Summary
Microsoft has slapped “Copilot” on so many products that even seasoned IT professionals struggle to keep track. Copilot, Copilot Pro, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Chat, Copilot Studio, Security Copilot, GitHub Copilot, Dragon Copilot. The list keeps growing. If you’re already grappling with Microsoft licensing, this doesn’t help.
This article explains what each one actually does, who it’s for, and what it costs.
The Copilot Family at a Glance
Product | Who It’s For | What It Does | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
Copilot Chat | Anyone with M365 | Web-grounded AI chat | Free with M365 |
Microsoft 365 Copilot | Organisations | AI in Office apps + your data | $30/user/month |
M365 Copilot Business | SMBs (≤300 users) | Same as above | $21/user/month |
Copilot Pro | Individuals | AI in Office apps (no org data) | $20/month |
Teams Premium | Meeting-heavy teams | AI meeting recaps, translations, security | $10/user/month |
Copilot Studio | Developers/makers | Build custom agents | Included or PAYG |
Security Copilot | Security teams | Threat hunting and response | $4/SCU/hour |
GitHub Copilot | Developers | Code completion and chat | $0–39/user/month |
Dragon Copilot | Healthcare | Clinical documentation | Contact Microsoft |
Here’s what each one does.
Copilot Chat (Free)
This is what you get for free with any Microsoft 365 commercial subscription. It used to be called “Microsoft Copilot with Enterprise Data Protection” and before that “Bing Chat Enterprise”. Microsoft changes the name roughly every six months, so don’t be surprised if it’s called something else by the time you read this.
What it does: You can ask questions and get AI-generated answers grounded in web data. Think of it as ChatGPT with a Microsoft logo and commercial data protection. |
What it doesn’t do: It can’t see your emails, documents, calendar, or Teams chats. It knows nothing about your organisation. It’s just a chatbot. |
Who should use it: Anyone who wants a quick AI assistant for general questions, brainstorming, or web research. It’s genuinely useful, but don’t expect it to know anything about your company. |
Cost: Free with M365 E3, E5, Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium. |
Microsoft 365 Copilot ($30/user/month)
This is the flagship. The one Microsoft really wants you to buy.
What it does: Everything Copilot Chat does, plus it integrates directly into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and OneNote. More importantly, it connects to Microsoft Graph, which means it can see your emails, meetings, chats, and documents. Ask it “What did Sarah say about the Q3 budget?” and it’ll find the answer in your inbox or Teams history. As of November 2025, you can also choose to use Anthropic’s Claude models alongside GPT. Microsoft announced this at Ignite as part of their partnership with Anthropic. |
What’s included: Since October 2025, Copilot for Sales, Service, and Finance are bundled at no extra cost. You also get Copilot Studio capabilities for building agents. |
Who should use it: Knowledge workers who live in Microsoft 365 and would benefit from AI assistance across their daily workflow. The ROI case is strongest for people who spend hours writing, analysing data, or drowning in email. |
Cost: $30/user/month for enterprise. $21/user/month for SMBs with 300 users or fewer (available December 2025). Annual commitment required. If you’re buying at scale, negotiate. |
Only Microsoft 365 Copilot connects to Microsoft Graph, allowing it to use emails, meetings, chats, and documents as context.
The catch: You need an eligible base licence first. If you’re on Business Basic at $6/user/month, adding Copilot takes you to $36. That’s a 500% increase. See our Microsoft 365 Copilot Licensing Guide for the full breakdown.
Copilot Pro ($20/month)
This one is for individuals, not organisations.
What it does: Gives you Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote, but only for personal Microsoft 365 subscriptions (M365 Personal or Family). You also get priority access to the latest AI models. |
What it doesn’t do: No Microsoft Graph integration. No access to organisational data. No Teams integration. It’s the consumer version. |
Who should use it: Freelancers, students, or individuals who want AI assistance in their personal Office apps but don’t have (or need) a business subscription. |
Cost: $20/month or $200/year. |
Don’t confuse it with: Microsoft 365 Copilot. They sound similar but serve completely different audiences. If your IT department is buying licences for employees, you want Microsoft 365 Copilot, not Copilot Pro.
Teams Premium ($10/user/month)
Not a Copilot product, but worth knowing about. Teams Premium is an add-on that brings AI to meetings without the full M365 Copilot price tag.
What it does: Intelligent Recap: AI-generated meeting summaries with action items and key takeaways. This is the headline feature and the main overlap with M365 Copilot. Live translation: Real-time caption translation in 40+ languages. Advanced security: End-to-end encryption, watermarks, sensitivity labels. Customisation: Branded meeting lobbies, templates, advanced webinar features. |
What it doesn’t do: No AI in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Outlook. No access to your emails or documents. No Copilot Chat. It’s meetings only. |
Who should use it: Organisations that run a lot of meetings and want AI-powered recaps without paying $30/user for the full M365 Copilot experience. If meeting summaries are your main use case, Teams Premium at $10 is a third of the price. |
Cost: $10/user/month with annual commitment. |
The overlap: If you have M365 Copilot, you already get Intelligent Recap. Don’t buy both for the same users unless you specifically need Teams Premium’s security or translation features.
Copilot Studio
This is where you build things.
What it does: Copilot Studio lets you create custom agents: AI assistants tailored to specific tasks or workflows. You can connect them to your own data sources, define their behaviour, and deploy them to users. |
Two ways to use it: 1. Included with M365 Copilot: If you have Microsoft 365 Copilot licences, your users can build and use agents within M365 apps at no extra charge, as long as they’re the ones using the agents. 2. Pay-as-you-go: If unlicensed users need to interact with your agents, or if agents run autonomously (no human trigger), you pay per action using Copilot Credits. The rate is $0.01 per credit, or less if you prepay. |
Who should use it: Organisations that want to extend Copilot beyond the out-of-the-box experience. Common use cases include HR bots, IT helpdesks, order processing, and anything else that benefits from automation. |
Watch your costs: Autonomous agents can rack up bills quickly. Every time an agent triggers itself (say, to monitor a dashboard or process incoming requests), that’s 25 credits. Without careful monitoring, you’ll blow your budget before you realise what’s happening.
Security Copilot
Completely separate product. Different audience, different pricing model.
What it does: Security Copilot helps security analysts investigate threats, analyse incidents, and respond faster. It integrates with Microsoft Defender, Sentinel, Intune, Entra, and Purview. You can ask it questions in natural language and get answers grounded in your security data. |
Pricing: Consumption-based. You provision Security Compute Units (SCUs) at $4/hour each. If you exceed your provisioned capacity, overage is $6/SCU/hour. |
Who should use it: Security operations teams in organisations large enough to have dedicated security analysts. This isn’t for the average knowledge worker; it’s a specialist tool. |
New in November 2025: If you have Microsoft 365 E5, you now get 400 SCUs per month for every 1,000 users, up to a maximum of 10,000 SCUs. This was announced at Ignite and is rolling out now.
GitHub Copilot
This one is for developers, and it predates the Microsoft 365 Copilot naming chaos by a couple of years.
What it does: Code completion, code generation, and chat assistance inside your IDE (VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains, Neovim, etc.). It suggests code as you type and can answer questions about your codebase.
Pricing tiers:
Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Free | $0 | 2,000 completions/month, limited chat |
Pro | $10/month or $100/year | Unlimited completions, full chat |
Pro+ | $39/month or $390/year | Advanced features, agent mode |
Business | $19/user/month | Organisations, admin controls |
Enterprise | $39/user/month | Enterprise features, fine-tuning |
Who should use it: Software developers. If you write code for a living, GitHub Copilot can genuinely accelerate your work. The free tier is generous enough to try before you buy.
Not the same as: Microsoft 365 Copilot. Despite both being called “Copilot” and both being owned by Microsoft, they serve entirely different purposes. One writes your emails; the other writes your code.
Dragon Copilot
The newest addition to the family, launched in March 2025.
What it does: Dragon Copilot is an AI assistant for clinical documentation in healthcare settings. It combines voice dictation (from the old Dragon Medical One) with ambient listening (from DAX Copilot) and generative AI. Clinicians can document patient encounters hands-free, ask clinical questions, and automate administrative tasks. |
Who should use it: Physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. This is a vertical-specific product. If you’re not in healthcare, it’s not for you. |
Pricing: Not publicly listed. Contact Microsoft or your licensing partner. |
Prerequisites: Microsoft Entra ID tenant and Dragon Admin Center access. Azure subscription required for Flex licences. |
Availability: Generally available in the US (December 2025), Canada, UK, Austria, France, Germany, and Ireland. |
So Which One Do You Need?
Start with your use case:
“I just want a chatbot for general questions” → | Copilot Chat (free with M365) |
“I want AI that understands my work: emails, meetings, documents” → | Microsoft 365 Copilot ($30 or $21 for SMBs) |
“I only need AI for meeting recaps” → | Teams Premium ($10/user/month) |
“I’m an individual, not part of an organisation” → | Copilot Pro ($20/month) |
“I want to build custom AI assistants” → | Copilot Studio (included with M365 Copilot, or PAYG) |
“I need AI for security investigations” → | Security Copilot ($4/SCU/hour, or included with E5) |
“I write code” → | GitHub Copilot (Free/Pro/Business/Enterprise) |
“I’m a clinician documenting patient encounters” → | Dragon Copilot |
Need Help?
If you’re negotiating a Microsoft agreement and Copilot is on the table, get in touch. We don’t sell licences, so our advice is unbiased. We help organisations navigate the complexity (and the cost) of Microsoft’s AI offerings.