There are three tiers of Microsoft Copilot — free, Copilot Pro ($20/mo), and M365 Copilot Business ($18+/user/mo). Here's what each one actually gives you and whether the upgrade is worth it.
For: Anyone with a Microsoft account
For: Individuals with personal Microsoft 365 subscription
For: Employees on Microsoft 365 business or enterprise plans
You have limited Copilot features in some apps — but not full AI integration. To get the Copilot experience in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, you need Copilot Pro ($20/month) on top of your M365 subscription.
You have Copilot Chat free — a general-purpose AI assistant that can draft content and answer questions but cannot access your work emails, meetings, or documents. To unlock Copilot in Outlook, Teams, and SharePoint, your organisation needs to purchase M365 Copilot add-on licences ($18–30/user/mo).
Same as above — you have Copilot Chat (free), but your admin must purchase the M365 Copilot Business add-on for your account to access the full productivity integration.
You can use Microsoft Copilot free at copilot.microsoft.com or in the Edge browser. To get Copilot in Office apps, you need at minimum M365 Personal ($6.99/mo) + Copilot Pro ($20/mo) = $26.99/month total.
Copilot Pro includes 60 "boosts" per day for AI image generation via Microsoft Designer (formerly Bing Image Creator). A boost means faster, higher-quality image generation using DALL-E 3. Without boosts, image generation is still available but uses a standard-quality model and may queue during peak times.
Practical reality: Most Copilot Pro users never exhaust 60 daily boosts. The credit system was more meaningful when image generation was slower — with modern DALL-E speed, boosts feel abundant. The real value of Copilot Pro is the Word/Excel/PowerPoint integration, not the image credits.
| Aspect | Copilot Pro ($20/mo) | M365 Copilot Business ($18–21/user) |
|---|---|---|
| Account type | Personal Microsoft account (consumer) | Work Microsoft 365 account |
| Data access | Your personal OneDrive documents | Your work emails, meetings, SharePoint, Teams history |
| Outlook integration | Personal Outlook only | Work email — draft, reply, summarise meeting emails |
| Teams integration | Not included | Meeting summaries, action items, search your Teams history |
| AI image generation | 60 boosts/day included | Not primary feature |
| Base licence needed | M365 Personal/Family ($6.99–9.99/mo) | M365 Business Basic–Premium ($6–22/user) |
| Can switch between the two | No — they are entirely separate products for different account types | |