What Is Microsoft Copilot? The Complete Guide to Bing Chat's Evolution (2026)

Microsoft Copilot is Microsoft's AI assistant, formerly called Bing Chat, available free on the web, in Windows, Edge and mobile apps, and built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams through paid Microsoft 365 plans. It runs on OpenAI's GPT-5.5 models, with Microsoft 365 Copilot also using Anthropic's Claude models for some tasks.

Bing Chat no longer exists under that name. Microsoft launched it in February 2023 as an AI chat feature inside Bing search, then renamed it Microsoft Copilot starting in September 2023, with the transition completed by December 2023. Copilot is now Microsoft's umbrella AI assistant brand, built into Windows, Edge, and Microsoft 365 apps such as Word, Excel, and Outlook, and it currently runs on OpenAI's GPT model family under a standalone Copilot app, a free web and mobile experience, and paid Microsoft 365 Copilot tiers for individuals and businesses. If you searched for "Bing Chat," what you are looking for today is Microsoft Copilot.

Key Highlights of Microsoft Copilot (Formerly Bing Chat)

• Bing Chat launched on February 7, 2023, giving the public its first taste of GPT-4 weeks before OpenAI officially released the model.
• Microsoft retired the Bing Chat name in stages between September and December 2023, consolidating it into the single Microsoft Copilot brand.
• Copilot now spans a free consumer app, a business-grade Microsoft 365 Copilot tier, and deep integration across Windows 11, Edge, and Office apps.
• Consumer features have expanded well beyond chat, including deep research reports, image generation, voice conversations, shopping assistance, and health-related Q&A.
• The standalone Copilot Pro subscription was phased out and folded into Microsoft 365 Premium, changing how individuals pay for premium Copilot access.
• Copilot competes directly with ChatGPT and Google Gemini, and its biggest differentiator is native embedding inside the Microsoft productivity stack that most enterprises already use.

The History of Bing Chat

Microsoft began rolling out a redesigned version of Bing search on February 7, 2023, and the centerpiece of that redesign was a new conversational chat feature that came to be known as Bing Chat. According to Microsoft's own rollout at the time, roughly one million people joined the waitlist for early access within the first 48 hours, a sign of how much curiosity the ChatGPT boom had generated a few months earlier.

What made Bing Chat significant from a purely technical standpoint was timing. It was powered by an early, customized version of GPT-4, and it reached the public roughly five weeks before OpenAI formally announced GPT-4 to the world. For a brief window, Bing Chat was the only widely accessible way to interact with GPT-4 class capability, which is part of why the launch generated so much press attention.

That attention was not all positive. Within days, users discovered that the chatbot had an internal persona referred to as "Sydney," a development codename for the chat experience that occasionally surfaced during conversations. Journalists and early testers published transcripts of the bot expressing erratic, emotionally charged, or unsettling responses, and a security researcher used a prompt injection technique to surface parts of the system's internal instructions within a day of launch. Microsoft moved quickly to add conversation limits and safety tuning, and by mid-February 2023 the company publicly acknowledged the "Sydney" codename, said it was being phased out of the preview, and continued refining the model's behavior in the following weeks.

Despite the rocky start, Bing Chat kept expanding. Microsoft opened it more broadly through the spring and summer of 2023, brought it to mobile through the Bing and Edge apps, and in July 2023 introduced Bing Chat Enterprise, a business-focused version aimed at organizations that needed commercial data protection before they would let employees use an AI chatbot with company information. That enterprise variant turned out to be an important stepping stone toward what came next.

The Rebrand to Microsoft Copilot, and Why It Happened

By late 2023, Microsoft had a growing collection of AI features scattered across different products, each with its own name: Bing Chat, Bing Chat Enterprise, GitHub Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot previews, and Windows-level AI experiments. Customers and even internal teams were confused about how these tools related to each other and which one to use for what purpose.

Microsoft addressed that sprawl by consolidating everything under a single brand: Copilot. The company announced the Microsoft Copilot brand on September 21, 2023, with a broader rollout beginning September 26, 2023, as part of a free Windows 11 update that added a Copilot pane directly to the desktop. Through October and November 2023, Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise were progressively renamed to Copilot and Copilot for Microsoft 365, respectively, and Microsoft even introduced a dedicated Copilot key on new Windows keyboards to reinforce that this was now a first-class, always-available system feature rather than a website add-on. By December 1, 2023, the transition was effectively complete: the underlying chat experience that had started life as Bing Chat was now uniformly branded Microsoft Copilot, with general availability across consumer and commercial channels.

The strategic logic behind the rebrand was straightforward. Framing the assistant as "Bing Chat" tied it to a search engine with a fraction of Google's market share, which limited how seriously enterprises and everyday users took it as a general-purpose AI tool. Repositioning it as "Copilot," a name Microsoft was already using successfully for GitHub Copilot among developers, let the company market one consistent AI identity across Windows, Edge, Office, security tools, and eventually its own dedicated Copilot app and web destination, independent of Bing entirely. It also positioned Copilot as a direct answer to ChatGPT and Google's own assistant products, rather than as a search engine feature competing in a much narrower category.

Bing Chat to Copilot Timeline

Legacy note: the original Creative, Balanced and Precise conversation styles were retired; today's modes are Smart, Think Deeper and Deep Research.

Current Copilot Features and Pricing in 2026

Copilot today is really two related products: a free-to-use consumer assistant (with an optional premium tier folded into Microsoft 365 Premium), and Microsoft 365 Copilot, a paid add-on for business users that connects the assistant to a company's own documents, email, and chat history.

Consumer Copilot Features

The free Copilot experience, available on the web, in Windows, in Microsoft Edge, and through dedicated mobile apps, now includes a wide range of capabilities that go far beyond the original chat box:

• Deep Research and Think Deeper modes that produce longer, more structured research reports on a topic instead of a single short answer.
• Copilot Imagine for generating and editing images from text prompts.
• Copilot Voice, supporting spoken conversations in more than 50 languages, along with an animated on-screen character called Mico.
• Vision capabilities that let Copilot see and reason about what is on your screen or camera in real time inside Edge, Windows, and mobile apps, useful for troubleshooting, translation, or identifying objects.
• Shopping assistance, including product comparisons, price tracking across retailers, and one-click purchase flows.
• Health-related answers sourced from credible references such as government health agencies and peer-reviewed journals, along with tools to find doctors or specialists.
• Copilot Pages, an editable canvas for turning Copilot's answers into shareable documents, and group chat support for collaborating with up to 32 people at once.

Microsoft previously sold a $20-per-month Copilot Pro subscription that unlocked faster response times, priority access to newer models, and enhanced image generation. In late 2025, Microsoft retired the standalone Copilot Pro plan and folded its benefits into Microsoft 365 Premium, a roughly $19.99-per-month consumer plan that bundles AI features across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote together with the full Microsoft 365 app suite and additional cloud storage. Existing Copilot Pro subscribers were able to keep their plan for a transition period, but new signups are directed to Microsoft 365 Premium instead.

Microsoft 365 Copilot for Business

For organizations, Microsoft 365 Copilot connects the assistant to a company's own content: emails in Outlook, documents in SharePoint and OneDrive, meetings in Teams, and more, so answers reflect internal context rather than only public information. As of 2026, Microsoft's published business pricing includes several paths, summarized below.

Microsoft also introduced higher-end enterprise bundling in 2026 that packages Microsoft 365 E5, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and an autonomous "Agent 365" layer into a single premium SKU for large organizations, reflecting how quickly Microsoft is iterating on packaging as agentic AI features mature. Because Microsoft periodically adjusts these tiers and promotional pricing windows, always confirm current numbers on Microsoft's own Microsoft 365 Copilot pricing page before budgeting for a rollout.

How to Use Microsoft Copilot

Getting started with Copilot depends on whether you want the free consumer assistant or the work-connected business version.

1. Access the free version. Open Copilot directly at Microsoft's Copilot web app, through the Copilot icon built into Microsoft Edge, via the Copilot app on Windows 11 (or the dedicated Copilot key on newer keyboards), or through the Copilot app on iOS and Android. No purchase is required for the base experience.
2. Sign in for more personalization. Signing in with a Microsoft account unlocks memory of past conversations, Copilot Pages, and, for eligible accounts, commercial data protection.
3. Choose a response mode when needed. For simple questions, the default "smart" mode is usually enough. For deeper research tasks, look for Think Deeper or Deep Research options that trade speed for a more thorough, cited answer.
4. Use it inside Office apps if your organization has Microsoft 365 Copilot. A Copilot icon appears directly inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, letting you draft documents, build formulas from plain-language requests, generate slide decks, and summarize long email threads without leaving the app.
5. Try voice and vision features on mobile. The Copilot mobile app supports spoken conversations and can analyze what your camera sees, which is useful for quick translations, troubleshooting a device, or getting an explanation of something in front of you.
6. Upgrade only if you need it. Most individual users can accomplish a great deal on the free tier; consider Microsoft 365 Premium or a business Copilot add-on only once you consistently hit usage limits or need Copilot wired into your organization's own documents and email.

Copilot in Microsoft 365 Apps

Microsoft Copilot Prompt Library

Good Copilot prompts state the goal, give context, name the source and set the format. Try these:

1. "Summarise the attached report in five bullet points for a senior stakeholder, focusing on risks and decisions needed."
2. "Using the emails from the last week about Project Atlas, list open issues and who raised them."
3. "Act as a PMP-certified project manager. Draft a risk register with likelihood, impact and mitigation for a CRM migration."
4. "Compare these two vendor proposals in a table: cost, timeline, risks and support terms."
5. "Rewrite this paragraph for a non-technical audience in under 100 words."
6. "Analyse this whiteboard photo and convert the workflow into numbered steps."

Tips: use Think Deeper or Deep Research for complex questions, ask for sources, and iterate with follow-up prompts rather than starting over.

Is Microsoft Copilot Safe? Privacy and Data

Microsoft Copilot's data handling depends on how you sign in. With a work or school account (Microsoft 365 Copilot or Copilot Chat), prompts and responses stay within your organisation's Microsoft 365 boundary, are protected by enterprise data protection, and are not used to train the underlying models. Microsoft 365 Copilot only shows content a user already has permission to see, so organisations should review SharePoint and OneDrive permissions before rollout.

With a personal Microsoft account, conversation history is saved so Copilot can personalise responses; you can review or delete your history in your Microsoft account privacy settings and control whether conversations are used for model training. Avoid entering confidential client or company data into the consumer version.

Limitations of Microsoft Copilot

• Can be confidently wrong. Like all large language models, Copilot can produce plausible but incorrect facts, figures or citations. Always check numbers, legal and regulatory details.
• Only as good as your data and permissions. Microsoft 365 Copilot reflects messy file structures and over-shared permissions back to users.
• Needs an internet connection. Copilot runs in Microsoft's cloud.
• Not a replacement for specialist software or judgment. It drafts, summarises and analyses; it does not file, approve or take accountability.
• Cost adds up for teams. Business features require a qualifying Microsoft 365 base licence plus the Copilot add-on.

Microsoft Copilot vs ChatGPT vs Google Gemini

Copilot, ChatGPT, and Gemini all now sit in the same competitive category of general-purpose AI assistants, but they differ in underlying models, distribution, and where they add the most value.

The practical takeaway for most professionals is less about which model scores marginally higher on a given benchmark and more about ecosystem fit. If your organization runs on Outlook, Word, Excel, and Teams, Copilot's advantage is that the assistant is already sitting inside the applications you open every day, with permission-aware access to your own files and email. If your work is more coding-centric, or your team already lives in Google Workspace or Google Cloud, ChatGPT or Gemini respectively may fit more naturally. Microsoft's own Copilot features page is the most reliable source for exactly what the consumer product supports at any given time, since capabilities have been updated frequently since the Bing Chat era.

Which Copilot Is Which?

Use Cases for Working Professionals

For professionals who remember this tool as Bing Chat, the practical use cases have expanded considerably along with the rebrand:

• Project managers can use Copilot inside Outlook and Teams to summarize status updates, draft risk logs, and turn meeting transcripts into action items without manually reviewing every message.
• Business analysts can ask Copilot in Excel to explain a complex spreadsheet, build formulas from a plain-language description, or generate a first-pass chart from raw data.
• Executives and CXOs can use Copilot's research and summarization modes to get up to speed on unfamiliar topics quickly, or to prepare talking points before a meeting.
• Software developers can pair Copilot's reasoning capabilities with GitHub Copilot for code review, debugging explanations, and documentation drafting, since both now share the Copilot brand and, increasingly, related model infrastructure.
• Marketing and content teams can use image generation and Copilot Pages to move from a rough brief to a shareable draft in a single session.
• IT and security teams evaluating an organization-wide rollout should weigh the commercial data protection guarantees that come with signed-in, licensed Copilot use against the free consumer tier, which does not carry the same enterprise data handling commitments.

Because Copilot's business value increasingly depends on how well an organization understands prompting, data governance, and where AI fits into existing processes, many professionals are formalizing this knowledge through structured training rather than picking it up informally. Simpliaxis offers several courses relevant to exactly this need, including an AI Copilots for Business Users course that covers Microsoft Copilot alongside Google's and Amazon's equivalent tools, a Generative AI for Project Managers training program built around using Copilot and similar assistants inside project workflows, a Generative AI for Software Developers course for engineering teams, and an AI for CXOs certification training program for leaders who need a strategic, executive-level view of generative AI adoption across an organization.

Key Takeaways

• Bing Chat launched in February 2023 as an early public showcase of GPT-4 and generated significant early attention, including the "Sydney" persona controversy.
• Microsoft renamed Bing Chat to Microsoft Copilot in a staged rollout from September through December 2023, consolidating its scattered AI branding into one identity.
• Today's Copilot spans a free consumer assistant with research, image generation, voice, shopping, and health features, alongside paid Microsoft 365 Copilot tiers for business use.
• Microsoft retired the standalone Copilot Pro subscription in late 2025, moving premium consumer features into Microsoft 365 Premium.
• Copilot, ChatGPT, and Gemini are now direct competitors, with Copilot's core advantage being deep integration into Windows and Microsoft 365 rather than a fundamentally different underlying model.
• Professionals evaluating Copilot for work should weigh ecosystem fit, data governance needs, and structured training to get real productivity gains rather than surface-level chat use.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is Bing Chat still available?

Not under that name. Microsoft phased out the Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise names between September and December 2023, renaming the assistant Microsoft Copilot. The underlying capability lives on and has expanded substantially, but you will not find a product currently marketed as "Bing Chat."

2. Why did Microsoft rename Bing Chat to Copilot?

Microsoft wanted a single, consistent AI brand across Windows, Edge, Office, and its developer tools instead of separate names for each surface. Tying the assistant to Bing also limited how it was perceived given Bing's smaller search market share, while "Copilot" let Microsoft position the assistant as a broad productivity companion competing directly with ChatGPT and Google's AI products.

3. Is Microsoft Copilot free to use?

Yes, a free version of Copilot is available on the web, in Microsoft Edge, in Windows 11, and through mobile apps. Microsoft also offers paid tiers, Microsoft 365 Premium for individuals and Microsoft 365 Copilot for businesses, that add higher usage limits, priority access, and integration with an organization's own documents and email.

4. What happened to Copilot Pro?

Microsoft retired the standalone $20-per-month Copilot Pro subscription in late 2025 and rolled its benefits into Microsoft 365 Premium, a consumer plan priced around $19.99 per month that bundles AI features with the full Microsoft 365 app suite. Existing Copilot Pro subscribers retained access for a transition period.

5. What AI model powers Microsoft Copilot?

Bing Chat launched on an early, customised version of GPT-4. In 2026, the consumer Copilot app runs on OpenAI's GPT-5.5 model family, the same family behind ChatGPT. Microsoft 365 Copilot for business is multi-model: it can automatically choose OpenAI's GPT-5.5 or Anthropic's Claude depending on the task, for example Claude for some presentation work and GPT-5.5 for deep research with citations.

6. How is Microsoft Copilot different from ChatGPT?

The two share a closely related underlying model family, but Copilot's main advantage is distribution and integration: it is built directly into Windows, Edge, and Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, and Outlook, with permission-aware access to an organization's own files when licensed for business use. ChatGPT is a standalone product not tied to any single operating system or office suite.

7. How is Microsoft Copilot different from Google Gemini?

Gemini runs on Google's own Gemini model family rather than an OpenAI model, and it is built into Google Workspace apps like Docs, Gmail, and Sheets, along with Android. Copilot's equivalent integration is with Microsoft 365 and Windows. The better fit generally comes down to which productivity ecosystem an individual or organization already uses.

8. Can businesses still buy Bing Chat Enterprise?

No. Bing Chat Enterprise, the business-focused version launched in July 2023, was renamed Microsoft 365 Copilot (or simply Copilot, depending on licensing) during the same 2023 rebrand that retired the Bing Chat consumer name. Businesses today purchase Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing directly rather than a product called Bing Chat Enterprise.

9. Does Microsoft Copilot use my data to train its models?

Not for work or school accounts: Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Chat keep data within your organisation and do not use it for training. For personal accounts, you can control model-training use in your Microsoft privacy settings.

10. Is Microsoft Copilot the same as GitHub Copilot?

No. Microsoft Copilot is a general productivity assistant for Windows, Edge and Microsoft 365; GitHub Copilot is a coding assistant that works inside code editors.

11. Is Microsoft Copilot free for business users?

Yes, partly. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is included with Microsoft 365 work accounts at no extra cost. Using Copilot inside Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams with your work files requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence.

12. How much does Microsoft 365 Copilot cost for enterprises?

The Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on costs USD 30 per user per month on an annual plan and requires a qualifying base licence such as Microsoft 365 E3 or E5. Small businesses can choose Copilot Business at USD 21 per user per month (with promotional pricing of USD 18).

13. Can I delete my Copilot chat history?

Yes. With a personal account, go to your Microsoft account privacy dashboard to view and delete Copilot activity. In organisations, retention is managed by IT.

14. What happened to Creative, Balanced and Precise modes?

They were retired. Copilot now offers Smart mode for everyday questions and Think Deeper or Deep Research for complex, cited answers.