Microsoft has recently unveiled some exciting news around Copilot and it's offerings. Copilot Pro, a new subscription for individuals who want to access the most advanced features and capabilities of Copilot, is now available. And Copilot for Microsoft 365, a subscription for organisations who want to integrate Copilot with their Microsoft 365 apps and services, is now more accessible with no minimum seat count required. But what are the differences between these three Copilot offerings, and how do you decide which one is best for you? In this blog post, I will compare and contrast Copilot Free, Pro, and for Microsoft 365, and help you navigate the new buzzwords.
Copilot Free
Let me introduce you to ‘Copilot Free’, the free edition of Microsoft Copilot that anyone can use. Copilot Free is your smart and friendly AI companion that can help you with various tasks, such as searching the web, creating content, generating images and answering complex questions. You can chat with Copilot Free and get instant assistance at your fingertips. Here are some of the features that are currently included in the free edition:
Access to GPT-4 & GPT-4 Turbo (During non-peak times only)
Access on the web, mobile and on windows and macOS.
Generate images in portrait format
15 daily boosts for AI generated images using Designer
Conversational search using text, voice and images
Use predefined Copilot GPTs
Microsoft has generously offered a lot of powerful features at no additional cost. Moreover, you can also access the Copilot Windows 11 app, which is free and pre-installed on Windows 11 devices. You can find more information about the app here.
What extra features do I get with Copilot Pro?
Next, we have ‘Copilot Pro’, the entry-level Copilot subscription. This subscription is designed for individuals who want to access the most advanced features and capabilities of Copilot. However, it is important to note that this is a single AI experience for the licensed user(s) and it can only be purchased as an add-on if you have a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription for £19 per user/month. With Copilot Pro, you get all of the features available in the free edition plus:
Priority access to GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo during peak times for accelerated performance
An increase to 100 daily boosts for AI generated images using Designer
Generate images in landscape
Integration with Microsoft 365 apps such as Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint & OneNote
Create custom Copilot GPTs with the GPT builder (Coming soon)
The main advantages of Copilot Pro, in my view, are the priority access to the latest OpenAI language model and the integration with your everyday Microsoft Apps. Copilot Pro is a worthwhile investment if you are an individual with a personal or family subscription, who creates a lot of content and data through your Microsoft Apps - it will enhance your productivity, save you a lot of time, and provide you with a quick return on investment.
Where does Copilot for Microsoft 365 fit in?
Copilot for Microsoft 365 is designed for organisations who want to integrate Copilot with their full suite of Microsoft Apps and Services. When Copilot for Microsoft 365 was launched in November 2023, it had a minimum purchase requirement of 300 seats and was only available as an add-on with either Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 licenses. This prevented many interested organisations from meeting the eligibility criteria for Copilot for Microsoft 365. However, at the beginning of the year, Microsoft announced some major changes to the licensing options, which are summarised below:
Copilot for Microsoft 365 is now generally available for small business with Microsoft Business Premium and Business Standard licenses where they can purchase between one and 299 licenses.
Removal of the 300 seat purchase minimum for commercial plans.
Copilot for Microsoft 365 is now available for Office 365 E3 and E5 licenses.
Copilot for Microsoft 365 can be purchased through a CSP partner (Cloud Solution Provider) - Annual Full Commitment Only.
These announcements mean that Copilot is now available for organisations of all sizes to leverage across their entire data ecosystem at work. The licenses are not inexpensive, at around $30 per user/month (£23.55 at the time of writing) but they offer premium benefits and top-level access to Copilot throughout the organisation. They include everything in Copilot Pro and additional key features, such as:
Integrated with all Microsoft Apps which includes Teams
Enterprise grade security, privacy and compliance
Copilot in Microsoft Loop
Copilot in Whiteboard
Copilot in SharePoint (Coming soon)
Microsoft Copilot with Graph-grounded chat
Copilot Studio (Build your own custom AI copilot)
Many organisations have implemented Copilot for Microsoft 365 and are raving about how it has transformed the way they work, the efficiency levels, and the ROI figures the product is delivering. I hope this blog has clarified the different levels of Copilot on offer from Microsoft and what features are available for each one. I'll leave you with this comparison chart from Microsoft.
As always, if you have any questions or need advice, please feel free to contact me through our contact area or on LinkedIn 😊. Or better yet, ask Copilot - it might know more than me!
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