What is Microsoft Copilot?
Microsoft Copilot is a conversational AI assistant built on large language models (including OpenAI's GPT). You chat with it in plain English to get answers, draft and summarize text, generate images, and analyze files. It comes as a free app and website, and as a paid add-on woven into Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, and Windows.
Why — the first-principles explanation
At heart, Copilot is Microsoft's brand for an AI assistant powered by a large language model, a program trained on massive amounts of text to understand and generate human-like language. You talk to it the way you would text a colleague, and it responds with drafts, answers, summaries, or images.
What makes it "Microsoft" Copilot rather than a generic chatbot is integration. Microsoft embedded the same assistant across its whole ecosystem: a standalone app and website for anyone, a sidebar in the Edge browser, a button inside Office apps, and a presence in Windows. The idea is to put AI help exactly where you already work, so you do not have to switch tools.
There are two tiers of the product, and confusing them is common. The free Copilot is a general assistant for chat, web questions, images, and file uploads. The paid Microsoft 365 Copilot connects to your own emails, documents, and meetings (with your permission and enterprise-grade privacy) so it can act as a personalized office assistant.
The strategic point is that Copilot is not a single feature but a layer Microsoft is adding across its products. That is why you will meet it in many places under the same name, and why answering "what is Copilot" depends a little on which version someone is using.
An example that makes it click
Think of Copilot as a helpful new coworker who has read most of the public internet and never gets tired. You can walk up to this coworker anytime, in the hallway (the app), at your browser, or right beside your keyboard in Word, and ask for help in normal language: "summarize this," "draft that," "make me a picture of a red bicycle."
In the free version, this coworker is a knowledgeable generalist who helps with anything but doesn't know your personal files. In the paid work version, you hand them a badge to your office, and now they can also say, "I read your 30-email thread and here's the reply," because they can see the documents you already have access to.
Key facts
- Microsoft Copilot is a conversational AI assistant built on large language models, including OpenAI's GPT models.
- It is available as a free app and website and as a paid add-on inside Microsoft 365 apps.
- Copilot appears across Windows, Edge, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams.
- It can answer questions, draft and summarize text, generate images, and analyze uploaded files.
- The paid work version (Microsoft 365 Copilot) connects to your organizational data with enterprise privacy protections.
Microsoft's assistant across Windows, Edge, and Microsoft 365.
Affiliate link — we may earn a commission at no cost to you.▶ The 60-second explainer (script)
What is Microsoft Copilot? In short, it's Microsoft's AI assistant, a chatbot built on powerful large language models, including OpenAI's GPT technology. You talk to it in plain English, just like texting a coworker, and it answers questions, drafts and summarizes text, creates images, and analyzes files you give it. What makes it special is that Microsoft put the same assistant everywhere you already work: there's a free Copilot app and website, a sidebar in the Edge browser, a button inside Word, Excel, and Outlook, and it's built into Windows. There are two versions to know about. The free Copilot is a smart generalist for chat, web searches, and images. The paid Microsoft 365 Copilot goes further, connecting securely to your own emails, documents, and meetings so it can act like a personal office assistant. So think of Copilot not as one app, but as an AI helper layered across Microsoft's whole ecosystem, ready wherever you need it.
What authoritative sources say
People also ask
Is Microsoft Copilot the same as ChatGPT?
They share underlying OpenAI technology, but Copilot is Microsoft's product, grounded in web search and, in work versions, your Microsoft 365 data.
Where can I find Copilot?
In the free Copilot app and website, the Edge browser sidebar, Windows, and inside Microsoft 365 apps like Word and Outlook.
Is Copilot free?
The standalone chatbot is free. The versions embedded in Office apps that work on your own files require a paid plan.
What can I ask Copilot to do?
Answer questions, write and rewrite text, summarize documents and emails, generate images, and analyze files you upload.