Announcing the preview of Copilot in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

We are pleased to announce the preview of Copilot in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), now available as an optional component in SSMS 21 GA.  Copilot in SSMS includes the ability to write, document, explain, and fix T-SQL, as well as answer any questions you have about your SQL database. We know you have a lot of questions, let’s dive into the details!

What is Copilot in SSMS

Copilot in SSMS is an AI assistant for the SQL database administrator (DBA)…as well as the database developer, application administrator, and anyone and everyone who works in SSMS. Available when you need it – and hidden when you don’t – the primary purpose of Copilot in SSMS is to make you more efficient – answering your questions and helping you write, edit, and fix T-SQL.  Copilot in SSMS is more than a source code editor; it understands your SQL database using connection context and interacts with your database based on the questions you ask.

Screenshot of chat window for Copilot in SSMS

Why we created Copilot in SSMS

SSMS is the one-stop shop for connecting to all your SQL databases, and we want to help people be as efficient as possible.  The SSMS community of users includes DBAs, application and database developers, application administrators, and data engineers, to name a few.  There’s also a wide range of knowledge and experience across SSMS users.  There are DBAs new to SQL just trying to keep the lights on, and experts with over 25 years of SQL experience. Copilot in SSMS is not about replacing you as a person; it’s there to empower every data professional to be more capable and productive than they are today.  We know you want help writing and improving T-SQL, we want to help with that and make SQL become the easiest database to manage and develop against.

Security and privacy

We know companies are concerned about security and privacy, here’s what's important to understand:

1. At present, Copilot in SSMS only supports endpoints in Azure OpenAI. There are numerous benefits inherent in this configuration, as detailed in the Responsible AI documentation for Azure OpenAI models.
2. Copilot in SSMS does not capture or retain any prompts or responses, and it does not use them to train or re-train any models, as clearly outlined in the Data, privacy, and security for Azure OpenAI Service documentation.

Finally, you can review our Transparency Note for Copilot in SSMS for any remaining concerns.

Get started today with Copilot in SSMS

Copilot in SSMS is available today, May 19, 2025, when you install SSMS 21 GA using the Visual Studio Installer. 

Download SSMS 21 GA

During installation, select the AI Assistance workload on the Workload tab. After installation is complete, you’ll see the Copilot button on the toolbar when you open SSMS.  Selecting the button will launch a configuration window where you can enter the information for your Azure OpenAI resource. The documentation includes complete details for creating an endpoint and deployment in Azure OpenAI. If you don’t have an Azure subscription and want to give Copilot a try, you can create a free Azure account that includes a $200 credit to use in any way you like…such as creating resources in Azure OpenAI to use for Copilot in SSMS.

Next steps

We'll be back tomorrow with another post that includes example workflows for Copilot in SSMS and answers to any questions you have. We'll be monitoring the comments and look forward to your feedback!