How to Use Copilot in Outlook (2026): Draft, Summarize and Coach Emails

Short answer: in a new email, select the Copilot icon in the toolbar and choose Draft (new Outlook) or Draft with Copilot (classic Outlook), type what you want to say, then keep or adjust the result. To catch up on a long thread, select Summary by Copilot at the top of it. You need Microsoft 365 Personal ($9.99 a month) or higher at home, or a work account with Copilot Chat or a Copilot license. Checked on Microsoft's pages, October 2026.

The feature most people skip is the one worth the most: coaching. Drafting from scratch saves a few minutes, but having Copilot critique the tone of an email you wrote yourself, before it goes to a client or your boss, prevents the kind of mistake that costs a week. The rest of this guide covers each feature step by step, for every version of Outlook, and what you pay for it.

What can Copilot do in Outlook?

Copilot in Outlook handles four everyday email jobs, and a few extras depend on whether you sign in with a home or a work account.

Features and locations from Microsoft's Copilot in Outlook FAQ and the support pages linked in each section below, read on 30 October 2026.

Microsoft also lists inbox prioritization (high, low or normal, with a reason), triage actions and rule creation from chat. Those sit mostly on the work side, so if you use Outlook at home, plan on drafting, summarizing and coaching.

How do I draft an email with Copilot?

The steps differ slightly between the two Windows versions of Outlook, which is where most confusion comes from.

In new Outlook for Windows or Outlook on the web:

1. Select Home > New mail.
2. Select the Copilot icon in the toolbar above the blank email and choose Draft. If the icon is not in the toolbar, look for the Copilot icon or the "Draft with Copilot" text inside the message area.
3. Type your prompt, or pick and edit one of the suggested prompts.
4. Select the Generate arrow.
5. Use the dropdown to change length or tone or to rerun the same prompt, or write a new prompt and generate again.
6. Select Keep it, edit the draft, and send.

In classic Outlook for Windows:

1. Select Home > New Email, then the Copilot icon in the toolbar.
2. Choose Draft with Copilot and type your prompt.
3. Select Generate.
4. Select Adjust to try a different tone or length, edit the blue prompt text and generate again, or select Regenerate to start over.
5. Select Keep, edit, and send.

One catch trips up a lot of people in new Outlook: drafting does not work on plain-text messages. Microsoft's drafting guide says to switch to HTML under Settings > Mail > Compose and reply if the option stays grayed out.

Microsoft's FAQ also describes a faster route: type / in the message body, pick Draft with Copilot and enter your prompt. In a reply, the draft draws on the thread for context, which is why a reply prompt can stay short.

Write prompts that give Copilot the facts

Copilot can only phrase what you tell it. Microsoft's own example prompt, "Let the team know we decided to use clay shingles and to go ahead so we meet the deadline", works because it carries the decision, the audience and the reason in one line.

Three of our own patterns that follow the same idea:

• "Decline the vendor's proposal politely, say budget is frozen until March, and leave the door open for Q2."
• "Ask Priya for the signed contract by Friday, mention legal needs two days to review it."
• "Thank the client for the call, list the three next steps we agreed, and propose a check-in on the 15th."

If you already wrote something rough, select that text and then the Copilot icon to rewrite just that part. Microsoft notes that this works in every version except classic Outlook for now.

How do I summarize an email thread?

Open the conversation and select Summary by Copilot (it may just say Summarize) at the top of the thread. Copilot reads the whole conversation and puts the key points at the top, often with numbered citations that jump to the email each point came from. The steps are the same in new Outlook, classic Outlook and on the web.

On a phone, open the conversation and tap the Copilot icon in the toolbar; the summary appears under the email. On Mac, select Summarize inside the Summary by Copilot box.

The underused part is attachments. In new Outlook and on the web, an email carrying a PDF, Word or PowerPoint file shows a Summarize a file option, so you can decide whether a long proposal needs your attention before you open it. Microsoft's summary guide also notes that on Mac and mobile the summary follows the language of the email, not of your Outlook menus.

Treat the summary as a map, not the record. The citations exist so you can check the point that matters before acting on it, especially dates and amounts.

How do I get coaching on an email I wrote?

Coaching is the feature to use on emails that matter: a pricing pushback, a complaint, a note to someone senior.

1. Write your email as usual in new or classic Outlook for Windows, Mac, iOS or Android.
2. Select the Copilot icon in the toolbar and choose Coaching by Copilot.
3. Read the suggestions on tone, clarity and reader sentiment.
4. Select Apply all suggestions to have Copilot rewrite the email with them, or apply the ones you agree with by hand.

Microsoft's mobile instructions say coaching needs at least 100 characters of text before it can give useful feedback, so it is not meant for one-line replies. We would apply suggestions by hand rather than all at once. The rewrite can smooth away a firm sentence you wrote on purpose, and coaching is most valuable as a second opinion, not a ghostwriter. Microsoft's coaching guide covers each platform.

How do I reply faster with Copilot?

For replies, the simplest path is drafting inside the reply window: start a reply, open Draft with Copilot, and describe your answer in a few words, since Copilot already sees the thread.

In Outlook for Mac there is a dedicated shortcut. Select a message, choose the Copilot icon on the message toolbar, then Summarize and reply to this email. Copilot reads the message, drafts a response, and gives you controls to change the tone or length or regenerate it (Microsoft's Mac reply guide).

In new Outlook, a thread that needs a meeting has a better exit than a reply: Schedule with Copilot builds the invite with a title and agenda filled in, adds everyone on the thread as attendees and attaches the conversation.

Which plan do I need for Copilot in Outlook?

At home, every paid Microsoft 365 plan from Personal upward includes Copilot in Outlook. At work, the answer depends on whether your organization pays for a Copilot license.

US prices from Microsoft 365 plans for home, Copilot for business and Copilot for enterprise, read on 30 October 2026. Standard and priority access are Microsoft's own labels in its enterprise plan comparison.

The good news for office workers: Microsoft's business FAQ says Copilot Chat, included at no extra cost with eligible Microsoft 365 plans, includes Copilot in Outlook. A paid license moves you to priority access and adds Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Teams, plus agent building covered in our Copilot Studio pricing guide. Chatting with Copilot inside Outlook, though, needs a business with a Copilot subscription.

The $18 Copilot Business rate is an offer running from 1 July to 31 December 2026, for existing customers on an eligible Business plan and for the first year only. Renewals are at $21.

Dupple data: for a 5-person team adding Copilot Business, the first year costs $1,080 at the offer rate, the next year $1,260 at list, and paying monthly instead would cost $1,512 a year, 40% above the offer (our arithmetic from Microsoft's per-user prices on 30 October 2026). At home, Family costs $30 a year more than Personal but adds no second Copilot user, since AI features stay with the owner.

Does Copilot in Outlook work with Gmail or a personal account?

Yes, with conditions. Microsoft's account sharing page says that when you sign in to Outlook with an account that has a Personal, Family, Premium or Pro subscription, Copilot features work for every email account connected on the same device. That includes Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live and MSN addresses, work and school accounts, and Gmail, Yahoo and iCloud. A work or school account with a Copilot license extends Copilot the same way.

Three exceptions matter. Sharing across accounts does not work in classic Outlook for Windows. It stops if Connected Experiences is turned off in Outlook's privacy settings. And family members on a Family plan get no Copilot at all, since only the person who set up the subscription does.

Why don't I see Copilot in Outlook?

When the icon is missing or grayed out, check these causes in order:

• Your plan or license. Microsoft 365 home plans include it; a work account needs an eligible plan, and your admin may have turned it off. Microsoft's own advice for missing access at work is to ask your IT admin.
• Your Outlook version. On Mac, only the latest Outlook works; legacy Outlook for Mac is not supported.
• Plain-text compose. In new Outlook, switch the message to HTML.
• Connected Experiences. If it is off in privacy settings, Copilot is off too.
• The email itself. Copilot features do not work on signed or encrypted messages, emails with IRM, some sensitivity-labeled emails, or S/MIME and Double Key Encryption mail.
• The mailbox. Copilot works on your primary mailbox and on shared and delegate mailboxes you can open, but not on group mailboxes or mailboxes outside Exchange Online.

Is Copilot in Outlook worth it?

If you already pay for Microsoft 365 Personal, it costs nothing extra, so use it: summaries and coaching alone repay the setup. Upgrading a home plan only for Outlook makes little sense, because Premium's extra limits apply to features like Researcher and image creation rather than email.

At work, check whether Copilot Chat already gives you the basics before your company buys seats. A paid license pays off for people who live in their inbox and also build documents and decks, since it covers Copilot in Excel and the other apps too. If Outlook is not your mail client, compare the best email clients and the best AI email writers, which work with Gmail without a Microsoft subscription. For what you get at zero cost, see is Microsoft Copilot free, and Copilot vs Gemini or Copilot vs ChatGPT if you are choosing an assistant.

How we checked this

We read Microsoft's support pages on Copilot in Outlook, drafting, summarizing, coaching, Mac replies and account sharing, the Copilot in Outlook FAQ, where to get Microsoft Copilot and the plan pages linked under the pricing table, on 30 October 2026. Prompts in quotation marks attributed to Microsoft come from its help pages; the other prompts are our examples. Team totals are our arithmetic from list prices.

FAQ

Bottom line

Start with summaries on your longest threads and coaching on your most sensitive emails, then use drafting for routine replies where a short prompt with the key facts does most of the work. Check names, dates and amounts in anything Copilot writes, and if you are on a work account, find out whether you already have Copilot Chat before anyone buys a license.

Cite this: Dupple, "How to Use Copilot in Outlook (2026): Draft, Summarize and Coach Emails", November 2026.

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