Add-on AI inside Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Teams, priced per user on an annual commitment on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 licence.
Organisations already standardised on Microsoft 365 whose work actually sits in Exchange Online mailboxes, OneDrive and SharePoint, because the add-on licence is what unlocks grounding in that content through Microsoft Graph and Work IQ rather than making users upload files with each prompt. It fits admins who need the governance side documented: Microsoft publishes Purview retention policies for Copilot interactions, Content search over stored prompts and responses, and a My Account portal path for users to delete their own Copilot activity history. Microsoft also states that for EU customers Copilot is an EU Data Boundary service and that Copilot was added as a covered workload in the Product Terms data residency commitments on 1 March 2024.
Anyone budgeting a single AI line item should rule this out until they read the footnote: "A separate license for a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan is required to purchase Microsoft 365 Copilot", so the Copilot per-user fee sits on top of an existing per-user subscription, and the business pricing page adds "An annual commitment is required, and promotional pricing applies to the first year only." It is a poor fit for mobile-first spreadsheet work, because the Excel platform table lists edit, chat and plan modes on Windows, Mac and the web but only chat and plan on iPad with "Edit mode support is rolling out to production", and chat mode alone on Android. Tenants that license Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise per device cannot buy it at all - Microsoft states Copilot "isn't available with device-based licensing for Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise" - and it is not available in group mailboxes.
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Yes. Microsoft's footnote states a separate license for a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan is required to purchase Microsoft 365 Copilot, and the requirements page lists an eligible Microsoft 365 subscription plus a Copilot license as both required. Qualifying plans are named individually, including Business Basic, Standard and Premium, Microsoft 365 E3 and E5, Office 365 E1, E3 and E5, and Apps for business or enterprise.
Microsoft publishes Microsoft 365 Copilot Business at $18.00 user/month paid yearly, listed as originally $21.00, or $25.20 paid monthly. The enterprise listing is $30.00 user/month paid yearly or $31.50 paid monthly with an annual commitment. Both sit on top of the underlying subscription. Pre-bundled options exist: Business Standard with Copilot at $23.50 and Business Premium with Copilot at $32.00 user/month paid yearly.
Coverage differs per app and platform. The Excel table lists edit, chat and plan modes on Windows, Mac and web, chat and plan on iPad with edit mode rolling out, and chat mode on Android. Outlook needs an Exchange Online mailbox for mailbox-grounded work and is unavailable in group mailboxes. Word, Excel and PowerPoint on the web require third-party cookies to be enabled.
Microsoft states prompts, responses and data accessed through Microsoft Graph aren't used to train foundation LLMs, including those used by Copilot, and repeats that for stored interaction data. Optional customer feedback may improve the service but Microsoft states it isn't used to train those foundation models. Copilot services have opted out of Azure OpenAI abuse monitoring, which includes human review of content.
Facts sourced from the vendor’s own site, last verified 2026-10-10.
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