“Copilot” now means at least three different things depending on where you’re clicking it from — and only one of them costs anything extra. Here’s what Microsoft Copilot (free) actually gives you, what you’re paying for when Copilot turns up as a line item in Microsoft 365, and whether most people need the paid version at all.
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If what you actually want is Word, Excel, and PowerPoint rather than an AI subscription, you can buy Office once and stop paying for it. No Copilot add-on required.
What Microsoft Copilot (Free) Actually Gives You
Microsoft Copilot, the free one, lives at copilot.microsoft.com, in the Copilot app on Windows, macOS, and mobile, and built into the Edge browser toolbar. No subscription, no licence key, no Microsoft 365 account required for the basics — you don’t even have to sign in to start a conversation, though signing in unlocks chat history, image generation, voice, and longer conversations.
It’s a general-purpose AI chat tool. It answers questions, drafts and summarises text, browses the web for current information, generates images, and in Edge specifically can summarise the page you’re looking at. What it doesn’t do is read your actual Word documents, your inbox, or your spreadsheets — it has no connection to your files unless you paste content into the chat yourself.
What You’re Actually Paying For in Microsoft 365
This is where it gets genuinely confusing, because “Copilot in Microsoft 365” isn’t one thing — it’s at least three, and the free-to-paid line falls in a different place depending on which Microsoft 365 plan you’re on.
| Tier | Cost | Reads your files/email? | Where it shows up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Copilot (free) | £0 | No — web and general knowledge only | copilot.microsoft.com, Edge, desktop/mobile app |
| Copilot Chat (in eligible M365 plans) | Included — no extra charge if your plan qualifies | No — same web-grounded chat, just behind your sign-in | microsoft365.com, M365 mobile app |
| Copilot in Personal/Family/Premium desktop apps | Included for the subscription owner — usage limits apply | Partially — works inside the document you have open | Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote desktop apps |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot (business add-on) | Separate paid add-on — typically £16–£30/user/month depending on plan and commitment | Yes — your files, emails, chats, and meetings, with admin-set data protection | Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, plus reasoning agents |
The bit that actually costs money is the last row: the Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on for business plans, which has to be bought on top of an already-paid-for base subscription. Individual users on Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, or Premium get Copilot inside the desktop apps as part of what they’re already paying for, just with a usage cap — that’s a different arrangement again, and not the same as the business add-on.
Microsoft has flagged a licensing and bundle change for Microsoft 365 Copilot rolling out from 1 July 2026 — days after this article was written. Treat any specific price you read anywhere, including here, as a snapshot rather than a fixed quote, and check Microsoft’s own pricing page before committing to anything annual.
What the Add-On Costs You Over Time, Against Just Owning Office
The Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on is billed monthly per user, indefinitely. A perpetual Office licence is paid once. Put the two side by side over five years and the gap isn’t subtle.
Copilot add-on line assumes the standard advertised annual-commitment rate of £16.10/user/month as of June 2026 — Microsoft’s pricing is changing from 1 July 2026, so this is illustrative, not a quote. The Office Professional Plus 2024 line reflects the current one-time licence price and never moves again. At this rate, the licence pays for itself against the add-on in under five months.
Do You Actually Need to Pay for Copilot?
For most home users, no. If you’re on Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, or Premium, you already have Copilot inside Word, Excel, and PowerPoint as the subscription owner, with a usage allowance that covers normal editing and writing tasks. Add free Copilot in Edge for anything web-related and there’s very little left that the business add-on would actually unlock for a single person working on their own files.
The business add-on earns its cost when the AI genuinely needs to see your organisation’s data — drafting from real email threads, summarising meetings it sat in, answering questions against a shared document library — and when enough people are using it often enough that the per-seat usage caps on the cheaper tiers become the actual bottleneck. That’s a real use case. It’s also a smaller slice of users than the marketing suggests.
If your honest answer is “I just want to write documents and not pay a subscription,” the AI layer isn’t what you’re shopping for. Buying Office once and owning it permanently covers that case directly.
Office Without the Subscription, on PC or Mac
None of these need a Copilot add-on, a Microsoft 365 subscription, or a recurring payment to keep working. Pick the edition that matches what you’re actually doing with it.
Office Professional Plus 2024
One-time purchase · genuine key · instant delivery
- ✓ Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more
- ✓ Installs via the Office Deployment Tool
- ✓ No Microsoft account required to run
Office Home & Business 2024
One-time purchase · genuine key · instant delivery
- ✓ Same core apps, consumer licensing terms
- ✓ Activates via setup.office.com
- ✓ Requires a Microsoft account to activate
Office Home & Business 2024
One-time purchase · genuine key · instant delivery
- ✓ Native Mac builds of Word, Excel, PowerPoint
- ✓ Activates via setup.office.com
- ✓ Check current macOS requirements first
Only need one app rather than the full suite? Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are also available standalone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Microsoft Copilot (free) is a standalone AI chat tool at copilot.microsoft.com, in Edge, and as an app — it answers from the web and general knowledge, with no access to your files. Copilot “in Microsoft 365” is a different thing depending on your plan: a web-grounded chat included with eligible subscriptions, Copilot built into the desktop apps for individual subscription owners (usage-capped), or — for businesses — a separate paid add-on that can read your actual files, emails, and meetings.
Yes — Microsoft Copilot at copilot.microsoft.com, in Edge, and as a desktop or mobile app costs nothing and doesn’t require a Microsoft 365 subscription. Signing in with a free Microsoft account unlocks chat history, image generation, voice, and longer conversations, but the core chat works without one.
It depends what you’ve got. Personal, Family, and Premium subscribers already get Copilot inside the desktop apps (subscription owner only, usage capped) at no extra charge. Business users with an eligible licence get Copilot Chat included free too. The thing that costs extra is the Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on — the version that reads your actual work data — which sits on top of an existing business subscription and is priced separately.
Advertised rates have varied between roughly £16/user/month on annual commitment and £30/user/month for some standard SKUs, on top of a qualifying base Microsoft 365 licence — it isn’t sold on its own. Microsoft has confirmed a licensing and bundle restructure from 1 July 2026, so check Microsoft’s current pricing page rather than relying on a fixed figure from any article, including this one.
No. Free Copilot answers from the web and its general training, not from documents sitting on your machine or in your inbox. To get an AI that can read and act on your own files, you need Copilot inside the Microsoft 365 desktop apps (Personal/Family/Premium, usage-capped) or the full business add-on, which is built specifically to ground its answers in your organisation’s data.
Usually not. The business add-on is built for organisations where the AI needs to read shared mailboxes, meeting recordings, and document libraries across multiple people — that’s not most home setups. A Personal, Family, or Premium subscription already includes Copilot in the desktop apps for the owner, and free Copilot covers everything else most individuals need.
Yes. Microsoft has flagged a licensing and bundle overhaul for Microsoft 365 Copilot starting 1 July 2026, which is expected to change how plans are packaged and potentially how they’re priced. Any specific figure quoted before that date, including the ones in this article, should be treated as a snapshot rather than a long-term quote.
Gary Walsh is the Head of Tech Support at Software Supplies, with more than 20 years in the IT industry. Fully Microsoft-certified and experienced across the full business software stack — from Windows and Office to cloud infrastructure and device management — Gary delivers practical, no-nonsense advice that helps users and businesses get the most from their technology.
