A Beginner’s Guide to Copilot Plugins
Microsoft calls its AI chatbot Copilot your “everyday AI companion.” But while Microsoft has built in the usual generative AI features you’d expect from such a chatbot, it’s not the only company in the mix. Other companies have created “plugins” for Copilot, adding third-party functionality to your AI conversations. Here’s what you can do with them.
What are Copilot plugins?
Copilot plugins are similar to browser extensions: you can enable a plugin to add additional functionality to Copilot that Microsoft didn’t add itself, or to enhance options that Copilot might otherwise just find online.
To access Copilot plugins, you need to sign in to a Microsoft account. This can be either a personal account or an account used for work, but without it you won’t see the plugins menu when you load the Copilot website. If you’re using a desktop computer, you’ll probably want to use a Chromium-based browser to access plugins like Chrome or Edge. When I tried to click the Plugins menu in Safari, I was greeted with a blank space.
Once you’ve logged in, you’ll see a Plugins menu to the right of Chats . Select Plugins and you’ll see eight options. (Seven if you’re using iOS.) Unlike ChatGPT plugins (RIP) , the selection is quite limited and doesn’t allow other developers to be added to the list. However, there are some reliable options here:
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Search : This plugin allows Copilot to search the web as part of its answers. You can disable this plugin if you don’t want to connect Copilot to the wider internet, but none of the other plugins will work without it. Therefore, it is not considered an additional plugin.
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Instacart : The Instacart plugin allows you to ask Copilot food-related questions, such as recipes and meal plans. Of course, since this is Instacart, you can also place grocery orders using the link provided.
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Kayak : When the Kayak is turned on, you can ask the co-pilot questions about the trip and accommodations, using the information provided by the Kayak, of course. The company says you can also tell Copilot what your budget is so the plugin can stay within the limits you set with its recommendations.
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Klarna : These plugins allow you to ask Copilot to use Klarna to compare prices of products across “thousands” of stores online.
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OpenTable : This plugin allows you to use OpenTable through Copilot, so you can search for nearby restaurants and also follow a link to make a reservation.
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Phone: This plugin connects Copilot to your Android phone. (Sorry to those using iOS.) While it’s a limited experience, you can read and send text messages using Copilot, and ask Assistant about your contacts. Microsoft says you need to use the Link to Windows app for this feature to work.
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Shop: This is not a universal shopping plugin: it is based on Shop , a company that can aggregate results from different stores.
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Suno : If this plugin is enabled, you can tell Copilot to generate music through Suno. I’ve previously talked about using Suno to create my own AI-generated music, and it’s a wild experience to say the least.
These are your plugin options when using Copilot, but they are not without limitations. With the exception of search, which must always be enabled, you can enable up to three plugins at once. So you can keep, say, Suno, Phone, and Kayak open, but you can’t add Instacart to them if those three are already enabled.
If you want to customize which plugins you use, you will need to start a new conversation with Copilot by clicking the New Topic button. Unfortunately, you can’t switch between plugins on the fly, so remember that once you start chatting with Copilot, that conversation will be locked to the plugins you started with.
It’s also important to note that whenever you use one of these Copilot plugins, you are sharing that data with the company behind the plugin. Keep this in mind when using the service, as plugins are not the most privacy-focused feature.
Using Copilot plugins
If you have plugins enabled, you can ask Copilot to use them throughout your call. To make sure Copilot uses the plugin you’re interested in, please include it in your answer. For example, you might say, “Use Suno to create a rock song about artificial intelligence,” or “Use Instacart to come up with a chicken marsala recipe.” You’ll know Copilot uses a plugin when you see its logo above the response.
Some plugins will require you to go to the company’s website to continue working with the results. For example, if you ask Kayak to search for hotels in New York City for a weekend in October, it will give you a list of options, each with hotel reviews, prices, and amenities. But if you want to book one of these hotels or find out more about them, you’ll need to go to the appropriate kayak link to do so.
These plugins are good, but I wouldn’t recommend going out of your way to use them. If you have a specific task, like ordering groceries with Instacart or making dinner reservations with OpenTable, you’re probably better off going to those sites separately. Copilot will send you to their sites anyway if you want to track any results. However, they are useful when you’re looking for ideas: Copilot and Instacart can generate dinner ideas you might not otherwise think of. Additionally, if you have an Android phone and use Copilot frequently, it’s great to be able to monitor messages from the chatbot.