Copilot Chat
Copilot Chat is the standalone conversational AI experience — available free at copilot.microsoft.com, in the Windows taskbar, as a mobile app, and embedded in Teams. It's powered by GPT-4o and connected to the web. For enterprise users with M365 Copilot licenses, it also connects to your organisation's Microsoft 365 data — emails, documents, calendar, SharePoint, Teams conversations.
Two Distinct Modes
Web mode (free)
- • Answers grounded in real-time web search
- • Image generation (DALL-E 3, limited free / unlimited Pro)
- • Document analysis (upload files)
- • Access to Bing search results
- • Available without Microsoft 365 subscription
Work mode (M365 Copilot required)
- • Searches your org's Microsoft 365 data
- • Finds emails, documents, meeting notes, Teams messages
- • Inbox and calendar awareness
- • Respects your M365 permissions — only surfaces content you can access
- • Available in Teams, web, and mobile
Copilot Chat in Teams
For M365 Copilot users, Copilot Chat is available directly inside Teams — in chats, channels, calling, and meetings. This makes it the most accessible entry point for enterprise users since Teams is already the primary communication tool. You don't need to switch apps. Key integrations inside Teams:
- Ask about your inbox or calendar without leaving Teams
- Reference Word/Excel/PowerPoint files stored in SharePoint directly in chat
- Get meeting summaries after a call ends
- Access Word, Excel, and PowerPoint agents via Copilot Chat in Teams
Enterprise Knowledge Grounding
The distinguishing feature of the enterprise tier is Work IQ — Microsoft's term for grounding Copilot responses in your organisation's actual data. When you ask “what did we decide about the pricing strategy?”, Copilot searches your emails, Teams threads, SharePoint documents, and meeting transcripts to find the answer — showing sources you can click through to verify.
This is fundamentally different from a general chatbot: it's a knowledge search tool that happens to have a conversational interface, using your own organisational data as the knowledge base.
Copilot Chat vs ChatGPT
| Aspect | Copilot Chat | ChatGPT |
|---|---|---|
| Model | GPT-4o (via Azure) | GPT-4o / o3 / o4 (user selectable) |
| Web access | Always on (Bing) | Available, not always default |
| Enterprise org data | Yes (M365 Copilot only) | No (unless connected via plugins/API) |
| Microsoft 365 integration | Deep native | None natively |
| Model selection | Not user-selectable | Full model switching |
Checklist: Do You Understand This?
- Free web mode: GPT-4o + real-time web search — accessible at copilot.microsoft.com
- Work mode (M365 Copilot): searches your organisation's emails, documents, calendar, Teams data
- In Teams: available across chats, channels, meetings — most common enterprise entry point
- Enterprise grounding (Work IQ) is the key differentiator over public chatbots
- Copilot Chat ≠ ChatGPT: less model flexibility but much tighter Microsoft 365 integration