How do I turn off Copilot in Word documents?

This is really becoming annoying.
I went through the so-called customer support and got my subscription downgraded to 365 classic, BUT they accidentally stole 2 months from my renewal date. No problem, they said, we'll send you a link to get the 2 months put back.
When I got the link and read the info, what they sent me would put me straight back onto 365 with copilot AND remove a 3rd month.
It' s been 2 weeks now and they're ghosting me. Basically, Microsoft have nicked 2 months money from me and would have taken a 3rd if I'd used the link, and they are not replying to my questions about it.
This is very very poor, Microsoft. 

This was really frustrating for me, too. I came up with an EASY workaround, although it's not a solution. 

Create a template. However, it cannot be a totally blank page, as Copilot will still pop up. So you need to type at least one letter to prevent that from happening. I used "NoAI." Now, you just open the template instead of the "Blank Page" option. When you open the template, you just delete the "NoAI" and you're good to go.

Yeah, you still need to take that one action, but it's less annoying that closing the Copilot box, at least to me. 

SOLUTION

All solutions I found here did not work for me. So finally I got in contact with MS support by chat. And for me (Word, on Mac) was the solution simple: delete the new (and expensive! - E. 99,-) subscription and change it for Ms. CLASSIC version, that one is without copilot and costs less (E.69,-). 

Of course this option was never clearly communicated by Ms. One disadvantage: you will lose copilot completely, you cannot turn it on again in this version. 

For any Mac users who don't have the Preferences option to turn off Copilot—which was the case for me—the only way I was able to get rid of it (after HOURS of trying various things Microsoft's website and chat were advising) was to talk with someone in Microsoft text support, who sent me a link to an older version of Word. I had to uninstall the Word app on my Macbook, then install the old version. Note that Word still opened the new-with-Copilot version until I deleted the old app from Trash and restared my computer.

One other thing: Had to be sure that automatic updates is turned off—otherwise it'll update itself to the Copilot version unbidden.

What a ROYAL PAIN.

P.S. I don't know if it'll work for you or only because it was sent to me by a Microsoft tech guy, but it's worth a shot. I tried to paste in the link but wasn't allowed. Here's a screenshot showing it, perhaps you can type in the URL to see if it'll work:

1. Open MS Word
2. Navigate to the File tab
3. Scroll all the way to the bottom, and select Options
4. Select the Copilot
5. Deselect the Enable Copilot selection box
6. Select OK
7. Close MS Word
8. Restart your computer
9. Open MS Word, and it should be gone

Incredibly, even after I have already "cancelled" to get rid of the AI add on, MS have unilaterally done this again. 

Are they just going to keep changing my plan every few months even when I change it back?

CoPilot is Clippy v2.0

It's a virus which just won't be deleted

I have been working on doing that since the **bleep** thing was installed and I finally found out how to do it. You go into Word (or whatever program you want it off) and go: File>Account>Account Privacy>Manage Settings and clear the ticked box at Turn on experiences that analyze your content then click OK and restart the program and it should go. I found it here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-to-turn-off-copilot-in-microsoft-365-family-and-personal-subscriptions-bc7e530b-152d-4123-8e78-edc06f8b85f1#:~:text=If%20you%20want%20to%20turn,you%20might%20want%20to%20use. And I'm still spitting that it's hidden away under the privacy settings. It seems to be working at the moment, although I suspect it is going to revert back regularly.

This is Microsoft's MO.  Copilot is jammed in your face just like Windows 11's taskbar is jammed into that one place on the screen and cannot be moved.  They don't care, they're making more and more money in parallel with time passing.

I wrote the below out of sheer exasperation of not being able to turn this icon off.

.

Copilot you are a pain in my side

As you follow me wherever I slide

Your icon poking its nose in where it doesn’t belong

You can go away now and run along

You are a constant distraction to my view

Can’t you just do one and shoo

Turning you off is no joy

Time for a new deploy

My frustrations written in rhyme and prose

When I really wish I could just make it doze

This visual disturbance I can do without

Now all I am left with is pulling my hair out

This icon is sending me around the twist

I really hope you get my gist  

Microsoft step up to the plate

Send this icon to purgatory state……