Verdict: use Copilot Chat first, since it comes free with your organisation's existing Microsoft 365 licence and needs no extra approval. Add the paid Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, from about $21-$30 a user a month, once people need it inside Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams with their own mail, files and meetings pulled in automatically.
Other good fits
Teams that want AI inside Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams itself, drafting documents, building formulas, summarising meetings and triaging inboxes without leaving the app.
Organisations that need the assistant to reason over the lab's own emails, files and meetings automatically, once they take the paid Microsoft 365 Copilot licence.
+ Pros
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Microsoft 365 Copilot, which Microsoft has been renaming Microsoft Copilot, is the AI assistant built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. It comes in two tiers. Copilot Chat is the free baseline: an AI chat window, included at no extra cost for anyone on an eligible Microsoft 365 work or school plan, that answers from the public web and can use your own content only if you upload it, paste it, or have it open in Outlook or Teams. The paid Microsoft 365 Copilot licence adds Copilot inside the apps themselves, plus automatic grounding in your organisation's own emails, files, meetings and calendars through Microsoft Graph and a newer reasoning layer called Work IQ, so it can answer from context you never had to hand it.
Pick it when…
Your organisation already pays for Microsoft 365 and wants a chat assistant with no new procurement, since Copilot Chat is switched on automatically for eligible plans.
People need AI drafting, rewriting and summarising inside the Microsoft 365 apps they already use daily, not a separate browser tab.
You want an assistant that can eventually reason over your own mail, files and meetings automatically, once you're ready to pay for that.
− Cons
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Free Copilot Chat is deliberately limited: by default it only reasons over the public web, so it can't see your emails, files or meetings unless you hand them over one at a time. That upload-every-time habit is exactly what the paid licence removes, but the paid licence is a real added cost per user, on top of whatever Microsoft 365 plan a lab or company already has. The bigger risk for a Heidelberg lab or company is the personal-account trap: anyone who signs in to the Copilot app or copilot.microsoft.com with a personal Microsoft account, rather than their work or school account, keeps their chats and files separate and does not get Microsoft's enterprise data protection at all. IT has to actively restrict personal-account sign-in with tenant restrictions if it wants to close that gap.
Pick something else when…
Your organisation already lives in Google Workspace rather than Microsoft 365: Gemini gives you the same kind of automatic grounding, tied to Gmail, Drive and Docs instead of Outlook and SharePoint.
You want one assistant that works the same way outside Microsoft 365 too, with a cheaper individual seat and no requirement to already run Microsoft licensing: ChatGPT or Claude.
You want an EU-hosted admin layer over several model providers instead of Microsoft's own controls: Langdock.
Avoid if
You want automatic grounding in your organisation's own files and mail without paying for the add-on: Copilot Chat only uses organisational content when someone uploads it or has it open.
Your team lives in Gmail, Drive and Docs rather than Outlook and SharePoint: Gemini fits that Graph-style automatic grounding better.
Workflow
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Check whether Copilot Chat already shows up in Outlook, Teams or the Microsoft 365 apps → make sure people sign in with their work or school account, not a personal Microsoft account → use free Copilot Chat for web questions and first drafts, uploading a file or working with an open document when you need it to see your own content → once several people hit that upload-every-time limit, ask IT to assign the paid Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on licence → after that licence is assigned, Copilot in Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams grounds itself in your organisation's data through Microsoft Graph without you uploading anything → always check names, numbers and quotes against the source document or email before sending anything onward.
Cost
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Prices checked 23 September 2026 (Microsoft's US pricing pages, US dollars before tax):
Plan
Price
What you get
Copilot Chat (Basic)
Free
Included automatically with an eligible Microsoft 365 work or school plan; web-grounded chat, sees organisational content only if you upload it, paste it, or use it in Outlook/Teams
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business (add-on)
$21/user/month, annual commitment
Adds Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams for Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium or Teams Essentials tenants
Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot
$23.50/user/month, annual
Business Standard bundled with the Copilot add-on
Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot
$32/user/month, annual
Business Premium bundled with the Copilot add-on, plus 1 TB storage and extra security features
Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium, enterprise add-on)
$30/user/month, annual commitment
Requires an existing qualifying plan such as E3, E5, or a Business plan; adds automatic Microsoft Graph and Work IQ grounding, Copilot Search and priority access
All of these are US-dollar list prices from Microsoft's own pricing pages; a German buyer should check the EUR price and any regional promotion in the Microsoft 365 admin center before budgeting, since that wasn't checked for this review. Copilot Chat needs no admin work beyond having an eligible licence; the paid add-on has to be assigned per user in the Microsoft 365 admin center, and an admin can pin or unpin Copilot Chat, restrict it to specific groups, or block it outright with a custom policy page. The ongoing effort is the same as any AI assistant: checking names, numbers and claims before they leave the building, and deciding who actually needs the paid licence versus who is fine on free chat.
Restrictions
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Enterprise data protection only applies when someone signs in with a Microsoft Entra work or school account; a personal Microsoft account gets none of it, on either the free or paid tier, and IT must use tenant restrictions to stop people signing in with a personal account by mistake. Web search queries that Copilot Chat sends to Bing are handled under a separate agreement and are not covered by the EU Data Boundary, even though prompts and responses otherwise stay within it for EU tenants. Automatic grounding in an organisation's own data is a paid-licence feature only; Copilot Chat cannot see it without a manual upload, paste, or open document.
First project
Documentation-based suggestion — not run here.
Read first project
Turn a rough meeting note into a clean summary and action list, first with free Copilot Chat, then compare it with the in-app Copilot if your organisation has the paid licence.
Write (or invent) a half-page note from a lab or team meeting with at least four decisions and five follow-up tasks.
Open Copilot Chat in Outlook or Teams, signed in with your work or school account, and paste the note in. Ask for a short summary plus a table of actions with an owner and a due date.
If your organisation has the paid Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, open the same note as a Word document and ask Copilot in Word to do the same thing, without pasting anything extra in.
Check every action, owner and date in both outputs against your original note, line by line.
Note where the in-app version could reach further, for example by referencing a real calendar invite or an email thread, versus the free chat, which only sees what you paste or upload.
Done when every action, owner and date in both summaries traces back to a line in your note, and you can explain in one sentence what the paid licence added over the free chat.
Links & evidence
Documentation-based · not hands-on · Sep 23, 2026
Rests on Microsoft's own Copilot overview, licensing, enterprise data protection and Copilot Chat management pages on learn.microsoft.com, plus Microsoft's business and enterprise Copilot pricing pages on microsoft.com, all read on 2026-09-23. Nothing was signed into or tested for this review. Not verified: EUR pricing and any regional promotion for a German buyer, and exact response-quality differences between the free and paid tiers.
What is Microsoft Copilot? · Sep 23, 2026 — Copilot Chat (Basic), Microsoft 365 Copilot (Basic) and Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) licence tiers; in-app features for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams; automatic Microsoft Graph and Work IQ grounding is Premium-only.
License options for Microsoft Copilot · Sep 23, 2026 — Copilot Chat is automatically included at no extra cost with an eligible Microsoft 365 subscription; the Microsoft Copilot add-on requires a qualifying underlying plan such as Business Standard/Premium or E3/E5.
Enterprise data protection in Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft Copilot Chat · Sep 23, 2026 — EDP applies when signed in with a Microsoft Entra account; prompts and responses aren't used to train foundation models; web search queries to Bing sit outside the EU Data Boundary.
Manage Microsoft Copilot Chat · Sep 23, 2026 — Copilot Chat eligibility list by Microsoft 365 plan; users can sign in with a work/school or personal account and get different protections; admin controls to pin, restrict or block Copilot Chat.
Microsoft 365 Copilot pricing (business plans) · Sep 23, 2026 — Business Standard with Copilot $23.50/user/month, Business Premium with Copilot $32/user/month, Copilot Business add-on from $18-$21/user/month, all annual; Copilot Chat free with eligible plans.
Microsoft 365 Copilot enterprise pricing · Sep 23, 2026 — Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) enterprise add-on: $30/user/month, annual subscription, requires a separate qualifying Microsoft 365 plan.
Further review notes & alternatives
Alternatives and trade-offs
Gemini wins when a lab or company runs Google Workspace instead of Microsoft 365: it grounds automatically in Gmail, Drive and Docs the same way Copilot grounds in Outlook and SharePoint.
ChatGPT or Claude win when you want one assistant that also works outside the Microsoft 365 apps, with lower-priced individual plans and nothing tying it to an existing Microsoft licence.
Langdock wins when you want an EU-based admin layer over several underlying models, with its own data controls, rather than relying on Microsoft's tenant and licensing settings.
Microsoft 365 Copilot (recently renamed Microsoft Copilot) is Microsoft's AI assistant for Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Teams. Copilot Chat, the web-grounded chat, comes free with eligible Microsoft 365 work or school plans. The paid Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on licence adds in-app drafting and automatic grounding in the organisation's own emails, files and meetings through Microsoft Graph.
Microsoft · free-tier · cloud · desktop · mobile
Copilot Chat (web-grounded chat, free with eligible plans)
in-app Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Teams meeting summarisation and transcription
automatic grounding in organisational data via Microsoft Graph and Work IQ (paid add-on only)