that shift across very different audiences.

GitHub Copilot

The original Copilot agent surface and, at four years old, the most mature. Technical preview in June 2021 – a full year before the consumer Copilot brand existed – it now spans inline completions, Agent Mode, an asynchronous cloud coding agent, and a CLI with plan and autopilot modes.

Free tier, then $10–$100/mo individual, $19–$39/user/mo teams

Copilot Studio

A low-code platform for building and publishing custom agents into Teams, SharePoint, Microsoft 365, and public websites, drawing on 1,400+ connectors and Model Context Protocol support. Usage is metered in Copilot Credits rather than seats.

Credits-based · from $0.01 each

Copilot Cowork

Microsoft’s agentic layer for everyday knowledge work rather than code, reaching general availability June 16, 2026. Point it at a task across your files and apps and it plans, works, and returns a finished result, with browsing and multi-tab actions under admin policy.

Included with qualifying Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses

Agent 365

The governance and identity control plane for the growing population of AI agents inside an organization, reaching general availability May 1, 2026. It gives IT the same visibility and lifecycle controls over agents that they already have over employee accounts.

$15/user/mo add-on

The strategy is fewer surfaces that each do more – one unified Copilot app since August 2026 that is twice as fast as before – backed by multi-model choice so enterprises are not locked into a single vendor’s model.

06 · Key moments

Copilot timeline: 2021–2026

Jun 2021

GitHub Copilot announced as a technical preview, developed jointly by GitHub and OpenAI – the first major commercial AI coding assistant.

Feb 2023

Bing Chat launches – “your copilot for the web” – built on a GPT-4-class model before GPT-4 is public; draws a million-person waitlist in 48 hours.

Jul–Sep 2023

Bing Chat Enterprise adds Enterprise Data Protection in July; Microsoft 365 Copilot and Windows Copilot are previewed that September.

Nov–Dec 2023

Ignite consolidates Bing Chat, Bing Chat Enterprise, and Microsoft 365 Chat into one unified “Copilot” brand and launches Copilot Studio; general availability follows December 1.

Jan 2024

Copilot Pro ($20/mo) launches for individuals; a dedicated Copilot key ships on new Windows 11 keyboards.

Mar 2024

Microsoft AI forms as a division around the Inflection AI deal, with Mustafa Suleyman joining as CEO.

May 2024

Copilot+ PCs are announced, requiring a 40+ TOPS NPU for on-device AI features.

Apr–Jun 2025

The Researcher and Analyst reasoning agents roll out through the Frontier early-access program and reach general availability June 2.

Oct 2025

Copilot Pro is retired for new signups (Oct 1), folded into Microsoft 365 Premium; the Fall Release ships agentic Edge features.

Jan–Mar 2026

Claude and Gemini become selectable models inside Copilot Studio agents (Jan); Copilot leadership splits, with the assistant experience and MAI models under separate ownership (Mar 17).

May–Jun 2026

Agent 365 reaches GA (May 1); Build 2026 unveils the full MAI model family (Jun 2); Copilot Cowork reaches GA (Jun 16); MAI-Code-1-Flash goes GA in GitHub Copilot (Jun 26).

Jul–Aug 2026

GPT-5.6 becomes Microsoft 365 Copilot’s “preferred model” (Jul 9); Microsoft reports 30 million paid Microsoft 365 Copilot seats (Jul 29); the consumer and work Copilot apps merge into one experience (Aug 18).

07 · Staying productive

How to use Copilot well

Be specific

State audience, goal, format, and constraints up front. “Turn last quarter’s numbers into 5 bullets for a board that hasn’t seen the data” beats “summarize this.”

Use Notebooks and Pages for repeat work

Notebooks keep a multi-source workspace persistent across a project instead of re-explaining context every session; Pages keeps a document or plan open and editable in place.

Pick the right surface

Quick answer: Copilot Chat. Deep research: Researcher. Numbers: Analyst. Code: GitHub Copilot. Custom workflow: Copilot Studio. Everyday task across apps: Cowork. Match the surface to the job.

The prompt pattern that works

Role:You are a senior analyst writing for a board that hasn’t seen this data before.Task:Summarize our Q2 results and flag the three biggest risks.Format:One page, bold key numbers, risks as bullets with one line of evidence each.

Role, task, format – the same structure that works for every assistant in this series works here too. For recurring work, save the background once in a Notebook or a Copilot Studio agent instead of re-pasting it into every chat.

08 · The window

How large is the context window?

Microsoft doesn’t publish one clean context-window number for Copilot the way Anthropic or Google do for Claude and Gemini – and that gap is itself worth knowing. Because Copilot routes between GPT-5.x, MAI, and (in Studio or GitHub Copilot) Claude or Gemini depending on task and surface, the real ceiling shifts with whichever model actually answers you.

GPT-5.6-class – ~400,000 tokens≈ 300,000 words

MAI-Thinking-1 – 256,000 tokens≈ 190,000 words

Claude Sonnet 4.5 / Opus 4.5 – 200,000 tokens≈ 150,000 words

GitHub Copilot (IDE session) – ~128,000 tokens effective≈ 96,000 words

Bing Chat (2023 launch) – 4,096 tokens≈ 3,000 words

Practical rule of thumb: a token is roughly 0.75 English words. GitHub Copilot’s IDE surfaces reserve a large share of even a big model for system prompts, tool schemas, and directory listings before your code gets any room – worth remembering if a session feels like it’s losing track sooner than the headline number suggests. For very long enterprise workloads, grounding via Work IQ matters more than the raw window.

09 · Plans and pricing

What does Copilot cost?

Plan	Price	Model access	Limits
Copilot Free	$0	Copilot Chat, web grounding, capped image generation	Daily caps; no Work IQ file grounding
Microsoft 365 Personal	$9.99/mo	Copilot in your own Word, Excel, Outlook	Single user
Microsoft 365 Family	$12.99/mo	Same, for up to 6 people	Shared storage, individual Copilot access
Microsoft 365 Premium	$19.99/mo	Full consumer Copilot; replaced Copilot Pro Oct 2025	Highest consumer usage limits
M365 Copilot Business	$21/user/mo annual ($25 monthly)	Copilot in Word/Excel/Outlook/Teams + Researcher, Analyst	Orgs under 300 seats; add-on to a qualifying plan
M365 Copilot Enterprise	$30/user/mo	Full lineup, model choice, Cowork	Add-on to a qualifying Enterprise plan, no seat cap
Agent 365	$15/user/mo	Governance & identity for AI agents	Add-on for organizations running agents at scale
Copilot Studio	$0.01/credit	Build & run custom agents	Usage-based; $200/mo per 25,000 credits packs
GitHub Copilot	Free · Pro $10 · Pro+ $39 · Max $100/mo	Individual coding agent across IDEs	AI Credits usage-based since Jun 1, 2026
GitHub Copilot (teams)	Business $19 · Enterprise $39/user/mo	Team management, audit logs, IP indemnity	Pooled AI Credits included

Copilot Pro’s old $20/month price is no longer for sale – Microsoft 365 Premium is its replacement for individuals. 1 AI Credit = $0.01, and premium models consume credits based on tokens. The table above reflects September 2026; confirm current numbers on Microsoft’s official pricing pages before budgeting.

10 · FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Is Copilot free?

Yes, in its most basic form. Copilot Chat, web grounding, and capped image generation cost nothing at copilot.microsoft.com or in the mobile apps. Paid plans start at $9.99/month with Microsoft 365 Personal.

Is Copilot the same thing as GitHub Copilot?

They share a brand and, increasingly, a model lineup, but they’re separate products from separate teams. Microsoft Copilot – covered in this guide – lives in Windows, Edge, and Microsoft 365. GitHub Copilot is the older, developer-focused sibling that predates it by a year and lives inside IDEs, the terminal, and its own desktop app.

Is Copilot better than ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude?

Copilot’s edge usually isn’t a smarter model – it often runs a close relative of the same OpenAI models behind ChatGPT, plus Microsoft’s own MAI models and, in some surfaces, Claude and Gemini as picks. Its real advantage is distribution and grounding: it’s already inside Outlook, Excel, Teams, and GitHub, and Microsoft 365 Copilot can reason over your actual emails, files, and meetings through Work IQ in a way a standalone chatbot can’t.

What happened to Copilot Pro?

Microsoft stopped selling the standalone $20/month Copilot Pro subscription to new customers on October 1, 2025, folding its features into Microsoft 365 Premium ($19.99/month). If you see “$20/month Copilot Pro” cited today, it’s describing a plan no longer for sale.

What are Copilot’s limitations?

It can still hallucinate, especially on fast-moving or obscure facts, so verify anything that matters. Researcher and Analyst are rate-limited rather than unlimited. And because Copilot inherits your existing Microsoft 365 permissions, it will surface anything you can already technically access – including files overshared long before Copilot existed – so review sharing hygiene before you lean on it broadly.

Is my data used for training?

It depends which Copilot. Under Enterprise Data Protection – Microsoft 365 Copilot signed in with a work or school account – prompts and responses are not used to train foundation models and stay inside your organization’s compliance boundary. Consumer Copilot may use conversation activity to improve models unless you opt out in Settings.

Heads-up:Copilot is less a single product than an umbrella brand Microsoft is still actively consolidating – it merged its own consumer and work apps into one as recently as August 2026. Plan names, model names, and prices change often across at least four separate pricing pages. The details above reflect September 2026. Check Microsoft’s official Copilot and Microsoft 365 pricing pages for current limits.