- Copilot Pro brings AI to Office apps and prioritizes access to the latest language models from OpenAI.
- The subscription costs $20, but you’ll also need a Microsoft 365 subscription to access the chatbot in the Office apps.
Microsoft is launching Copilot Pro, a paid subscription for consumers to access a more advanced version of the chatbot AI. The subscription costs $20 per month and competes head-to-head with the ChatGPT Plus subscription from OpenAI. According to the announcement, the new pro version of the chatbot provides priority access to the latest language models from OpenAI, the ability to create a custom Copilot GPT, and access to Copilot in Microsoft 365 (formerly Office) apps, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook.
Copilot Pro is a standalone product, which means you will also need a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family to use the chatbot inside the Office apps on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. (Microsoft notes that phone experience is coming soon.) If you don’t have a Microsoft 365 subscription, you can still access Copilot Pro, but you will only have access to the chatbot with its more advanced features.
The experience using this service is similar to the experience that Microsoft has already been offering to businesses. Once you sign up for Copilot Pro, you will have access to the chatbot from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint through a sidebar that will appear from the right side.
The chatbot can also appear in a document as you highlight a paragraph with suggestions to write the content with a single click or correct grammar mistakes.
The tasks you can perform with Copilot Pro will depend on the app. On Microsoft Word, for instance, you can ask the chatbot to create content for a document on a specific topic or based on data available in another document.
On Microsoft Excel, you can create a prompt to generate or analyze the data in the table. On PowerPoint, you can ask to create a presentation or style the presentation in a certain way. Finally, in Outlook, Copilot can help you draft email responses with toggles to adapt the length or tone.
When accessing Copilot Pro from outside the Microsoft 365 apps, you will have priority access to the GPT-4 Turbo from OpenAI during peak hours with the ability to switch between models for the right experience for the task. Also, you will have access to the more advanced version of the image creation feature with 100 boosts per day that uses the DALL-E language model from OpenAI.
Microsoft is also promising access to the new Copilot GPT Builder, a feature that’s coming soon that will allow you to create a custom GPT.
It’s important to note that the company will continue to have the free version of Copilot available on the web and on Windows. However, the pro subscription aims to provide additional features and bring the offering to the level of the ChatGPT offering.
Alongside the launch of Copilot Pro, the company is also relaxing its policy to allow businesses to access Copilot for Microsoft 365. Starting today, businesses can purchase as many seats as they need for $30 per user. In the past, businesses were required to purchase at least 300 seats.
The company is expected to continue releasing even more AI-focused features on its products with a major refresh of the operating system during the second half of 2024. For example, in the next version of Windows, Microsoft is expected to bring AI to search, and it plans to introduce new AI-powered features, such as timeline, video and game upscaling, live wallpapers, and more.
The signup page for the Copilot Pro is on this Microsoft website.
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 14 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].