Forum Discussion
Copilot Chat vsus. Microsoft 365 Copilot What's the difference?
While their names sound similar at first glance - Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat - they differ in several aspects. And more importantly, one can't be without another.
What is Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat?
First since first. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is also called Copilot Chat.
Copilot Chat generates answers based on web content, while Microsoft 365 Copilot is also grounded on users' data, like emails, meetings, files, and more.
Since January 15, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is available for everyone. Everyone in organizations. Also customers with a Microsoft 365 Business Basic subscriptions can enjoy using Copilot Chat securily.
The screenshot below shows how Copilot Chat looks like and highlights its main capabilities.
The screenshot below shows how Copilot Chat looks like and highlights its main capabilities.
Note that EDP - Enterprise Data Protection is available.
What is Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Microsoft 365 Copilot is an add-on available for specific Microsoft 365 Subscriptions:
Microsoft 365 E3, E5, A3, A5, and Business Standard & Premium.
It includes Copilot Chat in addition to other Copilot features:
- Microsoft 365 Copilot also includes a chat grounded on users' meetings, emails, chats, and documents.
- It integrates into Microsoft 365 apps, like Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, and more.
- It brings the capability to create agents and additional Copilot management features such as SharePoint Advanced Management and Copilot Dashboard.
The screenshot below shows how the Copilot chat experience for those users who got the Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
Note that EDP - Enterprise Data Protection is available here too.
Copilot Chat can be pinned in MS Teams and MS Outlook as App.
How can I access Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat?
Copilot Chat is nowadays accessible via m365copilot.com using your Entra account.
In contrast to Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed users, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat users cannot see, by default, Copilot Chat pinned on the Microsoft 365 homepage.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Administrators will have to pin the chat in the admin center so it is easy for Copilot Chat users to access it.
What's the difference?
There are some aspects, such as licensing requirements, subscription fees, data sources, or access to organization content, that determine the differences between Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot.
I have listed it in the screenshot below. 👇
Image showing a 3-column table: Aspect, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, and Microsoft 365 Copilot.
This is an amazing article, thank for sharing.
32 Replies
Why have this table as a GIF?
Hi arjoha,
I love interactivity and love GIFs too!
When I teach with these slides, I show the rows one by one.
All in combination helped me create this animation which I love. 🤩
The simpler solution would have been to give the two Microsoft products different names. But that would have been too easy. Instead, we need venn diagrams and infographics to determine what are the differences between the two AI products.
And it is STILL confusing.
Thanks AJAcevedo for sharing here your opinion about it. 👍🏼
Great article.
Please remove the flashing text in the screenshot. It is not accessible.
Thanks for caring. Thanks for noticing the GIF and accessibility part, I will take it into consideration for the future.
Hello, cordial greetings I have a big question, according to the gif, are the core of the two versions of copilot the same (GPT-4o)?
I say this because the responses in the Copilot chat version are very poor, and even though one mentions this and asks for a more structured response, the changes are minimal, it returns almost the same answer. When analyzing PDF documents, it is not able to obtain all the text, in a basic prompt such as "Check the following document in French and tell me if there is any text that is not in French", Sometimes it returns some words, sometimes others, and sometimes it just says everything is fine, even though the document has words in a different language. And all this happens in the general chat, because if we go to the agents that today allow us to create the Copilot Chat version, it is even worse, I have performed many tests, configured the same prompt, and the agent's behavior is simply worse than the general chat.
I was really hoping that getting an MS365 copilot license would improve things, but I'm disappointed to learn that it doesn't.
But to clarify here.
There is the Copilot Chat, included in the Enterprise and Business Micrsooft 365 licenses.
If you use this and have no Microsoft 365 Copilot license activated for that user, you use o1.
If you have an Microsoft 365 Copilot license activated for that user and use Copilot Chat, than you use o4.Hey YulianD may my new articel can clarify this
Reasoning Models in Microsoft Copilot: Who’s Doing the Thinking? | Microsoft Community HubHello YulianD , Thanks for enriching this post with your experience, concerns, and thoughts.
Answering your question: Yes, Copilot Chat and M365 Copilot use currently GPT-4o.
Giving you an advice: To obtain all french text, I would try to prompt like this instead "Extract all french text in this document". Maybe even better "Extract and list one by one all french text in this document".
There is another blog post about prompting you could take a look to: Quick fixes to boost your Copilot responsesAlas you have responded but not answered his question. His query was the exact opposite to your suggestion. He wants non French text. Unless I misread it.
Personally I would feed his question into copilot chat and ask copilot to suggest a suitable promt to tackle his dilemma.
AmeliaHernandezThis is what you call contribution, how many hits did you get on this post?
6.5 K so far. 🎉
Thanks for this. I was just talking to our Microsoft rep about this and how the official documentation is lacking the clarity between the 2. This is very helpful.
Thanks a lot! Your comment just made my day! 💯 I had the same need for clarity. Happy that this blog post helps. Thanks for letting me know.
Great article! Really clear explanation.
- Jack_Elmore
Microsoft
Very well done AmeliaHernandez - clear and concise!
Thanks Jack_Elmore!
😍Excellent AmeliaHernandez
Thanks David_V2331 !
AmeliaHernandez Very nice and good presentation. I especially like the hand sketches.
Thanks mande1191 ! Love that you like the hand sketches. I am trying to use it ever since I read your feedback. Thanks for support my hand sketches too. 🙏
