Copilot
Identity card
The company
- Name
- Microsoft ↗
- Founded
- 1975
- Head office
- Redmond, Washington, United States
- Chief executive
- Satya Nadella
The product
- Flagship model
- OpenAI models
- Subscription
- €22 per month · Microsoft 365 Premium
- API
- no API of its own
The data
- Law
- United States
Usage
- Web traffic, Sept. 2026
- 1.5 %
Key points
Copilot is Microsoft's assistant, preinstalled in Windows, Edge and Office, and often used without having been chosen. It is built on OpenAI models and weighs little on the web, with 1.5% of AI site traffic.
- Word, Excel and Outlook
- Companies on Microsoft 365
- A standalone assistant
- Knowing which model answers
Source: Similarweb, share of visits to generative AI sites, worldwide; records published by Similarweb and repeated by the press.
Yes if you already work in Word, Excel and Outlook: the Microsoft 365 Premium subscription integrates it there. Look elsewhere for a more performant standalone assistant (ChatGPT, Claude).
Strengths
- 30 million paid enterprise seatsMicrosoft 365 Copilot passed 30 million paid seats during fiscal year 2026, according to Microsoft's report to its shareholders.Source: Microsoft, shareholder report (SEC), October 2026 ↗
- Nuclear power for its serversIn 2024, Microsoft signed a 20-year contract to restart a reactor at the Three Mile Island plant, renamed Crane Clean Energy Center.Source: Constellation, 20 September 2024 ↗
- Business account data excluded from trainingWith a work or school account, Copilot is not used for training: these accounts fall under Microsoft's enterprise data protection.Source: Microsoft, Copilot privacy controls, 7 November 2026 ↗
Weak points
- Little used on the web1.5% of web traffic to AI sites in September 2026, far behind ChatGPT (56.4%) and Gemini (25.0%).Source: OfficeChai, citing Similarweb, 12 October 2026 ↗
- Features removed in 2026In August 2026, Microsoft merged its 2 Copilot apps and removed group chats, podcasts and in-depth research from the consumer Copilot, from 18/8.Source: TechCrunch, 13 August 2026 ↗
- Little evaluated externallyMicrosoft declined to take part in the Stanford transparency index in 2025, and Copilot is not rated by the Future of Life Institute.Source: Stanford, Foundation Model Transparency Index, December 2025 ↗ ; Future of Life Institute, AI Safety Index, July 2026 ↗
The company Microsoft
The Microsoft entry →Company history
Microsoft, founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen and based in Redmond, near Seattle, bet on OpenAI from 2019. In February 2023, it integrates its models into the Bing search engine: this is Bing Chat, renamed Copilot in November 2023.
The story continues
In 2024, Microsoft entrusts the consumer assistant to Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind, at the head of a new division, Microsoft AI. Copilot is installed in Windows, Edge and Office.
Since the restructuring of OpenAI in October 2025, Microsoft has held about 27% of its new public benefit company.
Sources: Wikipedia, 7 November 2026 ↗ ; Microsoft, 19 March 2024 ↗ ; Microsoft, 28 October 2025 ↗
Leadership
- Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft
- Satya Nadella ↗
- Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft AI
- Mustafa Suleyman ↗
Key figures
- Paid seats for Microsoft 365 Copilot, fiscal year 2026
- more than 30 millionMicrosoft, shareholder report (SEC), October 2026 ↗
- Monthly users of the Copilot family, October 2025
- more than 150 millionMicrosoft, results for the 1st quarter 2026, 29 October 2025 ↗
- Microsoft's stake in OpenAI
- almost 27%Microsoft, 28 October 2025 ↗
Copilot plans
- Free CopilotFree0 €0 $
- Microsoft 365 PremiumStandard22 €19.99 $
Microsoft pricing pages: including VAT in France, excluding tax in the United States; up to date as at 9 November 2026.
Content of the 2 plans, prices in France and the United States
Prices in France and the United States. In the United States, prices are shown in dollars and excluding tax; in France, they include 20% VAT. So $20 does not equal €20: the French price is often slightly higher.
VibeMistral Large1.50 $0.50 $
PerplexitySonar2.50 $0.25 $
DeepSeekV4-Pro3.96 $1.32 $
Meta AIMuse Spark 1.14.25 $1.25 $
QwenQwen3.8-Max6 $2 $
GrokGrok 4.76 $2 $
GeminiGemini 4 Argon10 $2 $
ClaudeOpus 5.520 $4 $
ChatGPTGPT-6 Astra50 $10 $
Copilot: no API of its own; Copilot serves OpenAI models. Each company's flagship model, standard rate, up to date as at 9 November 2026.
Prices up to date as of 9 November 2026, read on the companies' pages, or from 2 concordant sources; the date of each record is in the page's price file Methodology.
Copilot models
- Company
- Microsoft
- Models offered
- GPT-6 Solpaid plan, Microsoft 365 Copilot (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Chat, Cowork, Copilot Studio); 11th of 71 for general intelligence (official page ↗)Claude Opus 5.5paid plan, Microsoft 365 Copilot (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Chat, Cowork, Copilot Studio); 4th of 71 for general intelligence (official page ↗)GPT-6.1 Solpaid plan, Microsoft 365 Copilot (USL licence, usage-based billing for Cowork and Copilot Studio); 3rd of 71 for general intelligence (copy of an official message ↗)Claude Sonnet 5.5paid plan, Microsoft 365 Copilot (USL licence); 8th of 71 for general intelligence (copy of an official message ↗)
Links read on 10/11/2026 on the company's pages, press as a fallback. Rank: Epoch AI ECI index (CC BY 4.0). Performance of AI models
Data management
How Microsoft handles conversations
- Training models on conversationsConsumer Copilot: yes, unless you opt out. With a work or school account (Microsoft 365 Copilot): no.Source: Microsoft, Copilot privacy controls, 7 November 2026 ↗
- Opting out of trainingIn your profile, under Privacy: turn off "Training on chat activity" and "Training on voice conversations".Source: Microsoft, Copilot privacy controls, 7 November 2026 ↗
- Retention period18 months for conversation history, which can be deleted at any time.Source: Microsoft, Copilot privacy controls, 7 November 2026 ↗
- Applicable lawUS law: Microsoft is a United States company, subject in particular to the Cloud Act, even when the servers are in Europe.Source: Guide d'usage de l'IA pour les agents publics de l'État (DINUM), June 2026 ↗
Score on this criterion: 50 out of 100, 3rd of 10. Training can be turned off, history kept for 18 months; Europe excluded from training in 2024; no known procedure. The ethics ranking
Environment
Environment score
53 3rd out of 10- Simple query 40 %58
- Advanced queries 20 %33
- Decarbonised electricity 20 %50
- Environmental approach 20 %67
Black line: average of the 10. The environmental ranking
Our view
Copilot serves OpenAI models without saying which, and Microsoft publishes no figure for it (the 0.31 Wh from Microsoft Research, in Joule in April 2026, apply to a frontier AI in general). Preinstalled in Windows and Edge, with images and agents, it is often used without having been asked for. Azure runs on 100% renewable electricity over the year, Microsoft has had a reactor at Three Mile Island restarted and publishes a site-by-site report. Its emissions have nonetheless risen by 58% since its fiscal year 2020.
Per-query figure published by Microsoft
Nothing publishedMicrosoft publishes no per-query figure, either for energy or for emissions. 3 of 10 companies publish one: Google, Mistral AI and OpenAI.
Company figures cannot be compared with each other: scopes and methods differ. The "Simple query" criterion of the environmental ranking combines them with external estimates, for lack of a common basis: the methodology sets out the limits.
- Gemini0.24 Wh
- Copilotnothing published
- Vibe1.14 gCO2e
- Claudenothing published
- ChatGPT0.34 Wh
- Qwennothing published
- Meta AInothing published
- Perplexitynothing published
- DeepSeeknothing published
- Groknothing published
On the Éclairages blog: What is the electricity consumption of AI? ↗ ; Which AIs pollute the most? ↗
Scores and criteria
The ranking →The Celsius score is the average of 3 scores: performance, ethics and environment. Each combines several criteria. Each row places Copilot among the 10; clicking a criterion opens its definition and the justification for Copilot's score.
5 public rankings 100 %635th out of 10
Definition. Synthesis of 5 public performance rankings, where models are ranked by tests or by votes from internet users: each ranking gives 100 to the best of the 10 and 0 to the last.
Justification. No model of its own: estimate, average of its 2 neighbours in the ranking, Meta AI and Qwen.
Content produced 30 %67joint 2nd out of 10
Definition. Content the assistant produces on request (sexual, misleading images, minors) and results of independent tests.
Justification. Erotica and suggestive content prohibited, no images of politicians even with consent; Taylor Swift deepfakes attributed to Microsoft Designer (1/2024).
Use of data 30 %503rd out of 10
Definition. Use of conversations for training, retention period, storage location, sanctions by the authorities.
Justification. Training can be turned off, history kept for 18 months; Europe excluded from training in 2024; no known procedure.
Safety 20 %58joint 3rd out of 10
Definition. Independent safety evaluations (Future of Life Institute, SaferAI, Phare) and resistance to attacks.
Justification. 33% at SaferAI (July 2026), absent from the Future of Life Institute; serves OpenAI models without saying which.
Governance 20 %582nd out of 10
Definition. Control of the company and deliberate choices: military uses, shareholding, commitments kept or abandoned.
Justification. Services cut off to a unit of the Israeli army after revelations about surveillance of Palestinians (9/2025).
Simple query 40 %58joint 3rd out of 10
Definition. Consumption of a typical text query, on the default model served: figure published by the company, third-party estimate, failing that the size of the model.
Justification. Serves OpenAI models, unspecified; no figure for Copilot (the 0.31 Wh from Microsoft Research, in Joule in April 2026, apply to a frontier AI in general).
Advanced queries 20 %33joint 6th out of 10
Definition. Weight of the resource-hungry uses the product promotes: video and image generation, agents, reasoning enabled by default.
Justification. Preinstalled in Windows and Edge, images, "Autopilot" agents (September 2026).
Decarbonised electricity 20 %503rd out of 10
Definition. Share of low-carbon electricity in the data centres and efforts to increase it: local grid, on-site gas, renewable or nuclear electricity contracts.
Justification. Azure: 100% renewable over the year; Three Mile Island reactor restarted for Microsoft (contract of 2024).
Environmental approach 20 %673rd out of 10
Definition. What the company publishes and commits to: energy and emissions figures, environmental report, targets, model optimisation.
Justification. Full report, site by site; Maia 200 chip; but emissions up 58% since fiscal year 2020.
Compare
or Copilot or ChatGPTThe same OpenAI models: Copilot inside Microsoft tools, ChatGPT as a standalone assistant, more complete.Celsius score: 58 against 62 or Copilot or GeminiMicrosoft versus Google: each builds its AI into its office suite.Celsius score: 58 against 71 or Copilot or ClaudeCopilot for the office, Claude for in-depth work, clearly better rated on performance.Celsius score: 58 against 74Other comparisons
Copilot or Meta AI+10Copilot or Vibe+18Copilot or Qwen+19Copilot or Perplexity+22Copilot or DeepSeek+23Copilot or Grok+32Celsius score gap.
Ranked 4th out of 10 in the assistant ranking, scores as of 11 November 2026. Facts and figures in the entry recorded from 7 to 9/11/2026, each with its source; foundation and head office: Microsoft, "Facts about Microsoft", 9 November 2026 ↗.
Continue in the ranking
The full ranking →CompanyMicrosoftNo model of its own measured; Copilot serves those of OpenAI and Anthropic.The entry →ModelOpenAIGPT-6.1 Sol3rdout of 71 on general intelligenceThe best ranked for general intelligence among the models Copilot offers.The entry →Comparison2 AI assistantsCopilot or ChatGPT58 against 62Celsius score out of 100The same OpenAI models: Copilot inside Microsoft tools, ChatGPT as a standalone assistant, more complete.The comparison →The hub newsletter
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