Microsoft Copilot pricing: what each plan costs at home and at work

Microsoft Copilot pricing is confusing because "Copilot" is several products. There is a free Copilot app, Copilot built into the Microsoft 365 subscriptions for individuals and families, a Copilot add-on and bundles for small businesses, and Microsoft 365 Copilot for large organizations, plus GitHub Copilot, a separate coding assistant. This guide lists what each one costs on Microsoft's US pages as of October 9, 2026, what the usage tiers really mean, the conditions in the small print (who in a family gets Copilot, which business offer is a first-year promotion) and which plan fits which person.

Microsoft Copilot prices at a glance

Table: Copilot plans for individuals (Microsoft US prices, checked October 9, 2026)

Table: Copilot for organizations (Microsoft US prices, per user per month, checked October 9, 2026)

Yearly billing on the individual plans saves up to 17%, according to Microsoft. Its individual plans page lists no standalone "Copilot Pro" subscription: the paid Copilot tiers for consumers are now the Microsoft 365 plans themselves.

What the paid plans add over free Copilot

Every paid individual plan is described against the free version: Personal and Family give "higher usage than free", Premium gives "extensive usage" and Pro the "highest usage". In practice the plans add three things:

• Copilot inside the Office apps. Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook desktop apps "with Microsoft Copilot" come with every paid plan. Microsoft notes that Copilot in Excel needs AutoSave turned on, which means the file must be saved to OneDrive.
• More usage of the Copilot features. Chat, image creation, visual help from your screen or camera, and machine-generated audio (English only) all have higher limits as you move up.
• Features reserved for Premium and Pro. Microsoft lists Cowork (an assistant that plans and completes multi-step tasks), Researcher, Analyst and photo restyling in OneDrive, plus agent features that complete tasks for you, with limited use on Premium and the highest use on Pro.

The plans also carry everything Microsoft 365 always did: 1 TB of cloud storage per person, the desktop apps on up to 5 devices at once and security features. If you already pay for Microsoft 365 for Office and OneDrive, Copilot is now part of what you pay for.

The small print that changes the decision

1. In Family and Premium, only the owner gets Copilot. Microsoft's footnote says the Copilot features are only available to the subscription owner and cannot be shared. Family and Premium cover up to 6 people for the apps and storage, but the other members do not get Copilot. If several people in a household want Copilot, Family is not a shortcut.
2. Microsoft 365 Pro is monthly only. At $99.99 a month it is aimed at people who use agents and research tools every day.
3. The Business add-on price is a promotion. The $18 is valid for purchases between July 1 and December 31, 2026, applies to the first year only, requires an annual commitment and is only for existing customers with an eligible Business plan. Budget for the standard $21 from the second year.
4. The add-on needs a base license. Microsoft says a separate license for a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan is required to buy Microsoft 365 Copilot, and the Business offer is for up to 300 users. The Business Standard and Business Premium bundles include both.
5. Enterprise monthly billing still means a year. The $31.50 monthly price for Microsoft 365 Copilot comes with an annual commitment; paying yearly brings it to $30.

Which Copilot plan is right for you?

• Occasional chat and image questions: the free Copilot app. You only pay if you hit its limits often.
• You want Office and storage anyway: Microsoft 365 Personal ($9.99 a month). Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook comes with it.
• You rely on research and data analysis: Microsoft 365 Premium ($19.99 a month) for Researcher, Analyst and Cowork. That is the same price range as ChatGPT Plus at $20 a month; our ChatGPT pricing guide and Perplexity vs ChatGPT compare what those plans include.
• A small business already on Microsoft 365 Business: the Copilot Business add-on while the $18 offer lasts, or a Business Standard or Premium bundle with Copilot for new licenses.
• A large organization: Microsoft 365 Copilot at $30 per user per month, bought online or added to an existing subscription through a Microsoft representative.

If what you want is an assistant outside Microsoft's apps, see our guide to ChatGPT alternatives, which also covers Claude and Gemini, and Claude's plans for a direct price comparison.

Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot

The names overlap, so a short map:

• Microsoft Copilot (the app): the free assistant, which you can use without a subscription.
• Copilot in Microsoft 365 for individuals: Copilot as included in Personal, Family, Premium and Pro.
• Microsoft 365 Copilot: the work version for organizations, priced per user.
• GitHub Copilot: a coding assistant sold by GitHub with its own plans. We cover it in our guide to the best coding assistants.

If you searched for "Copilot pricing" with code in mind, the GitHub plans are the ones you want. If you work in Word and Excel, the Microsoft 365 tables above are the right ones.

Is Microsoft 365 Premium worth it over Personal?

Premium costs $10 a month more than Personal ($19.99 against $9.99, or $199.99 against $99.99 a year). For that you get the Family sharing for up to 6 people (apps and storage, not Copilot), extensive instead of higher Copilot usage, and the Premium-only tools: Cowork, Researcher, Analyst and photo restyling. If you mainly draft emails and documents, Personal is enough. If you would use Researcher or Analyst every week, Premium is the plan built for that, and Microsoft offers a one-month free trial of it to test whether you would.