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 is built on top of the other. What is Copilot Chat (Basic)? First things first. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is often simply called Copilot Chat. Copilot Chat (Basic) generates answers based on web content, while Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) is also grounded on users' data, like emails, meetings, files, and more. Since early 2025, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat has been available to all users in organizations, becoming the entry point to AI assistance for many organizations. Copilot Chat (Basic) is the foundational Copilot experience available at no extra cost for everyone with an eligible Microsoft 365 plan, including: Microsoft 365 E3 / E5 Microsoft 365 A3 / A5 Microsoft 365 Business Standard & Business Premium Copilot Chat (Basic) is secured, compliant, and it does not required the full Copilot add-on license. Copilot Chat (Basic) is able to ground responses on: Public web content. Content explicitly shared or work data manually uploaded to the chat by the user. On-screen content or content displayed on-screen in apps like Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. When it comes to agents, Copilot Chat (Basic) offers these features: You can create your own declarative agents grounded on public web content with Agent Builder. You can use agents built by your org grounded on organizational data with the pay-as-you-go method. There are Microsoft prebuilt agents available like Prompt Coach, however Microsoft premium prebuilt agents like Researcher or Analyst are not included. The screenshot below shows how Copilot Chat looks and highlights its main capabilities. Note the Upgrade button, meaning this is not Microsoft 365 Copilot, but the Copilot Chat (Basic) experience. Note that EDP (Enterprise Data Protection) is available in Copilot Chat (Basic). What is Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium)? Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) is a paid add-on license that builds on top of Copilot Chat and unlocks Copilot's full power. It is available for selected Microsoft 365 plans, including: Microsoft 365 E3 / E5 Microsoft 365 A3 / A5 Microsoft 365 Business Standard & Business Premium With a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, users get everything Copilot Chat (Basic) offers, plus much more: Data grounding: Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) includes Copilot Chat grounded on web and/or on user's Microsoft 365 data like emails, meetings, chats, and documents. Office apps: It integrates deeply into Microsoft 365 apps like Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, and more. The integration includes features like Edit with Copilot allowing Copilot to adjust live your documents or email based on your prompts. Custom agents: It brings the capability to create your own declarative agents grounded in organizational data and/or web data. You can create agent either using Agent Builder or Copilot Studio. MS prebuilt agents: Premium prebuilt agents like Researcher and Analyst are included in Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium). The screenshot below shows the Copilot chat experience for users who have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Note that EDP or Enterprise Data Protection also applies here How can I access Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat? Today, Copilot Chat is accessible via https://m365.cloud.microsoft or https://copilot.cloud.microsoft using your Entra ID (work or school account). One important difference in day-to-day experience: Users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license typically see Copilot prominently surfaced across Microsoft 365 apps. Users with Copilot Chat only may not see it pinned by default on the Microsoft 365 home page. To improve discoverability, Microsoft 365 Copilot administrators can pin Copilot Chat via the Microsoft 365 admin center, ensuring that users can easily access it without friction. Especially convenient is that if you use the M365 Copilot Chat app on Windows, you can open Copilot using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + C. What’s the difference? The differences between Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot mainly come down to: Licensing Data grounding (web-only vs. personal work data) Integration depth within Microsoft 365 apps I’ve listed the key differences in the comparison below. 👇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. 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.
Best AI tools for Excel workflows?
Hi all, I’ve been exploring Microsoft Copilot for Excel, but I’m curious what others are using alongside it. I’ve seen tools like RowSpeak, Numerous.ai, and Ajelix, but not sure how they compare in real workflows. Has anyone tested different options? What actually works best for day-to-day Excel tasks? Would love to hear your experience.
"Keep it" makes the results disappear
Using Copilot with Outlook (both the desktop and the web app), when I give it a prompt, it creates some good content, but when I click "Keep it" the content disappears. I have tried this several times. I closed the apps and restarted with the same results. I restarted the computer and still the same results; clicking "Keep it" does not. Any suggestions? Please!Grounding Changes for Copilot in Outlook
Ever since I've had a cull Copilot licence I've used prompts to summarise emails in my outlook folders. It's always worked well until 1-2 weeks ago when it's returning content outside the selected folder and or only reviewing a few of the emails in the selected folder. I've revised and reverse engineered the prompt but it's still not working and more worryingly it gives a variation every time. Does anyone know why this is happening or the workaround? Ultimately all I want it to do is summarise each email and drop all the emails into a table.What’s new in Copilot Chat quality roadmap — February 2026
We’re building Copilot Chat in the open. Every month we publish a quality roadmap that turns what we learn from customer feedback into improvements that make Copilot Chat’s responses more accurate, complete, relevant, and useful. Features shown here are available at no additional cost to users with a qualifying Microsoft 365 or Office 365 license. February Highlights: 🚀 Discover What’s New: Try the latest quality features today Summarize emails in one click: Open Copilot from Outlook and click the ‘Summarize’ button to instantly summarize the email you’re reading. 🚧 What’s Next: Explore upcoming quality features in development Create higher quality images faster: Create higher quality images faster using the new GPT-Image-1.5 model. (This functionality will provide parity with ChatGPT free.) 📌 Bookmark the monthly Copilot Chat quality roadmap and tell us what you want to see next: https://aka.ms/copilotchatroadmapNot able to continue editing in Outlook
Hi all, I start interacting with M365 Copilot Chat and then I want to proceed editing in Outlook. When trying to edit I get the following message in outlook. (sorry in Spanish, but basically says i don't have Copilot). I checked admin configuration and not sure what´s wrong. I have the paid licence, etc. Any help is appreciated. Thanks
Change Default for Copilot Automatic Room Rebooking Setting in Outlook?
My users with Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses have noticed a newer feature that automatically rebooks meetings with an alternate room if the selected room is unavailable. It appears that this setting is on by default and can be turned off on a per case basis when a new meeting event is being scheduled. Is there a way to turn it off by default and allow people to enable it when a new calendar item is being created instead? Here is what it looks like for me in Outlook. I can click on Edit from the new meeting window and turn it off for a single event. I haven't found a way to change that default behavior. Has anyone found a way to adjust this? Thank you! Brian
Whom to contact.
Hi, My name is Sam. I have been using the free version of Copilot for almost a week now, but the system is too limited for the work I am doing. Using the Copilot though, I have created a formal comprehensive request for access to higher powered A.I. What I do not know is who to send it too. If anyone can provide relevant information, that would be greatly appreciated.Copilot in MS365 not available with one account on one Mac
I am stumped as to why my wife cannot see Copilot in the menu bar of any MS 365 app on her laptop. She is part of the family plan, and I have confirmed that her subscription credentials allow her to use Copilot. The MS apps are at the latest version, along with macOS. Scenario 1: When my wife uses her MS credentials to log in to any MS 365 app on her laptop, Copilot does not appear in the menu bar. When I log her out of MS 365 and log in with my credentials on her laptop, the Copilot appears on the menu bar. She can run the standalone Copilot app on her laptop using her credentials. Scenario 2: When my wife uses her MS credentials to log in to any MS 365 app on my laptop, Copilot appears in the menu bar. I can't tell what is preventing Copilot from appearing in MS 365 on my wife's laptop when she is using her credentials.
