What is Microsoft 365 Copilot?

Microsoft 365 Copilot is a per-user paid add-on that puts a large language model inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and the Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat app, grounded on the user's tenant data through Microsoft Graph.

Does Copilot include enterprise data protection?

Yes. Prompts and responses stay in the Microsoft 365 service boundary, are not used to train the foundation models, and are subject to the same audit, retention, and eDiscovery controls as other tenant content.

Do I need Microsoft 365 E5 to buy Copilot?

No. Copilot is a $30/user/month add-on on top of an eligible base plan — Business Standard, Business Premium, E3, E5, and several F/A SKUs. E5 does not bundle it.

What has to be true of my tenant before I roll Copilot out?

Permissions hygiene (no tenant-wide 'Everyone' shares), a sensitivity-label baseline, MFA everywhere, and a pilot cohort with real use cases. Rolling out before that fix turns Copilot into an oversharing detector.

Microsoft 365 Copilot

Rollout, prompt patterns, agents, and governance. 40 guides in this topic.

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Recently reviewed

2026-09-04Microsoft 365 Copilot for Service
2026-09-04Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales
2026-08-31What is Microsoft 365 Copilot?
2026-08-25Copilot Studio explained
2026-08-25Copilot Studio agent design patterns

Copilot agents and Agent Store governanceWhat a Copilot agent is, how the Agent Store distributes them, the tenant controls for who can build, share, and install, and where governance falls short.
Copilot grounding vs SharePoint searchWhy Copilot finds documents SharePoint search doesn't: the semantic index, how Copilot retrieval differs from Microsoft Search, oversharing, and the controls.
Copilot in Excel: Advanced Analysis with PythonWhat Advanced Analysis in Copilot in Excel does, how it relates to Python in Excel, where the code runs, the compute cost, and the honest limits.
Copilot in Excel: formula columns, tables, and chartsThe formula, table, chart, and PivotTable prompts that reliably work in Copilot in Excel, why tables still matter, and the COPILOT() function.
Copilot in OneNoteWhat Copilot in OneNote does: page and section summaries, drafting, notebook chat, to-do extraction, which clients have it, and where it falls short.
Copilot in Outlook: reply drafts and CoachingHow Draft with Copilot and Coaching by Copilot behave in Outlook: what a reply contains, tone and length controls, mailbox and client requirements.
Copilot in Outlook: thread summary and meeting prepHow Summary by Copilot condenses an Outlook thread, what its citations mean, the Prepare-for-meeting brief, and what each feature reads before you rely on it.
Copilot in PowerPoint: Designer and brand templatesHow Copilot in PowerPoint decides what a generated deck looks like — Designer, your template, the asset library — and how to stop off-brand slides.
Copilot in PowerPoint: speaker notes and translationCopilot in PowerPoint for speaker notes, narrative rehearsal, and whole-deck translation: what each produces, where quality breaks, layouts and labels.
Copilot in Teams chat: catching up and summarisingUsing Copilot in a Teams chat or channel to catch up on messages you missed, summarise a long thread, and find a decision buried in scroll.
Copilot in Teams meetings: recap and action itemsHow Copilot in Teams meetings works: the transcription dependency, intelligent recap vs in-meeting Copilot, action items, Facilitator, and the policies.
Copilot in Word: draft from an outline and referenced filesHow Draft with Copilot in Word works: outline to document, grounding on referenced files, what the references cite, and why it is not a research tool.
Copilot in Word: rewrite modes and CoachThe Rewrite options in Copilot in Word — Auto Rewrite, tone variants, Visualize as a Table, Coach — what each is for, where each misfires, and vs Editor.
Copilot in Word: summarise a document and reference a fileHow Copilot in Word summarises a long document and how @-referencing another file pulls its content into a draft, prompt, or rewrite.
Copilot Notebooks explainedWhat a Copilot Notebook is — a persistent, source-grounded workspace — how it differs from Pages, Loop, and OneNote, audio overviews, and where data lives.
Copilot Pages and Loop componentsHow Copilot Pages and Microsoft Loop turn AI output into editable, shareable, multi-app collaboration surfaces.
Copilot Prompt Gallery and prompt governanceWhat the Copilot Prompt Gallery (formerly Copilot Lab) is, how saved and shared prompts work, the tenant controls, and a lightweight governance model.
Copilot Studio agent design patternsReviewed 2026-08-25Patterns and best practices for building effective Copilot Studio agents — grounding, topics, actions, and rollout.
Copilot Studio explainedReviewed 2026-08-25Copilot Studio is Microsoft's low-code platform for building custom Copilots and agents. Here's what it does and where it fits.
How to enable Microsoft 365 Copilot for a pilot groupHow-toHow to enable Microsoft 365 Copilot for a pilot group: licence prerequisites, the oversharing check, group-based assignment, Teams settings, what to measure.
Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption playbookA practical adoption framework for Microsoft 365 Copilot — beyond rollout into sustained value delivery.
Microsoft 365 Copilot data access and permissionsHow Copilot decides what content to surface — permissions, sensitivity labels, and the controls that gate access.
Microsoft 365 Copilot data security and privacyHow Microsoft 365 Copilot handles your tenant's data — what's sent to the model, what's retained, and what compliance covers.
Microsoft 365 Copilot extensions and pluginsHow to extend Microsoft 365 Copilot with your own data and actions — Copilot Studio agents, Graph connectors, and message extensions.
Microsoft 365 Copilot for SalesReviewed 2026-09-04Copilot for Sales is the role-specific Copilot for sales teams, integrating with Dynamics 365 and Salesforce CRMs.
Microsoft 365 Copilot for ServiceReviewed 2026-09-04Copilot for Service is the role-specific Copilot for customer service teams, integrating with Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Salesforce, and ServiceNow.
Microsoft 365 Copilot in ExcelHow Copilot in Excel helps with formulas, analysis, and chart generation — and what it can't yet do.
Microsoft 365 Copilot in OutlookHow Copilot in Outlook drafts and summarises email — and the realistic productivity impact.
Microsoft 365 Copilot in PowerPointHow Copilot in PowerPoint helps with deck generation, restyling, and speaker notes — and where it falls short.
Microsoft 365 Copilot in TeamsHow Copilot surfaces in Teams — meeting recap, chat catch-up, in-channel summarisation, and the agent surface.
Microsoft 365 Copilot in WordHow Copilot in Word helps with drafting, rewriting, and summarising — and the patterns that work.
Microsoft 365 Copilot licensingMicrosoft 365 Copilot licensing without the marketing: eligible SKUs, how the add-on works, the free and paid Copilot Chat tiers, and the trade-offs.
Microsoft 365 Copilot pilot best practicesHow to run a Copilot pilot that actually generates useful learnings before broader rollout.
Microsoft 365 Copilot prompt engineering for usersPractical guidance for users to get better results from Microsoft 365 Copilot — the patterns that consistently work.
Microsoft 365 Copilot rollout prerequisitesWhat you need to have in place before deploying Microsoft 365 Copilot — identity, data hygiene, labels, and pilot strategy.
Microsoft 365 Copilot use cases by roleSpecific Copilot use cases for sales, marketing, HR, finance, engineering, and executive roles.
Microsoft Security CopilotMicrosoft's AI assistant for security analysts — what it does, where it's embedded, and how it's licensed.
Restricted Content Discovery for CopilotHow SharePoint Restricted Content Discovery hides sensitive sites from Microsoft 365 Copilot without breaking access, how it works with labels, and its limits.
Teams app development for Microsoft 365 CopilotHow to build Teams apps that extend Microsoft 365 Copilot — the unified app model, message extensions, and agent extensions.
What is Microsoft 365 Copilot?Reviewed 2026-08-31What Microsoft 365 Copilot is: what it does in Word, Excel, Outlook, and Teams, how grounding works, what it costs, and what to fix before rollout.

Frequently asked

What is Microsoft 365 Copilot?: Microsoft 365 Copilot is a per-user paid add-on that puts a large language model inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and the Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat app, grounded on the user's tenant data through Microsoft Graph.
Does Copilot include enterprise data protection?: Yes. Prompts and responses stay in the Microsoft 365 service boundary, are not used to train the foundation models, and are subject to the same audit, retention, and eDiscovery controls as other tenant content.
Do I need Microsoft 365 E5 to buy Copilot?: No. Copilot is a $30/user/month add-on on top of an eligible base plan — Business Standard, Business Premium, E3, E5, and several F/A SKUs. E5 does not bundle it.
What has to be true of my tenant before I roll Copilot out?: Permissions hygiene (no tenant-wide 'Everyone' shares), a sensitivity-label baseline, MFA everywhere, and a pilot cohort with real use cases. Rolling out before that fix turns Copilot into an oversharing detector.

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