Pricing
Which Copilot license do I actually need?
The short answer: start with what you already have. The free Copilot covers web chat. If you pay for Microsoft 365 Personal or Family, Copilot in Word, Excel, Outlook and the other apps is already included. Copilot Pro ($20/month) buys priority access to the newest models. The $30/user/month Microsoft 365 Copilot is for businesses that need it across company data with enterprise-grade protections.
The free Copilot
Available to anyone at copilot.microsoft.com and in Windows. It's a capable chat assistant with web grounding. What it doesn't do: work inside your Word documents, Excel workbooks, or Outlook inbox, and it doesn't get priority when demand spikes. For casual questions and quick help, it's genuinely enough.
Copilot Pro — $20/month (individuals)
The individual subscription. You get priority access to the latest models (faster during peak times), Copilot in the Microsoft 365 web apps, and — if you also subscribe to Microsoft 365 Personal or Family — Copilot inside the desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. It also includes enhanced AI image generation.
Buy this if: you're an individual who wants the best models first and Copilot inside Office apps.
Microsoft 365 Copilot — $30/user/month (business)
The business version, and it's an add-on, not a standalone product: every user needs a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan underneath it (Business Basic/Standard/Premium, or E3/E5, among others). On top of everything in Pro, it works across your organization's data — it can reason over your SharePoint, your emails, your Teams chats — with commercial data protection: your chat data isn't saved, Microsoft has no eyes-on access, and your data isn't used to train models.
Buy this if: you're a business that needs Copilot grounded in company data, with IT controls and compliance. Smaller businesses have seen promotional pricing in the high teens to low twenties per user — ask your Microsoft rep.
Check your Microsoft 365 plan first
This is the step everyone skips. Microsoft now bundles Copilot into Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions, which means you may already have Copilot in your Office apps without buying anything extra. Before spending $20/month on Copilot Pro, open Word and look for the Copilot button (lower-right corner of the document). If it's there, you're already paying for it.
Prices and licensing terms change and vary by region and agreement. Confirm current pricing with Microsoft before buying. Not affiliated with Microsoft.