Microsoft Copilots Explained: Are These AI Tools Worth Your Money?
Microsoft Copilots with Hyperlinked Icons
Are you confused about Microsoft’s Copilot AI solutions? You’re not alone. Like every software company, Microsoft understands that they must integrate generative AI solutions into their platforms or risk becoming obsolete. Microsoft has wisely been rapidly building Copilots into every one of their offerings. They are building so fast they have outpaced their ability to communicate a simple and digestible story about their new generative AI solutions and their value to customers. This is understandable since Microsoft provides a broad portfolio of solutions, each injected with generative AI. Like many, I have also been confused about what these Copilots do, what they cost, and whether we should buy them.
Throughout my career, I have helped large enterprises implement strategic AI technology solutions to achieve positive business outcomes. I’ll help you cut through the complexity and noise surrounding this topic to accelerate your decision-making and time-to-value with generative AI and Microsoft Copilots.
Here’s what you need to know: Microsoft’s Copilot offerings come in three distinct categories, each with its own licensing model and value proposition. To help you make the right choice, this article breaks down each category to give you the whole picture—what each Copilot does, how much it costs, and whether it’s worth the investment.
Here’s how I’ll guide you through this:
Free Microsoft Copilots – Cost-free tools for those in the Microsoft ecosystem.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Bundle – An all-in-one package designed to elevate your experience within Microsoft 365 applications.
Microsoft Copilots with Standalone Pricing – Independent Copilot tools with specific use cases outside the bundled suite.
For each category, you’ll discover:
What It Is: A brief overview of each Microsoft Copilot
What it costs: Current pricing, if any, for available Microsoft Copilots
Should you buy it? An exploration of the value economics to inform your data-driven decision
By the end of this guide, you’ll be well on your way to making an informed choice on the Copilot that best supports your workflow and objectives.
Free Microsoft Copilots
Microsoft offers several Copilots for free to get users acquainted with the potential of their AI-driven solutions. These free tools are a great starting point for those curious about how Copilots can enhance their daily tasks without any financial commitment beyond the Microsoft products already purchased.
Microsoft Copilot in Windows
Copilot on Windows integrates seamlessly with the operating system to assist users with a wide range of activities, from scheduling to content creation. This AI companion can help streamline workflows by offering smart, context-aware suggestions right within the Windows environment.
Microsoft Copilot in Edge browser
Edge browser’s Copilot aims to revolutionize your web experience, providing intelligent insights, faster search results, and proactive recommendations while browsing. It identifies relevant information and helps you navigate the complexities of the web more effectively.
Microsoft Copilot in Bing search
Bing search’s Copilot leverages AI to deliver more accurate and contextual search results. With advanced algorithms, it understands user queries better and provides answers that are not only relevant but also enriched with additional useful information.
Microsoft Copilot in Azure
Azure’s Copilot integrates AI to assist with cloud management, resource allocation, and deployment strategies. It provides recommendations based on best practices, helping you optimize performance, manage costs, and ensure security. Whether setting up a new virtual machine or balancing workloads across multiple regions, Azure’s Copilot guides you with data-driven insights and automated processes. Of course, you must first be an Azure customer to try out Copilot in Azure.
Microsoft Copilot in Viva
Copilot in Viva helps you communicate more effectively with your communities. Conversation Starters provide suggestions about what to post where based on your activity and your organization's trending topics. Copilot in Viva Engage also helps you write and edit your posts to ensure they meet your goals.
Microsoft Copilot in Power Apps
Power Apps' Copilot revolutionizes app development by providing intuitive AI-assisted design and functionality recommendations. It helps users create responsive, feature-rich applications without extensive coding knowledge. Whether you're building a simple form or a complex workflow, Copilot offers suggestions for data sources, layout improvements, and advanced functionalities, making app development faster and more accessible. Similar to these other free Copilots, you must first be a Power Apps customer to try out Copilot in Power Apps.
Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365
Copilot in Dynamics 365 enhances business processes by providing AI-driven insights and automation across sales, customer service, finance, and operations. It streamlines workflows by analyzing data patterns, predicting outcomes, and suggesting actions to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction. Whether managing customer interactions or optimizing supply chains, Copilot in Dynamics 365 empowers users to make data-informed decisions and drive business success.
It provides a chat interface for quick summaries of sales opportunities and leads, updates, meeting preparations, account-related news, and more. Users can seamlessly integrate Copilot with Outlook and Teams for better data management and utilize its generative AI capabilities for record summarization and email content generation. If you are already a Dynamics 365 customer, you will have Copilot in Dynamics 365 available at no additional cost.
Microsoft Copilot in Fabric
Copilot in Fabric transforms data integration and analytics by leveraging AI to simplify complex data operations. It aids in data preparation, cleaning, and transformation, ensuring high data quality for analysis. Copilot provides intelligent recommendations for data modeling and visualization, enabling users to derive actionable insights with ease. Whether managing large datasets or creating detailed reports, Copilot in Fabric enhances efficiency and accuracy in data-driven decision-making. This Copilot is also available at no additional cost for Microsoft Fabric customers.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Bundle
The Microsoft 365 Copilot bundle is designed to elevate your productivity across all Microsoft 365 applications. This all-in-one package integrates AI capabilities within Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, OneDrive, OneNote, and Loop, transforming the way you work with these tools.
In addition to providing embedded Copilots within each of these popular Microsoft work tools, the Microsoft 365 Copilot bundle also includes Business Chat (BizChat), which glues together the Large Language Model (LLM), the Microsoft 365 apps, and your data—your calendar, emails, chats, documents, meetings, and contacts—providing a unified experience.
Microsoft Copilot in Outlook
Outlook’s Copilot enhances email management by offering smart replies, summarizing long email threads, and scheduling meetings. It simplifies communication and ensures you stay on top of your inbox efficiently.
Microsoft Copilot in Word
Word’s Copilot assists in drafting, editing, and polishing documents. It offers grammar and style suggestions, generates content ideas, and helps format documents according to professional standards, making writing tasks more streamlined.
Microsoft Copilot in Excel
Excel’s Copilot is a powerful tool for data analysis and visualization. It can generate complex formulas, create charts, and provide insights based on data patterns, enabling users to make informed decisions faster.
Microsoft Copilot in PowerPoint
PowerPoint’s Copilot helps create engaging presentations effortlessly. It offers design suggestions, generates slide content, and ensures consistency in layout and style, making it easier to deliver impactful presentations.
Microsoft Copilot in Teams
Teams’ Copilot enhances collaboration by summarizing meeting notes, suggesting action items, and integrating with other Microsoft tools. It helps keep meetings productive and ensures that critical information is captured and shared effectively.
Microsoft Copilot in OneDrive
OneDrive’s Copilot organizes files intelligently, provides quick access to frequently used documents, and offers suggestions for file management. It streamlines file storage and retrieval, making it easier to keep your digital workspace organized.
Microsoft Copilot in OneNote
OneNote’s Copilot assists in note-taking by organizing notes, suggesting tags, and integrating with other Microsoft 365 applications. It enhances productivity by making it easier to capture and retrieve information.
Microsoft Copilot in Loop
Loop’s Copilot facilitates dynamic and flexible collaboration, allowing users to co-create content in real-time. It integrates with various Microsoft 365 apps, providing a seamless experience for team projects and creative brainstorming sessions.
Microsoft Copilot in Power Pages
Copilot in Power Pages is designed to streamline the creation and management of low-code business websites. Leveraging AI-driven suggestions and automation, users can build feature-rich, responsive web pages with ease. This Copilot assists with everything from layout design to data integration, ensuring a seamless experience for both creators and end-users.
Microsoft Copilot in Forms
Copilot in Forms is designed to enhance the creation and management of forms with AI-assisted features. This tool helps users build professional, interactive forms quickly and efficiently. It offers suggestions for question types based on the form's context, automates data validation, and integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft applications to ensure smooth data flow. Whether you're designing a survey, feedback form, or registration form, Copilot in Forms provides a user-friendly experience that saves time and improves accuracy.
Microsoft Copilot in Whiteboard
Copilot in Whiteboard is designed to enhance collaborative brainstorming and planning sessions. Utilizing AI-driven insights, this tool helps teams visualize their ideas more effectively. It offers smart suggestions for diagrams, integrates real-time data, and even predicts the next steps based on the context of the discussion. With Copilot in Whiteboard, teams can streamline their creative processes, making meetings more productive and engaging.
Microsoft Copilot in Stream
Copilot in Stream is designed to elevate the experience of creating and managing video content. By harnessing the power of AI, it provides users with tools to edit, optimize, and annotate videos effortlessly. Whether you are hosting live streams or managing on-demand content, this Copilot assists in enhancing video quality, automating subtitles, and integrating interactive elements. It ensures that your video content is not only engaging but also accessible to a wider audience.
Microsoft Copilot in Planner
Copilot in Planner is designed to revolutionize the way teams manage their tasks and projects. Utilizing AI-driven capabilities, this tool assists in creating detailed project plans, assigning tasks, and setting deadlines efficiently. It provides intelligent recommendations based on project data, automates routine updates, and facilitates better communication among team members. With Copilot in Planner, project management becomes more streamlined, ensuring that teams can focus on achieving their goals with clarity and precision.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Bundle Pricing
The Microsoft 365 Copilot bundle costs $30/user/month, with an annual subscription of $360/user/year. Copilots are purchased in addition to a separate license for Microsoft 365. How should we determine whether the Microsoft 365 Copilot bundle is a good investment? Let’s do some quick math to calculate our estimated Return On Investment (ROI).
We already know the investment cost for one year is $360/user/year. In order to break even on my ROI to achieve a value greater than one for the period of one year, I would need a gain on my investment greater than $360. How should we calculate the gain from the Microsoft 365 Copilot bundle? A fundamental value proposition of Microsoft Copilots is that they save you time. Let’s make some assumptions to calculate how much time these Copilots would have to save me in one year.
Assumptions for ROI calculation:
User works 2,080 hours in a year for an employee who works a traditional 40-hour workweek
User earns $100,000 annually / 2,080 hours = $48 / hour
Minimum time gain on Copilot investment to break even on ROI is $360 / $48 = 7.5 hours
According to my math, the Microsoft 365 Copilot bundle would need to save me 8 hours, or roughly a day of work each year, or approximately 2 minutes each day (8 hours / 260 yearly working days). To determine whether you should buy the Microsoft 365 Copilot bundle, you can estimate whether these Copilots can save you at least 2 minutes on average every day, in which case you should strongly consider buying it.
Your time savings estimate will largely depend on the amount of time at work you currently spend using Microsoft 365 Apps. For example, are all your video calls through Microsoft Teams? Do you use Microsoft Word as your primary writing tool? Is Microsoft Excel your go-to tool for working with data? When building a presentation, do you start with Microsoft PowerPoint? For many enterprises bought into the Microsoft ecosystem, the answer is often yes.
In personal testing within the Microsoft ecosystem, I have discovered that, yes, it’s likely that the Microsoft 365 Copilots save me at least 2 minutes every day, mainly due to meeting summarizations by Copilot in Teams and help with creating outlines for articles like this one in Microsoft Word. The ROI math is favorable, even considering I have not found every Copilot within the Microsoft 365 Copilot bundle particularly helpful, especially compared to alternatives.
For example, I was excited about having the Copilot in PowerPoint generate images to complement text in my presentation since this would save me a lot of time. Unfortunately, however, the Copilot in PowerPoint is simply not yet capable enough to do this and is only helpful at generating simple layouts. It pales in comparison to more capable generative AI solutions for business graphics like Napkin AI. Nevertheless, the Microsoft 365 Copilot bundle purchase still probably makes sense for me because of the other Copilots that do help me quite a bit. And as Microsoft continues to improve these Copilots and they become more useful, the purchase of Microsoft 365 Copilots will make even more sense.
Microsoft Copilots with Standalone Pricing
Microsoft has unveiled a comprehensive lineup of Copilot tools designed to enhance productivity across various domains. These AI-powered assistants are available with standalone SKUs/pricing, making them accessible to a broad range of users. Each Copilot is tailored to simplify and optimize specific tasks, from coding and data analysis to security and project management.
Microsoft Copilot Pro
Copilot Pro combines the capabilities of various Copilot tools into a comprehensive package for professionals who require a versatile AI assistant. It offers a range of features tailored to different domains, providing a holistic approach to productivity enhancement.
Copilot Pro provides priority access to the latest models, including during peak times. Importantly, it also includes access to Copilots in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook.
Microsoft Copilot Pro Pricing
Microsoft Copilot Pro pricing is $20/user/month. Like our previous ROI estimations, Copilot Pro delivers positive business value if any combination of these copilots saves you as little as around 2 minutes/day.
GitHub Copilot
GitHub Copilot is an innovative tool designed to aid developers by providing AI-generated code suggestions directly within their development environment. By understanding the context of the code, it assists in writing more efficient and error-free code, ultimately speeding up the development process. GitHub Copilot supports many programming languages and frameworks, making it a versatile assistant for any coding task.
GitHub Copilot Pricing
GitHub Copilot is priced at $21/user/month. According to our value estimation assumptions introduced for Microsoft 365 Copilots, to return a positive ROI, I would need GitHub Copilot to save me 1.2 minutes of work every day. Anyone who has tried these generative AI tools for software development will attest they save far more time than a couple of minutes each day, allowing developers to work much more quickly and deliver business value in significantly less time.
Microsoft Copilot for Power BI
Copilot for Power BI aims to empower data analysts and business users by simplifying data visualization and analysis. It uses AI to provide insights, generate reports, and create interactive dashboards, enabling users to make data-driven decisions with ease.
Microsoft Copilot for Power BI Pricing
Copilot for Power BI pricing is less straightforward. Requests to Copilot consume Fabric Capacity Units (CU). Copilot usage is measured by the number of tokens processed. Tokens can be thought of as pieces of words. As a reference, 1,000 tokens represent approximately 750 words. The Copilot in Fabric cost is calculated per 1,000 tokens, and input and output tokens are consumed at different rates, as shown in Table 1.
| Operation in Metrics App | Description | Operation Unit of Measure | Consumption rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copilot in Fabric | The input prompt | Per 1,000 Tokens | 400 CU seconds |
| Copilot in Fabric | The output completion | Per 1,000 Tokens | 1,200 CU seconds |
Table 1. Copilot in Fabric Consumption Rate
For reference, OpenAI API pricing is $0.0025/1000 tokens input and $0.01/1000 tokens output for GPT-4o. But what is the cost of a “CU second”? The cost of Microsoft Capacity Units (CUs) for Microsoft Fabric varies by region and is priced per second with a one-minute minimum. Let’s assume our capacity is in Central US, and 1 CU costs $0.18 per hour for Pay-as-you-go. Under these assumptions, pricing for Copilot in Power BI is identical to making API calls to OpenAI GPT-4o in the apples-to-apples comparison in Table 2.
| Service | Operation | Description | Cost per 1,000 Tokens | Consumption Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Fabric | Copilot in Fabric | The input prompt | $0.0025 | 400 CU seconds |
| Copilot in Fabric | The output completion | $0.01 | 1,200 CU seconds | |
| OpenAI API | GPT-4o API | The input prompt | $0.0025 | Per 1,000 tokens |
| GPT-4o API | The output completion | $0.01 | Per 1,000 tokens |
Table 2. Comparison of Microsoft Fabric (Central US) and OpenAI API Pricing for GPT-4o
Given the pricing parity in Table 2, we know that if we invested in building our own generative AI solution to work with data in Power BI it’s unlikely to be operationally cheaper than the Microsoft Copilot for Power BI solution. Due to the consumption pricing model for Copilot in Power BI, to estimate ROI you could track CU seconds consumed for your project to estimate investment cost. To give you an idea, Microsoft provides the examples in Table 3, which I augmented to include pricing at $0.18 per CU per hour.
| Artifact | Prompt | Input Tokens | Output Tokens | Consumption (CU seconds) | Dollar Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dataflow Gen2 | "Only keep European customers" | 3,160 | 2,149 | 3,842.8 | $0.19 |
| Notebook | "Load Customers from my Lakehouse into DataFrames" | 4,967 | 227 | 2,259.2 | $0.11 |
| Notebook | "Analyze Customers and Suggest ways to visualize the data" | 6,608 | 486 | 3,226.4 | $0.16 |
| Power BI Report | "Create a page that shows the City Distribution of Customers" | 3,759 | 839 | 2,510.4 | $0.13 |
| Power BI Report | "Summarize visuals on this page" | 1,410 | 220 | 828 | $0.04 |
| Total | 19,904 | 3,921 | 12,666.8 | $0.63 | |
Table 3. Example cost of each step and total cost
Given the example pricing in Table 3, an investment in Copilot for Power BI will likely return a positive ROI, considering the time it would take to respond manually to each of the example prompts.
Microsoft Copilot Studio
Copilot Studio allows you to design intelligent, dynamic and connected AI assistants for employees and customers. Deploy agents directly to the applications your employees frequently work in, like Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and Business Chat.
Microsoft Copilot Studio Pricing
Microsoft Copilot Studio pricing is $200 per 25K messages per month. A billable message is a request or message sent to the copilot/bot triggering an action and/or response. So your Microsoft Copilot Studio investment is directly tied to the value and usage of the copilot you create within Copilot Studio.
What about time-to-value using Copilot Studio to create custom Copilots? In minutes I was able to upload an assortment of Microsoft Copilot product documents to ground the knowledge of my “AI Vendor Assistant” Copilot and deploy it to Microsoft Teams.
Chat with custom Microsoft Copilot Studio Assistant in Microsoft Teams
Sure, I could have built an AI assistant in a variety of other ways, but it would have taken me longer to actually deploy and share the assistant to Microsoft Teams where co-workers expect a chat experience and where I expect the assistant will be used the most and provide the most value.
Microsoft Copilot for Security
Microsoft Copilot for Security helps security teams by summarizing vast data signals into actionable insights to quickly detect and respond to cyberthreats. It provides critical guidance and context to enable faster response times, supporting junior staff with step-by-step instructions and freeing senior staff from repetitive tasks to focus on strategic priorities.
Microsoft Copilot for Security Pricing
Microsoft Copilot Studio for Security pricing is based on consuming Security Compute Units (SCU), which vary by region. For the East US region, one SCU is priced at $4/SCU/hour. So, an estimated monthly bill for 1 x SCU provisioned for 24 hours daily for an entire month is $2,920.
Microsoft has put the legwork in to quantify the benefit of Copilot for Security in a whitepaper titled, “Randomized Controlled Trial for Copilot for Security Whitepaper”. Key findings in the whitepaper include:
Security pros were up to 22% faster across all tasks
Security novices were 44% more accurate on tasks
More than 93% of users wanted to use Copilot again
To estimate ROI for Copilot for Security, let’s assume an annual investment of $2,920 x 12 = $35,040 (1 x SCU running 24/7). This means our investment is roughly 35% of a $100,000 annual salary which might not be warranted for a security team with only one member. The math changes significantly as we add members to the security team. For example, a purchase of Copilot for Security for a security team of 2 members represents an investment of about 18% of their cumulatives salaries. A team of 3 members reduces the investment to 12% of their combined $100K annual salaries.
If we trust the findings in Microsoft’s whitepaper and we can make our security team 22% faster, then a purchase of Copilot for Security should at least probably be evaluated for Microsoft security teams of any size greater than one.
Microsoft Copilot for Finance
Microsoft Copilot for Finance turns data into actionable insights, enhancing efficiency and accelerating decision-making. It detects anomalies, generates reports, and creates presentation-ready visuals for sharing in Outlook and Teams. Copilot simplifies tasks with prompts for summarizing customer balance history and drafting communications. It boosts productivity by integrating seamlessly with financial data sources, Excel, Outlook, and Teams, while adhering to Microsoft 365 security and compliance policies.
Copilot for Finance Pricing
There is currently no available pricing for Microsoft Copilot for Finance as this offering is still in preview.
Microsoft Copilot for Sales
Microsoft Copilot for Sales helps close more deals by streamlining workflows, simplifying tasks, and personalizing interactions. It uses AI to draft emails, set up meetings, and generate summaries from CRM data in Outlook and Teams. Sales teams can create pitch decks and visualizations, access past interactions, and get real-time insights during calls. Copilot also enables syncing customer details with CRM, sharing opportunities in Teams, and setting up deal rooms. It integrates with Microsoft 365, Salesforce Sales Cloud, and Dynamics 365 Sales to bring sales insights and generative AI into daily workflows.
Microsoft Copilot for Sales Pricing
Microsoft Copilot for Sales pricing is $50/user/month with an annual investment of a total of $600/user/year. Importantly, Copilot for Sales includes both the Microsoft Copilot sales agent and the Microsoft 365 Copilot bundle. Existing Microsoft 365 Copilot customers can add the Copilot sales agent for an additional $20/user/month.
To calculate a rough estimate for ROI, similar to other Copilots with the same assumptions, the annual cost of investment for the Copilot sales agent alone is $30 x 12 months = $360/user/year which translates to about 2 minutes/day that the Copilot sales agent must save every sales rep to break even on our Return On Investment. And as we’ve shown previously, the Microsoft 365 Copilot must save each sales rep less than 2 minutes/day for the Copilot purchase decision to make sense. In total, if Copilot for Sales can save each sales rep 4 minutes or more each day, we should consider evaluating a purchase of Copilot for Sales.
A caveat to consider, however, is how Copilot for Sales might impact sales rep workflows. A key value proposition of most Microsoft Copilots is that they are embedded within each application where users can easily take advantage of them, minimizing data movement and workflow disruption, facilitating adoption and conversion to value. Most sales reps use Salesforce CRM and Salesforce has announced its own suite of competing Agents deployed directly within Salesforce. So even though Microsoft Copilot for Sales likely returns positive ROI, it should probably be evaluated against Salesforce Agent solutions which might be the better choice for maximum adoption and conversion of generative AI and data into value.
Microsoft Copilot for Service
Microsoft Copilot for Service modernizes contact centers by integrating generative AI to enhance service experiences and boost productivity. It connects with tools like Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Zendesk, allowing service representatives to access knowledge, generate AI-powered responses, and stay in the flow of work. The Copilot service agent works within Outlook and Teams to summarize cases, update CRM records, and draft communications. Easily customizable with Microsoft Copilot Studio, it accelerates deployment and seamlessly integrates into existing contact center systems.
Microsoft Copilot for Service Pricing
Microsoft Copilot for Service pricing is $50/user/month for a total annual investment of $600/user/year. This pricing includes both the Microsoft 365 Copilot service agent and the Microsoft 365 Copilot bundle. Existing Microsoft 365 Copilot customers can add the service agent for an additional $20/user/month, with an annual commitment and total investment of $240/user/year.
Due to the same pricing structure as Copilot for Sales, we can also conclude that if Copilot for Service, including the Microsoft 365 Copilot bundle can save our contact center reps 4 minutes or more each day, it likely delivers positive annual ROI and is worth evaluating for purchase.
Microsoft Copilot Conclusion
Microsoft’s Copilot offerings present a compelling case for anyone deeply integrated into the Microsoft ecosystem. Designed to enhance productivity, these AI-powered tools provide a straightforward path to generative AI adoption for organizations already working within platforms like Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and Azure. By embedding AI directly into each application, Copilots reduce workflow disruptions and minimize attention shifts, allowing users to remain focused and efficient.
For enterprises and professionals who frequently use Microsoft’s platforms, Copilots likely deliver the most immediate and cost-effective way to access AI-driven enhancements. While evaluating a purchase, consider the time savings Copilots can achieve—often as little as a few minutes per day per user is enough to generate a positive return on investment. The seamless integration across applications also means less time spent transitioning between tools, which can improve productivity even further.
Ultimately, Microsoft Copilots are best suited for organizations that prioritize staying “in the flow” within Microsoft’s ecosystem. Given the competitive pricing and growing capabilities, they are worth serious consideration for any business aiming to boost productivity with minimal friction in their day-to-day operations.
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