What Is Microsoft Copilot? Free Use, Microsoft 365 Plans, Copilot in Word, Excel and PowerPoint, Modes, Data and Cancellation

It has two parts: the Copilot chat app that anyone can use, and Copilot working inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook with a Microsoft 365 subscription. On August 18, 2026, the personal Copilot app and the Microsoft 365 Copilot app merged into a single “Microsoft Copilot” app; work/school and personal account data stay separate.

!Video generation is not listed as a feature on the current official pages; if you see it in your app, try it. On August 18, 2026, Group Chat, Podcasts and Deep Research in the consumer app were removed.

Age: at least 13 (may be higher depending on the country); some features are off for users under 18. No official page says a phone verification or ID is required. Personal and work/school accounts stay separate in the same app.

To chat, open copilot.microsoft.com or start the Copilot app and sign in with your Microsoft account.

1. 1Open a new presentation in PowerPoint and click the Copilot icon at the bottom right.
2. 2In the chat box, select Add Content and Agent Mode, then write a request describing the presentation.
3. 3Copilot may first ask questions such as audience and style, then drafts an outline; once you approve it, it creates the slides.
4. 4You can also say “create a presentation from a file” and point it to a Word document.

For Copilot to work in Excel, the file must be saved to OneDrive with AutoSave turned on; it does not work on an unsaved file.

The modes page describes the old interface; it does not say whether it still applies as-is to the new app after August 18, 2026. Store pages for the new app say “choose between OpenAI and Anthropic models”; which model is available on which plan is not stated in the official sources, so no model names are given here. Section checked on October 14, 2026.

Copilot chat, image creation and file uploads are free; free use has no numeric limit but depends on capacity and limits. When you reach the limit, you are advised to switch to a paid plan or come back later. Copilot in the Office desktop apps requires a Microsoft 365 subscription. Without a subscription, you may see ads.

Whether prices include tax is not stated. The plans can also be bought as in-app purchases in the App Store; Microsoft 365 Basic is $1.99/month and $19.99/year. Microsoft 365 Basic has no Copilot; Personal has a 1-month free trial. The old Copilot Pro was withdrawn from sale on October 1, 2025 and support ended on August 1, 2026; Premium replaced it.

!On the Family plan, Copilot is available only to the subscription owner; the other 5 people can't use it. The hidden “this product is not available in your market” text on the Turkish pricing page is a leftover from the page template; it does not mean the plan is unavailable in Turkey.

Official pricing page last checked on October 28, 2026.

The Terms of Use (August 18, 2026) say “you may use Copilot only for your own personal use.” What this means for commercial work, such as creating content for a client, is not explained in the official sources. Microsoft does not own your prompts and responses but gets permission to use them to operate and improve Copilot. Responses may not be unique to you; there is no guarantee that generated content won't infringe copyright or trademarks; publishing it is your responsibility. Removing content credentials is prohibited.

For business use, Microsoft 365 Copilot (work/school account, enterprise data protection) is a separate product under separate terms.

Free Copilot chat is open to everyone. For Copilot in Word and Excel, university and college students get 50 percent off Microsoft 365 Personal. Some schools give Microsoft 365 to their students for free; ask your school's IT department first.

1. 1Create a Microsoft account with your personal email (a school account won't work).
2. 2On the order page, verify with your school email or proof of enrollment.
3. 3Complete the order using the link sent to your school email.

Searches for “GitHub Copilot free for students” describe a different product: GitHub Copilot for developers comes with the GitHub Student Developer Pack. The official sources don't clarify whether the “12 months of free Premium” offer mentioned on Reddit applies in Turkey.

• To remove it from Windows 11: Settings› then Apps› then Installed apps › Copilot › Uninstall.
• If you don't want it in Word, Excel or PowerPoint, clear the Enable Copilot box in that app's settings. In Outlook, use the Turn on Copilot toggle (new Outlook: Settings› then Copilot).
• To cancel the subscription: at account.microsoft.com/services/microsoft365 go to Services & subscriptions › Manage › Cancel (the button may also read “Upgrade or Cancel”), then “I don't want my subscription”. If you bought it from a store or a third-party retailer, cancel there.

When you cancel, storage drops to 5 GB; if you are over the quota, you can't upload to OneDrive or receive email in Outlook.com. Two Microsoft pages give different periods before OneDrive content is deleted (6 months and 12 months): back up before cancelling.