Forum Discussion
Removal of Copilot Chat Availability in M365 Apps?!?
Received a post in Message Center today and would like clarification as to what capabilities Copilot Chat will retain as it is unclear from the message. This is a huge impact to users who have already adopted Copilot Chat in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote as well as training materials (both our own and those provided here by Microsoft).
Will users be able to access Copilot Chat (basic) via pinned app in M365 apps?
Will users only be able to access via web browser?
The section below noted in red is very confusing (from the Microsoft message) -- who gets what features as both are mentioned in same paragraph?
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Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat – Updates to Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote
Starting April 15, 2026, Copilot will no longer be available in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote for Copilot Chat users. To ensure a high-quality experience, we are reserving the full Copilot experience in these apps—with advanced reasoning and model choice—for users with a paid Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
There are no other changes for users without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Copilot Chat still offers secure, AI web chat and the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint agents for chat-first content creation within the Microsoft 365 Copilot app. Additionally, users still get Copilot in Outlook with inbox and calendar grounding.
16 Replies
The frustration from larger companies is completely valid IMHO.
Especially for those companies that have already invested heavily in user adoption and change management like grant_jenkins pointed out.
Keeping in mind that I'm a long-time Microsoft MVP but Not a Microsoft employee, here's what I know:
The two message center posts about this change: MC1253858 vs. MC1253863
What's leaving
The integrated Copilot Chat pane directly inside the desktop and web applications of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.
What's staying
Access to standard Copilot Chat through Microsoft 365 Chat as well as the chat pane within Microsoft Teams. But as JukkaNiiranen pointed out, through Teams you can just get to the existing M365 Chat but will not have access to any premium Copilot Teams features.
I think the most concerning part of this rollout is that it's going to affect the enterprise tenants the most. If you've already done a lot of user education towards how to use the free Copilot within Office apps, now you have to tell those users that they don't have access to that functionality anymore. That does really suck and makes you wonder what else is going to change in the future and what you should invest in and not invest in.
My opinion is that this is a commercial lever to drive premium licensing of Copilot because Microsoft knows that the costs are going to get out of hand if they continue to allow big organizations to have this functionality for free within the Office apps.
My advice would be to urgently update your internal FAQs and adoption materials or, if you have a digital adoption platform, make sure that the in-app guidance lets people know that things will change on April 15th so you don't have a flood of help desk tickets.
I feel like I've just told the kids we're going to Disney World. Everyone is excited and making plans.
Then when we get there, I tell them that we're just going to look at it from the parking lot unless they pay to get in.You missed the point about telling the kids they were going to Disney World for free. Now you just need to revise it to tell them that you need half their allowance to pay for it. Simples.
Microsoft teased folk for a while, but as a paying customer I never liked the fact that the free version was so close in functionality to the premium. It sucks, but it is fair.
Hi, I cannot find the message in the message centre... is it still there?
Also, can anyone shed some light on the 'restricted usage...' suggested for free chat to those under the 2000 mark?
I thought there would have been much more noise regarding this.
This came as a significant surprise for us. We have well over 2,000 licensed Copilot users, but more than 50,000 unlicensed users who have now been impacted by this change.
From our perspective, this feels less like a technical decision and more like a commercial one, effectively pushing organizations, particularly larger ones, toward increasing their licensing footprint.
We’ve invested heavily in adoption: running training sessions, publishing FAQs, and building supporting materials. Our users had integrated this functionality into their day-to-day workflows, so having it suddenly removed is understandably frustrating.
It also raises broader concerns as we plan our roadmap - namely, what other changes might be introduced or withdrawn in the future.
We’re hoping Microsoft reconsiders and restores this capability for non-licensed users, as it was clearly delivering value at scale.
Has anyone seen any mention of Copilot Chat access via Teams? They don't mention it at all in the message center posts. Will Copilot Chat (basic) users still be able to access Copilot Chat via the Chat pane in Microsoft Teams after April 15?
Since the chat pane in Teams is just an entry point to the same experience as you have in m365.cloud.microsoft/chat , I don't think Microsoft would want to remove that from any audience. The real contextual Copilot in Microsoft Teams (meeting transcripts etc.) will naturally remain a premium-only feature.
This is of course what makes any feature lists so difficult for Microsoft to get right. Because just because you can access Copilot in Microsoft Teams, it does not mean you have access to the "Copilot in Microsoft Teams" features.😆Thanks, that was helpful. I agree - hard to explain to end-users.
Here's a LinkedIn post that covers the two Message Center messages MC1253858 and MC1253863 (neither of which are visible in my tenant):
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tomarbuthnot_microsoft365-microsoft365copilot-activity-7439702100953116672-3EDK/
The fact that there is a split now between under and over 2,000 users, with the latter not getting Copilot Chat in M365 apps is... a bold move from MS.Yes! It's a very bold move to penalize larger organizations.
in my message center there following message: https://admin.cloud.microsoft/?ref=MessageCenter/:/messages/MC1253863
that differs a little and would take the spice out of the aboveMC1253863 message appears to be for small-mid size organizations, whereas large organizations won't get the capabilities (those with over 2000 got this message MC1253858).
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. I looked in the Message Center on my tenant but can't find that message. Is it still there for you?
Have you seen anything else on this anywhere? We got this via the message centre too, and I would have expected a lot of internet chatter, but your post is the only thing I've found.
I'm also wondering if the copilot summarization elements in words docs etc are being removed in copilot chat (basic).I too thought there would be more chatter / disruption. If you are a small to mid-size business, you're getting the capabilities - while those with over 2000 users won't. I don't get it.... but what's to say they won't take it back from small/mid-size business too down the road.
One question here is will there be two sets of Adoption materials depending upon the size of your company??I think the 2000 limit is a test to see if it drives more paid licences - either way I am sure that if there is little backlash, then this will be rolled out to all tenants in time. We saw similar behaviour from Microsoft when the offered Copilot licensing purchasing options on roll out.
