Copilot is two things that share a name: a personal assistant for your Microsoft account at home, and a work assistant tied to your organisation’s Microsoft 365. Since September 2026 they live in one app, but they have different features, different privacy rules and different price lists.
Microsoft has also renamed a great deal in the past year. If you are looking for something by its old name, this is the translation table.
| What it is called now | What it is | What it used to be called |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Copilot (the app) | One app for both personal and work accounts. You sign in with either, and the two are kept separate. | Two apps: “Copilot” and “Microsoft 365 Copilot” |
| Microsoft Copilot Chat | The protected chat included with a work account, grounded in the web. | Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat; before that, Bing Chat Enterprise |
| Microsoft Copilot (the paid work licence) | The per-user licence that unlocks work data, Copilot inside the apps, and the agents. Still sold as “Microsoft 365 Copilot” on Australian pricing pages. | Microsoft 365 Copilot; Copilot for Microsoft 365 |
| Work IQ | The layer that grounds answers in your organisation’s email, files, meetings and chats. A Work IQ button switches it on or off in the chat box. | The Work / Web toggle |
| Copilot Cowork | The agent that carries out long, multi-step work for you. | For personal accounts: Copilot Tasks |
| Edit with Copilot | Copilot directly building and editing a document, workbook or slide deck. | Agent Mode |
| Word, Excel and PowerPoint Agents | Creating a finished file from the chat window. | Office Agent |
| Copilot in SharePoint | Asking questions of a site, and creating pages, lists and files. | Knowledge Agent |
| Planner Agent | Builds plans and status reports in Planner. | Project Manager agent |
| Agent Builder | Making a simple agent by describing it in plain English. | Copilot Studio lite |
| Copilot connectors | Links that bring data from other systems into Copilot. | Microsoft Graph connectors |
| Browse with Copilot | Copilot clicking and typing in the Edge browser for you. | Copilot Actions |
| Copilot controls | The set of admin tools for securing, managing and measuring Copilot. | Copilot Control System |
| Autopilot | An announced “persistent digital teammate”, in private preview. | Scout |
The feature most people are asking about. Ordinary Copilot answers a question or drafts a thing while you watch. Cowork takes a whole job: you describe the outcome you want, it works out the steps, and then it carries them out across your Microsoft 365 apps, in the background, checking in with you when it matters.
Example: “Go through this week’s supplier emails, update the price list spreadsheet, and draft a summary for Monday’s meeting.”
Worth knowing: Cowork acts with your permissions. Anything you can open, it can open. Tidy up oversharing before you switch it on.
Status: generally available for work accounts since 16 June 2026, after a preview from March. See the plans page for credit pricing.
Watch for: the Claude processing itself is excluded from Microsoft’s in-country processing commitments. If “processed in Australia” is a requirement for you, Cowork doesn’t meet it.
Signed in with a personal Microsoft account. “A Microsoft 365 subscription” below means Personal, Family, Premium or Pro; on Family and Premium the AI features are for the account owner only.
| Feature | What it does | What you need | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | Ask questions and get answers grounded in the web, on the web, Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android. | Free, with limits | Available |
| Conversation modes | Choose how hard Copilot thinks: Quick response for speed, Think Deeper for harder problems, Smart to let it decide, Study and learn for tutoring, Search for web lookups. | Free; subscribers get priority | Available |
| Copilot Voice | A spoken conversation, with a transcript afterwards. | Free; subscribers get priority | Available |
| Copilot Vision | Copilot sees a screen, app or phone camera you share, and talks you through what is on it. | Microsoft’s pages disagree: one says a subscription is required, another says it is available to everyone | Available |
| Image creation | Generates and edits images from a description. | Free, with limits; more on a subscription | Available |
| Memory | Remembers your preferences and past conversations. Can be switched off. | Free | Available |
| Connectors | Lets Copilot search your OneDrive, Outlook.com, Gmail, Google Drive, calendar and contacts. | Not stated by Microsoft | Available |
| Copilot Pages | Turns an answer into an editable page you can keep building on and share. | A Microsoft 365 subscription | Available |
| Copilot Notebooks | A workspace that gathers files, chats and notes on one topic, so answers draw on all of it. Can produce an audio overview. | A Microsoft 365 subscription | Available |
| Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote | Draft, rewrite, summarise and analyse inside the app, including Edit with Copilot. | A Microsoft 365 subscription; Personal and Family are rationed, Premium and Pro get extensive use | Available |
| Researcher and Analyst | Researcher writes long, cited research reports. Analyst works through data like a junior analyst would. | Microsoft 365 Premium or Pro | Available |
| Copilot Coworkwas Copilot Tasks | The multi-step agent, for personal accounts. | Microsoft 365 Premium or Pro | Preview |
| Copilot in Edge | Chat alongside any web page; can use all your open tabs as context. “Journeys” groups past browsing into topics. | Free | Available |
| Browse with Copilotwas Copilot Actions | Copilot clicks, types and navigates websites in Edge on your behalf. | Microsoft 365 Premium | Not in Australia United States only |
| Copilot on Windows | Open Copilot with the Copilot key or Win+C, or by saying “Hey Copilot” (opt-in). Finds files and helps with settings. | Free, Windows 11 | Available |
| Click to Do | Highlights text and images on screen and offers actions on them — summarise, rewrite, search, ask Copilot. | A Copilot+ PC | Available |
| Recall | A searchable timeline of what has been on your screen, stored on the PC. Opt-in, and protected by Windows Hello. | A Copilot+ PC | Preview |
| Copilot Health | A health information assistant. | A Microsoft 365 subscription, adults only | Not in Australia reported as United States only |
A “Copilot+ PC” is a Windows 11 computer with a dedicated AI processor. Click to Do and Recall run on the device rather than in the cloud, which is why ordinary PCs don’t get them.
Signed in with an account from your organisation. “Paid licence” below means Microsoft 365 Copilot or Microsoft 365 Copilot Business; “Free” means it is part of the Copilot Chat that comes with your Microsoft 365 plan.
| Feature | What it does | What you need | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copilot Chat | Chat grounded in the web, with file upload and image generation, inside your organisation’s security boundary. | Free with an eligible plan. Slower at busy times than for licensed users | Available |
| Enterprise data protection | Your prompts and responses are covered by Microsoft’s business data terms, aren’t used to train models, and respect file permissions and sensitivity labels. | Free and paid | Available |
| Work IQwas the Work / Web toggle | Grounds answers in the email, files, meetings and chats you have permission to see. This is the difference between “an AI” and “an AI that knows your business”. | Paid licence | Available |
| Model choice | Let Copilot pick (Auto), or choose Quick response or Think deeper, and between OpenAI and Claude model families. | Paid licence. The newest “frontier” models are billed by use | Available |
| Copilot Memory | Remembers things about how you work, from your chats and your work profile. On by default. | Not stated by Microsoft | Available |
| Copilot Search | One AI-assisted search across Microsoft 365 and connected systems. | Paid licence for the AI features | Available |
| Copilot Pages | Turns an answer into an editable page your colleagues can work on with you. | Free and paid | Available |
| Copilot Notebooks | A project workspace: gather the relevant files, pages and notes, and Copilot answers from that set. Can produce an audio overview. | Paid licence; Microsoft says it is now rolling out to Copilot Chat users too | Available |
| Create | Makes images, posters, banners, short videos and infographics, and can keep to your brand kit. | Paid licence for the AI features | Available |
| Scheduled prompts | Runs a prompt on a timetable — a Monday summary of last week’s email, say. | Not stated by Microsoft | Available |
| Voice | Talk to Copilot instead of typing, on phone, desktop and web. | Paid licence | Available |
| Copilot in Edge for Business | Protected chat in the browser, using your open tabs as context; summarises pages and videos. | Free; agentic browsing needs a paid licence and is in limited preview | Available |
Where most people actually meet Copilot — the button in the corner of Word, Outlook or Teams.
| Feature | What it does | What you need | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copilot Chat in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote | A side pane for asking about, summarising and drafting from the file in front of you. | Paid licence. Unlicensed users get limited access in smaller organisations only (reported: under 2,000 seats) | Available |
| Edit with Copilotwas Agent Mode | Copilot does the editing itself — restructures the document, builds the workbook, lays out the deck — and you review. | Paid licence | Available |
| Python in Excel, via Edit with Copilot | Copilot writes and runs Python inside the workbook for analysis beyond formulas. | Paid licence | Available |
| Word, Excel and PowerPoint Agentswas Office Agent | Ask in chat for a finished document, spreadsheet or presentation and get the file. | Paid licence, with Anthropic models enabled | Available |
| Copilot in Outlook | Summarises long threads, drafts and coaches replies, prioritises your inbox, prepares you for meetings, and finds meeting times. | Chat in Outlook is free with limited grounding; the full set needs a paid licence | Available |
| Copilot in Teams | Summarises meetings, chats, channels and calls, and answers questions about them — “what did we decide?”, “what are my actions?”. | Paid licence, plus a Teams licence | Available |
| Intelligent recap | An AI-written recap of a meeting or call after it ends. | Paid licence or Teams Premium | Available |
| Facilitator | An agent that sits in a Teams meeting, keeps shared notes and tracks the agenda and actions as you go. | Paid licence | Available |
| Interpreter | Live speech-to-speech translation in Teams meetings. | Paid licence | Available |
| Copilot in SharePointwas Knowledge Agent | Ask questions of a site; create pages, lists and files; fill in file metadata automatically. | Paid licence; heavier work uses Copilot Credits | Rolling out |
| Planner Agentwas Project Manager agent | Builds a plan from a goal, writes status reports, answers questions about tasks. | Paid licence | Available |
| Copilot in Forms | Helps write a form and analyses the responses. | Paid licence | Available |
| Loop, Whiteboard, OneDrive, Clipchamp and Viva | Copilot is included in each with the licence. We haven’t itemised the individual features. | Paid licence | Available |
An “agent” is Copilot set up for one job, with its own instructions, knowledge and tools. Some come from Microsoft; you can also build your own.
| Feature | What it does | What you need | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copilot Cowork | Carries out long, multi-step work across your apps. Explained above. | Paid licence, plus usage billed in Copilot Credits | Available |
| Researcher | Works for several minutes on a question and returns a cited report drawing on the web and your work data. By default one model drafts and another reviews. | Paid licence | Available |
| Analyst | Takes raw data — a spreadsheet, an export — and reasons through it step by step, running code where needed. | Paid licence | Available |
| Sales, Service and Finance agentswere Copilot for Sales, Service, Finance | Role-specific helpers that connect to your CRM or finance system. | Paid licence, plus the system they connect to | Available |
| Employee Self-Service | Answers staff HR and IT questions from your own policies and systems. | Paid licence or Copilot Credits | Available |
| SharePoint agents | An agent that answers only from one site or library — a policy library, say. | Paid licence, or pay-as-you-go | Available |
| Workflows and App Builder | Describe an automation or a small app in plain English and have it built. | Paid licence | Frontier |
| Researcher with Computer Use | Researcher operating a virtual browser to gather information, rather than relying on search alone. | Paid licence | Frontier |
| Home, Code and Autopilot | Announced 25 September 2026: a new start page, building apps in plain English, and a persistent “digital teammate”. | Code and Autopilot will be billed by use | Preview |
| Agent Store | The catalogue where you find agents from Microsoft, other vendors and your own organisation. | Free and paid | Available |
For the person in your organisation who wants Copilot to know about a system Microsoft doesn’t make.
| Feature | What it does | What you need | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agent Builderwas Copilot Studio lite | Make a simple agent by describing it: give it instructions and some files or sites to draw on. | Free for agents that use web data; agents using work data need a paid licence or pay-as-you-go | Available |
| Copilot Studio | The full builder: agents with logic and actions, agents that face your customers, agents that run on their own, and agents that operate a computer. | Copilot Credits | Available |
| Copilot connectorswere Graph connectors | More than 100 ready-made links to other systems. Some copy the data into Microsoft’s index; newer ones query the other system live. | Paid licence, or metered | Available |
| Copilot Tuning | Fine-tunes a model on your organisation’s own documents and style for a specific task. | Organisations with 5,000 or more licences | Preview |
| Agent 365 | An admin console for seeing, governing and securing every agent in the organisation. | Its own licence, or Microsoft 365 E7 | Available |
The unglamorous features that decide whether a rollout goes well.
| Feature | What it does | What you need | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copilot controlswas Copilot Control System | The admin settings for who gets Copilot, which agents are allowed, and which AI providers are switched on. | Mixed | Available |
| AI provider settings | Switches Anthropic and OpenAI-operated models on or off for the organisation or for particular groups. | Any Copilot tenant | Available |
| Copilot Analytics | Reports on who is using Copilot, how much, and what difference it is making. | Paid licence | Available |
| SharePoint Advanced Management | Finds overshared sites and files, and can stop Copilot drawing on particular sites. | Included with a paid licence | Available |
| Microsoft Purview protections | Sensitivity labels, audit logs and retention apply to Copilot; data loss prevention rules can keep labelled files out of its answers. | A Purview licence | Available |
| Copilot key on work PCs | The keyboard key opens Copilot; administrators can change what it launches. | Free and paid | Available |
| Security Copilot | A separate assistant for security teams investigating incidents. A usage allowance comes with E5 and E7. | Microsoft 365 E5 or E7, or pay by use | Available |
| GitHub Copilot | A programming assistant. Shares the name, but is a separate product with its own licences. | Separate | Available |
The question we are asked most. “Free” here means the Copilot Chat that comes with your Microsoft 365 plan.
| Capability | Free Copilot Chat | Paid licence |
|---|---|---|
| Web-grounded chat, file upload, image generation | Yes, standard access | Yes, priority access |
| Enterprise data protection | Yes | Yes |
| Copilot Pages | Yes | Yes |
| Copilot Chat in Outlook | Yes, limited | Yes, full |
| Copilot Chat in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote | Limited, smaller organisations only | Yes |
| Answers from your email, files and meetings (Work IQ) | No | Yes |
| Edit with Copilot; Word, Excel and PowerPoint Agents | No | Yes |
| Copilot in Teams, Facilitator, Interpreter | No | Yes |
| Researcher and Analyst | No | Yes |
| Agents that use web data | Yes | Yes |
| Agents that use SharePoint or connector data | Pay-as-you-go | Included |
| Agents that use email, Teams or people data | No | Yes |
| Copilot Cowork | No | Yes, billed by use on top |
| Copilot Analytics, SharePoint Advanced Management | No | Yes |
All of these are charged in Copilot Credits. Prices are on the Copilot plans page.
Features that older articles, videos and training courses still mention, and that no longer exist.
| Feature | What happened | Use instead |
|---|---|---|
| Copilot Pro | The US$20 personal add-on. Off sale; support ended 1 August 2026. Retired | Microsoft 365 Premium |
| The COPILOT function in Excel=COPILOT() | An AI formula in a cell. Only ever a preview; discontinued 14 September 2026. Retired | Edit with Copilot |
| Deep Research (personal Copilot) | Retired 18 August 2026. Retired | Researcher, on Premium and Pro |
| Copilot Podcasts | AI-generated audio shows. Retired 18 August 2026. Retired | Audio overviews in Notebooks |
| Group ChatGroups | Shared Copilot conversations. Retired 18 August 2026. Retired | Copilot Pages for shared work |
| Copilot Labs | The experimental-features area for personal accounts. Retired | The Frontier programme |
| Mico | The animated character in Copilot Voice. Removed from Voice in August 2026. Retired | — |
| Copilot Mode in Edge | A separate AI browsing mode. Retired 13 May 2026, with its features folded into Copilot in Edge. Retired | Copilot in Edge |
| The Work / Web toggle | Replaced during 2026 by a single chat box with a Work IQ button. Retired | The Work IQ button |
Most of Copilot is the same here as anywhere. These are the exceptions.
Prices, GST, the ACCC case and the IRAP position are on the Copilot plans page.
All read on 1 October 2026. Items marked “reported” in the tables come from trade press rather than Microsoft.
We run a full-day, hands-on AI training for Australian teams, on your own work, covering Microsoft 365 Copilot alongside Claude and ChatGPT.
