Summary
- Copilot Chat is now included free for all Microsoft 365 users.
- Works in a side pane, content-aware in apps; reference files with / to pull summaries.
- Copilot subscribers get full work-data access, AI search, Canvas, extra agents, and GPT-5 priority.
If you’re a Microsoft 365 fan, you either love Copilot or you hate it. Unfortunately for the latter camp, Microsoft would really, really prefer that you did love it. In fact, it wants you to use its AI assistant so badly that it’s introducing a new feature that gives you the power of Copilot at your fingertips at no extra cost. However, if you are a subscriber to Copilot, don’t fret; there’s still something here for you.
Microsoft introduces Copilot Chat to all 365 users
In a post on the Microsoft Tech Community, the company breaks down what 365 users can expect from Copilot Chat. The most important thing to note is that Copilot Chat is available for all users, including people who aren’t subscribed to Microsoft 365 Copilot; however, as we’ll discover later, those who do pay monthly will get a little extra.
So, what does Copilot Chat do? Well, as Microsoft puts it, it seems to be a real productivity powerhouse:
Copilot Chat is secure AI chat grounded in the web—and now, it’s available in the Microsoft 365 apps. It’s content aware, meaning it quickly understands what you’re working on, tailoring answers to the file you have open. And it’s included at no additional cost for Microsoft 365 users.
The moment you need it, you can pull up Copilot Chat in a side pane of your file, and it will be ready to help right where you’re working—which means less copy and pasting, file uploading, and switching apps.
If you want to refer to another one of your documents, you can type “https://www.xda-developers.com/” into the chat bar and select the file you want Copilot to review. This allows you to grab summaries of other documents and paste them into your current one without even having to open them. Very handy.
As we mentioned earlier, Microsoft 365 Copilot subscribers receive additional benefits beyond the base Chat functionality. This includes giving Chat “all of your work data—drawing from personal and shared documents, emails, meetings, chats, and more” to help it help you better. It also includes an AI-powered search for all your documents, plus a handy “Canvas” feature that allows you to create images in a flash. Plus, subscribers unlock more AI agents (including Researcher and Analyst) alongside priority access to generative AI features and the GPT-5 model.
If you want to see more AI stuff you can do, Microsoft recently introduced a new tool to help people get more from their OneDrive files.