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MattBurr's avatar
MattBurr
Steel Contributor
Jun 03, 2026

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.

 

 

1 Reply

  • Muffinman9000's avatar
    Muffinman9000
    Occasional Reader
    Jun 05, 2026

    MattBurr​ I manage an E5 tenant, and I have so many unanswered questions if I should allow or disallow ‎Microsoft 365 Copilot‎ self-service trials in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center

    1. 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? 
    2. Is this a tenant-wide trial, or is it a per-user based trial? 
    3. 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?
    4. 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?
    5. 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? 
    6. 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?