Is Microsoft Copilot Free in 2026? What You Get Without Paying

Short answer: yes. The Microsoft Copilot app and website are free with a Microsoft account, though some capabilities are subject to usage limits. Paid Copilot sits inside Microsoft 365 subscriptions, starting with Microsoft 365 Personal at $9.99 a month, or in Microsoft 365 Copilot Business, which is priced per user. For occasional use, the free app is the right choice. The real question with paid plans is how much usage you need.

Toolradar data: Toolradar evaluated 1,573 AI assistant tools for its ranking, updated October 24, 2026, and 5 of the 10 tools it lists have a free plan. Half the list has one, so the useful question is where each free tier stops. Toolradar's AI assistants ranking

The name Copilot covers four products. Their prices and limits differ, so check which one a page means.

Four products share the Copilot name

• The Copilot app and website are free. Microsoft describes its paid plans as offering "Higher usage than free", (Microsoft Copilot plans), so the free tier is the baseline in every comparison.
• Copilot in Microsoft 365 Personal, Family and Premium is a subscription. Copilot is bundled with Microsoft 365 apps such as Word and Excel, and Microsoft's footnote says the AI features belong to the subscription owner.
• Microsoft 365 Copilot Business is a per-user plan for businesses. It is a different product from the consumer app.
• GitHub Copilot is a developer product sold by GitHub with its own plans. Its prices are not on this page.

What Microsoft's plan page lists

These are US dollar prices from Microsoft's own plan pages as of October 2026. Personal, Family and Premium each show a monthly and a yearly price. Pro is sold on monthly billing only.

Source: Microsoft Copilot plans for individuals and Microsoft 365 Copilot Business, prices as of October 2026.

Yearly billing is cheaper on Personal, Family and Premium. Twelve monthly payments come to $119.88 on Personal, $155.88 on Family and $239.88 on Premium, so the yearly prices save $19.89, $25.89 and $39.89 a year, based on Microsoft's printed prices. Microsoft's pages show a one-month trial on Personal, Family and Premium, and the subscription renews automatically unless you cancel.

Business is priced per seat, as an add-on to a Microsoft 365 plan. At $18 per user a month on yearly billing, one seat comes to $216 a year; billed monthly, the same seat is $25.20 a month. Usage-based charges come on top. The page also shows the price moved from a starting point of $21 to $18 per user a month.

The free app: what it gives and where it stops

The free app is the reference point for every paid tier, and Microsoft's plan page measures the paid tiers against it rather than giving it a number. The closest thing to a figure is a third-party breakdown. An Office Watch report from October 2025 on Personal and Family allowances listed 60 AI credits a month for core actions such as text drafting, Excel analysis and image creation, 15 Deep Research uses a month in the Copilot app, and 10 minutes a day of Vision in the Copilot app. It calls the free allowance very minor, with no number attached. Those figures are from 2025 and describe the paid plans, so treat them as a snapshot, not a current quota. Office Watch on Microsoft 365 Copilot limits

Thurrott reported on February 25, 2025 that Microsoft gave free users unlimited access to Think Deeper and Voice, which had daily caps before. Thurrott on Copilot's free features That is a 2025 third-party report. Microsoft's current pages say some free capabilities are subject to usage limits and do not name Think Deeper.

The paid plans add usage on top of the free app, and some features are exclusive to Premium and Pro, according to Microsoft's list. Microsoft's footnote also says AI features belong to the subscription owner and cannot be shared, so passing one subscription around a household does not spread the AI across everyone. For the other big assistants, Copilot vs ChatGPT and Copilot vs Gemini put Copilot next to each rival, and ChatGPT on Toolradar has its own listing.

What users report

Two Hacker News comments from June 2025 point in opposite directions. One commenter wrote, "In my experience Microsoft Copilot (free version in Deep Think mode) is way better than ChatGPT (free version) in most of things I throw at them (improving text, generating code, etc)." Comment, June 25, 2025

Another commenter had tried the free app once, around the GPT-4 launch, and wrote, "The responses from Microsoft GPT-4 sucked vs OpenAI GPT-4 because they were short ..." Comment, June 24, 2025

Two comments are anecdotes, not a rating, and they disagree. The second describes use around the GPT-4 launch, so neither says how the free app performs now. Test the free app on your own tasks before you pay for anything.

Four checks before you pay

• Where you work. Microsoft's plan cards mark Word as web and mobile only, and Excel the same way on Premium. If your work happens in the desktop apps, check that before you pay.
• AutoSave for Excel. Copilot in Excel needs AutoSave turned on, which means the file is saved to OneDrive. Microsoft's footnote says it does not work with unsaved files, so a file that is not saved to OneDrive gets no Copilot help in Excel.
• Trial billing. The one-month trial on Personal, Family and Premium ends with a charge at the listed fee unless you cancel. Microsoft's footnote says you can cancel at any time to avoid future charges, so put the cancellation date in your calendar on day one.
• Business usage charges. On Copilot Business, $216 a year per seat is the base price on yearly billing. Microsoft says select advanced AI features are billed by usage, so budget for those on top of the seat price.

Who should pay, and who should skip

Skip paid Copilot if your use is occasional questions, drafts and image ideas. The free app handles that, and the paid tiers are mainly about how much you use it.

Pay for Microsoft 365 Personal if Copilot in Word and Excel is part of your daily work and you need more usage than the free app. Microsoft offers a one-month trial, and the subscription renews automatically after it unless you cancel. Set a reminder before the trial ends.

Pick Family only if you are the one AI user in a household of up to six people. The other members do not get the AI features, because Microsoft ties them to the subscription owner.

Pick Premium if you are a heavy user of image creation, audio and screen-based help. Its agentic research and analytics are limited, so heavy research users should read the usage terms before buying.

Pick Pro if you need the highest usage listed on Microsoft's page. It is sold on monthly billing only, so there is no yearly option.

Pick Copilot Business if a company buys the seats. Do not buy it for yourself as a freelancer, because the per-user price and usage-based charges are built for teams.

Frequently asked questions

Cite this: Dupple, "Is Microsoft Copilot Free in 2026? What You Get Without Paying", October 2026.

The free app covers occasional use. Pay for Microsoft 365 Personal once Copilot in Word and Excel is part of your daily work. Try Dupple X →

Related

• Copilot vs ChatGPT: how the free tiers compare.
• Copilot vs Gemini: the other large free assistant.
• Microsoft Copilot on Toolradar: the tool page with its listing details.
• Toolradar's AI assistants ranking: the category behind the data line above.
• Dupple learning hub: more guides on pricing and tools.