Microsoft Copilot
: How to use it, features, and the business problems it solves
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What is Microsoft Copilot?
An AI assistant from Microsoft, free to use on the web, Windows, and mobile apps, with chat, web-grounded answers, image generation, and voice conversation. The paid consumer plan is Microsoft 365 Premium (JPY 3,200/month, tax included); for business there is Microsoft 365 Copilot integrated into Word, Excel, and Teams (from JPY 4,497/user/month, tax excluded). Full Japanese support.
Business problems it solves
About "Microsoft Copilot"
What is Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft Copilot is an AI assistant provided by Microsoft (US). It is free to use from a web browser, Windows, macOS, smartphone apps, and Edge, and handles chat-based Q&A, writing, up-to-date answers grounded in web search, image generation, and voice conversation in a single app.
One thing to note is that "Copilot" is not the name of a single product but an umbrella name for a product family. Alongside the free Microsoft Copilot for individuals, there are Microsoft 365 Premium (the paid consumer plan that succeeded Copilot Pro) and Microsoft 365 Copilot for businesses, which is built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams — each with different pricing and purchase paths. GitHub Copilot, the code-completion service for engineers, shares the name but is a separate product with its own contract and apps.
Sorting out the products named "Copilot"
When evaluating Copilot, first make sure everyone is talking about the same Copilot. The consumer and business lineup as of August 2026 is as follows.
| Product | For | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Copilot (free) | Individuals | Chat on web and apps, answers grounded in web search, image generation, voice conversation |
| Microsoft 365 Premium | Individuals (paid) | Everything above, plus Copilot inside the Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote desktop apps; AI agents such as Researcher and Analyst; the highest usage limits for image generation and other AI features |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | Business | An AI assistant built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams that works with your organization's email, documents, and meeting data. Includes agent building with Copilot Studio |
| GitHub Copilot | Developers | Code completion and coding agents inside your editor. A separate product under a separate contract |
Copilot Pro, the formerly well-known paid consumer plan, was discontinued for new sales in October 2025 and consolidated into Microsoft 365 Premium (JPY 3,200/month, tax included), which also bundles the Office apps and 1TB of storage. Existing Copilot Pro subscribers can migrate to Premium at the same price.
How to use it
- Open copilot.microsoft.com or install the app — No installation is needed in a web browser. Copilot apps are available for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, and on Windows 11 you can launch it directly from the taskbar or the Copilot key.
- Sign in with a Microsoft account — You can try it without signing in, but limits such as conversation length are stricter. Signing in with a free Microsoft account relaxes the limits and keeps your conversation history.
- Talk to it in your language — Just type questions, drafts, summaries, or translation requests into the chat box. Ask it to "create an image" for image generation, or use the microphone icon for voice conversation (Copilot Voice).
- Add a subscription if you want it inside Office apps — Using Copilot inside Word or Excel requires Microsoft 365 Personal/Family/Premium for individuals, or a Microsoft 365 Copilot license for businesses.
Key features
01Chat and search
- Answers grounded in web search — Answers with up-to-date information backed by Bing search results, with source links
- GPT-5-based responses — Since August 2025, a Smart mode that routes between models based on question difficulty has been available to free users as well
- Writing, summarizing, translation — From email drafts to long-document summaries
02Voice and vision
- Copilot Voice — Natural voice conversation, including in Japanese
- Image generation — Generate images directly from chat; the free tier includes an allowance
- Copilot Vision — Show it your screen or an image and ask "what is this?"
03Office integration (paid plans)
- Word / PowerPoint — Draft generation, document summarizing and rewriting, slide outlines
- Excel — Data analysis and visualization, formula suggestions
- Outlook / Teams — Email summaries and reply drafts; meeting minutes and decision tracking (business plans)
- AI agents — Researcher for cited research reports, Analyst for data analysis, and more (Premium and business plans)
Pricing
Based on official pricing as of August 19, 2026. Consumer prices are shown in JPY including tax; business prices in JPY excluding tax on the official site.
Consumer (tax included)
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | What's included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Copilot (free) | JPY 0 | — | Chat on web and apps, image generation, voice conversation |
| Microsoft 365 Personal | JPY 2,130 | JPY 21,300 | Office desktop apps with Copilot, 1TB storage (1 person) |
| Microsoft 365 Family | JPY 2,740 | JPY 27,400 | Personal features for up to 6 people (AI features for the subscription owner only) |
| Microsoft 365 Premium | JPY 3,200 | JPY 32,000 | Family features plus Researcher/Analyst agents and the highest AI usage limits |
Business (tax excluded, annual commitment)
| Plan | Per user / month | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | JPY 4,497 (paid annually) / JPY 4,722 (paid monthly) | Add-on for eligible Microsoft 365 business plans |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Business | Regular price JPY 3,148 (paid annually) | Add-on for small and midsize businesses. Promotional price of JPY 2,698 for the first year from July 1 to September 30, 2026. Monthly commitment: JPY 3,778 |
In addition, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat (web-grounded chat) is available at no extra cost with eligible Microsoft 365 business licenses.
Free plan and trial
The consumer Microsoft Copilot is not a time-limited trial — it is free on an ongoing basis. You can try short conversations without signing in, and signing in relaxes the limits. The free tier still has usage limits (message counts, image generation, and so on), and responses may be throttled at peak times. Microsoft does not publish fixed numbers for these limits; it states that paid plans come with "higher usage limits than the free tier."
Japanese support
- UI — The website and all apps support Japanese display
- Input/output — Chat, voice conversation, and image-generation prompts all work in Japanese. Copilot inside Word, Excel, and other Office apps works with Japanese documents and data
- Support — Microsoft has a Japanese subsidiary (Microsoft Japan Co., Ltd.), and official support and documentation are available in Japanese
Reputation and adoption
- On Microsoft's earnings call in July 2025, CEO Satya Nadella said that about 70% of the Fortune 500 use Microsoft 365 Copilot
- On the July 2026 earnings call, Microsoft announced that Microsoft 365 Copilot had surpassed 30 million paid seats, up roughly 50% from the prior quarter
- In Japan as well, Microsoft's official case-study pages document numerous company-wide deployments at large enterprises and local governments
How it compares with other tools
| Product | Provider | Strengths / where it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Copilot | Microsoft | Integration with Windows, Edge, and Office. Free web-grounded answers |
| ChatGPT | OpenAI | Breadth of features and extensibility: agents, custom GPTs |
| Gemini | Integration with Google Search and Workspace (Gmail, Docs) | |
| Claude | Anthropic | Highly regarded for long-form reading/writing and coding assistance |
| GitHub Copilot | GitHub (a Microsoft subsidiary) | Specialized in in-editor code completion. A separate contract from this product |
Copilot's biggest advantage is that it is built into the environment you already use. It ships with Windows 11 and runs inside Word, Excel, and Teams, so there is no copy-paste round trip to a separate AI site. On the other hand, ChatGPT is often ahead in standalone chat features, and in a Google Workspace-centric workplace Gemini plays the same role. A practical way to choose: do you want an AI that works with your company's email, documents, and meetings, or a general-purpose chat assistant?
FAQ
Q. Is it free? Yes. Chat, image generation, and voice conversation are free from copilot.microsoft.com and the apps for each OS. The free tier has usage limits and may be throttled at peak times.
Q. Is it the same as GitHub Copilot? No. GitHub Copilot is a developer-focused code-completion and coding-agent product that runs in your editor, with its own contract and pricing, independent of the Copilot covered on this page. See the GitHub Copilot page for details.
Q. What happened to Copilot Pro? New sales ended in October 2025. Its successor is Microsoft 365 Premium at JPY 3,200/month (tax included), which includes Copilot Pro's features plus the Office desktop apps and 1TB of storage. Existing subscribers can migrate to Premium at the same price.
Q. What do I need to use Copilot inside Word or Excel? Individuals need Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, or Premium; businesses need a Microsoft 365 Copilot (or Copilot Business) license. The free Copilot app alone does not enable Copilot inside the Office apps.
Q. Is my input used to train AI models? For consumer Copilot, you can opt out of model training in the settings. For the business Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft explicitly states that your organization's data is not used to train foundation models.
Provider
Microsoft Copilot is provided by Microsoft Corporation (founded 1975; Redmond, Washington; NASDAQ: MSFT). Under CEO Satya Nadella, Copilot sits at the center of Microsoft's AI business and is built into all of its flagship products — Windows, Microsoft 365, Bing, and Edge. In Japan, Microsoft Japan Co., Ltd. (Minato-ku, Tokyo) handles sales and support. Related products include GitHub Copilot for code completion and Microsoft Designer for design generation.
The information on this page is based on what is published on the official website as of August 2026. Features and pricing are subject to change; please check the official website for the latest information.
