Forum Discussion
Microsoft 365 Copilot: free 30-day trial
Starting July 2026, Microsoft is rolling out a free 30-day trial of Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) for small and medium-sized organisations (up to 300 users).
Users from eligible organisations will be able to start the trial directly from Copilot Chat and will receive full access to the premium version of Copilot.
For nonprofits, this is a great opportunity to evaluate whether the paid version of Copilot delivers real value before purchasing any licences.
We recommend having AI usage guidelines in place before starting the trial, and initially running the trial with a small group. Putting some structure around the trial will help you clearly assess the outcomes and make a more informed decision about next steps.
A few things worth noting about the trial:
- No payment information is required.
- The ability for users to start a trial will be enabled by default, but admins can disable this option via the Microsoft 365 Admin Centre.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot connects to your Microsoft 365 content (such as emails, documents, and calendar) to personalise its responses.
- After 30 days, users will need a paid licence to continue using the premium features.
3 Replies
MattBurrâ I manage an E5 tenant, and I have so many unanswered questions if I should allow or disallow âMicrosoft 365 Copilotâ self-service trials in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center
- Could you elaborate what counts as an 'eligible organisation' or an 'eligible small and medium business'? We have less than 10 users, so would we be eligible under this rollout?
- Is this a tenant-wide trial, or is it a per-user based trial?
- If it's the latter, can multiple users activate their own separate trials distinctively? In other words, if User1 has already activated their trail, this does not affect the ability for User2 to start their trail at a later point in time, is that a correct assumption?
- If a new user has entered in the tenant, are they automatically eligible for this 30-day trial, or is it for existing users only?
- As an admin, except for the license request approval, do we have any further control over a user's actions? Can we add or cancel that trial from the Admin Center? or does the trail request has to be initiated first by that user from Copilot Chat manually?
- Lastly, if we plan to pilot with a focused group, what if 30-days isn't enough to estimate the ROI and the TCO of a full Copilot license for our Org?
One thing to note the message (MC1338815) has disappeared from the admin center, I don't know if this means the plan has already changed or not.
These announcements often create more questions than answers! Here's my interpretation:
- The message mentioned "Small and medium-sized business (SMB) tenants with up to 300 seats". My understanding of that would be "business" licences (e.g. Microsoft 365 Business Premium) and not enterprise licensing such as E3 or E5. The rollout schedule says SMB early July and General Availability at a later date. So, enterprise licensing might get access to the trial in the future.
- It is a per-user based trial that individual users activate.
- Not limits were mentioned as to how many could activate a trial.
- It sounds like new users would be able to access it.
- Users need to start the trial from Copilot Chat manually. Admins can disable user's ability to start a trial through the admin center, go to Microsoft 365 admin center > Settings > Org settings > Self-service trials and purchases (this is a tenant level setting).
- It didn't mention the ability to extend the trial - "After the trial ends, users must be assigned a paid license by an admin to continue using Copilot."
Hope this helps!
MattBurrâ Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions! I did check the Microsoft 365 admin center, and the message has disappeared indeed, like it never existed! So weird!
Except for your blog, it's like it was never posted in the first place.đ„ I was excited and preparing myself for these changes, Too bad!
A low friction trial was an amazing idea. I hope Microsoft hasn't rolled back their plans for it, and I hope it arrives for Enterprise licenses as well. đ
