The Most Important Differences Between Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Pro
Microsoft is largely positioning its AI chatbot Copilot as a free-to-use AI experience. You can download the app , call a chatbot on Windows 11, or use the Copilot website to do everything you’d expect an AI to do. But if you need more features, there is a paid version of Microsoft AI: Copilot Pro. The Pro version costs $20 per month, which is a lot compared to $0. Here’s what you’ll get for this subscription.
How Copilot and Copilot Pro are similar
The free version of Copilot is surprisingly feature-rich for a service that offers an optional $20 per month subscription. Whether you pay or not, Microsoft offers Copilot as a web app, mobile app, and service on Windows, Bing, and Microsoft Edge. (This unusual browser shouldn’t come as a surprise since it is, after all, a Microsoft product.)
Perhaps the most notable feature of Copilot free is GPT-4 Turbo access , OpenAI’s second latest model after GPT-4o. If you click “Use GPT-4” before chatting with the bot, you will be able to use the new OpenAI AI model rather than the old GPT-3.5. This is the same model as the Copilot Pro, but there are some limitations that I will explain later.
Copilot free and Pro also support plugins. You can think of Copilot plugins as browser extensions because they allow you to add third-party features to your chatbot that wouldn’t otherwise be there by default. For example, you can use the OpenTable plugin to ask Copilot about restaurants in your area and receive booking links. Paying for Copilot won’t necessarily improve this experience, since there aren’t any additional plugins hiding behind the paywall—there are eight options, no matter your plan.
You also get the same tools for creating AI images: both platforms have access to DALL-E 3, so you can ask Copilot to create an image for you whether you pay for it or not. You can also use Microsoft Designer for free, an AI-powered art program that can create images, social media templates, and message stickers, and also offers minor AI-powered photo editing.
What Copilot Pro will give you
One of the biggest benefits of Copilot Pro is priority access to GPT-4 Turbo. As I said, all Copilot users have access to GPT-4 Turbo, but during “peak usage hours” Microsoft will boot free users onto the slower GPT model. Ironically, you may not feel like your $20 makes a difference in Copilot’s speed, since the free version can also use GPT-4 Turbo. But when demand is high and free users migrate to GPT-3.5, your $20 keeps you within the more efficient model.
Another hurdle that free Copilot poses is the limited credits for creating AI creations: Microsoft gives you 15 for free, which essentially means you get 15 requests a day before you get blocked. If you pay for Pro, you get 100 credits per day, so you can claim 85 more generations than free users. That’s a lot of art (I personally can’t imagine creating 15 pieces a day, let alone 100), but if creating AI art is that important to you, you might find value here.
The key benefit of Copilot Pro, in my opinion, is its integration with Microsoft 365: if you pay for Pro, you can use Copilot in Word, Powerpoint, Excel and OneNote. Copilot is available as a chatbot that allows you to ask questions and make requests based on what’s happening in the app, but it also has its own generative features scattered throughout those programs. Here are some examples of using Copilot in these applications:
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Word : Create first drafts, add to or rewrite a previously written draft, and create a document summary.
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Powerpoint : Create a presentation based on the prompt, summarize and restructure the slides.
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Excel : Analyze spreadsheet data, filter and sort data, and create formulas.
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OneNote : Organize notes, create to-do lists, and plan activities.
Important note: If you have a Microsoft 365 subscription, you can use Copilot in both the web and desktop versions of these apps. However, if you only pay for Copilot Pro, you will only have access to the web apps.
Finally, Copilot Pro also opens the door to Copilot GPTs, which are custom-built versions of a chatbot designed to perform any task you want. You can create a GPT that teaches users about a specific topic, helps plan and prepare meals, or creates logos for companies. If you have the Pro version, you can start creating GPTs by going to Chats > GPT Copilot > View All GPT Copilots > Create New GPT Copilot . Here, Copilot will walk you through the creation process, ask questions about what you want from this GPT, and advise you on the best way to configure the GPT to make it work the way you want it to.
Is Copilot Pro worth paying for?
As someone who doesn’t use a ton of AI in my daily life, I can’t say I’d happily add another $20 to my monthly subscription bill. While the extra features are nice, especially Copilot in Microsoft 365 Apps, as a chatbot you get most of the features you’d expect from the free version of Copilot. If you’re only interested in casual interactions with AI and don’t need robotic assistance in apps like Word, Powerpoint, and Excel, the free Copilot will be more than enough.
However, Microsoft is offering a one-month free trial of Copilot Pro to new customers . If you’ve set a reminder to cancel your trial, you can try Pro and see if its extra features are worth your needs.