The Copilot interface tour: which Copilot are you actually using?

Where the main parts sit in Microsoft Copilot: chat history down the side, the message box along the bottom with the attach button, and the model picker near the top.

One name, three different products

Before you touch a single button, hold this in your head: "Copilot" is not one thing. Microsoft uses the name for a family of products that look alike but differ in two ways that matter: what they cost, and what they can see. Almost every "Copilot did something weird" story traces back to someone using one version while expecting another.

There are three you'll meet. Learn them as a map and the confusion disappears.

1. Consumer Copilot: the free chat

This is the one anyone can use, today, for nothing. You reach it on the web, in a standalone app, or built into Windows and Edge. Sign in with a personal Microsoft account or don't sign in at all. It is grounded in the web (public internet content) plus whatever you type, paste or upload into the conversation. It cannot reach into your work email or files, because it has no connection to them. Think of it as a capable general assistant that only knows what's public and what you hand it.

2. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat: included with a work account

If your employer has a business Microsoft 365 subscription, you very likely already have this, at no extra charge. You sign in with your work account, and you get a chat that is again grounded in the web, but with enterprise data protection wrapped around it (your prompts aren't used to train the public model). It can also work with content you paste, upload, or have on-screen in an Office app. What it does not do on its own is reach automatically across your organisation's emails, files and meetings. That's the next tier's job.

3. Microsoft 365 Copilot: the paid licence

This is the powerful one, and the one people mean when they say Copilot "works with your documents". It's a paid per-user licence, added on top of a Microsoft 365 subscription and almost always bought by an employer. It adds work grounding: Copilot can reason over your own emails, files, chats, meetings and calendar (through Microsoft Graph), and it appears inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams as a button you click. Crucially, it only ever sees what your account already has permission to open. It does not unlock other people's private files.

A note on an old name you may still hear: Copilot Pro, the consumer add-on, has been discontinued. Existing subscriptions are supported until around 1 August 2026, after which its features live on in Microsoft 365 Premium. If someone tells you to "buy Copilot Pro", that advice is out of date, so don't treat it as the current route.

What each one can see: the part that trips everyone up

The single most useful question you can ask is: what is this version grounded in?

Web grounding means the public internet. All three tiers have it.
Work grounding means your own Microsoft 365 world (your inbox, your documents, your Teams meetings), limited to what you personally can access. Only the paid Microsoft 365 Copilot licence has this.

So a job like "summarise the twenty-page report sitting in my work OneDrive" needs work grounding, which needs the paid licence. A job like "summarise this article I've pasted in" needs neither; the free chat does it. Keep asking does this task need my own content, or just the web plus what I can paste? and you'll always know which Copilot you need.

Microsoft lays this out on its own page, How Copilot Chat works with and without a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, which is worth a look because these tiers get renamed often.

A worked example: reading the room

Suppose a colleague forwards you a message: "Ask Copilot to pull the key risks out of the Harlow renewal deal and draft a note to Priya." Which Copilot can do that? The Harlow deal lives in your work files and email. That's your own content, so it needs work grounding, which means the paid Microsoft 365 Copilot licence inside your apps. If you only have the free chat, you can't point it at those files automatically; you'd have to paste the relevant text in yourself (with confidential details stripped). Working that out before you start saves you hunting for a button that isn't there.

A prompt only the paid licence can answerCopilot

Using my email thread with Priya about the August onboarding clash and the latest project brief, list the three main risks to the Harlow renewal and draft a short note to Priya flagging them.

Why this works: It names your own work content (an email thread and a file), so it depends on work grounding, which only the licensed Microsoft 365 Copilot has. Recognising that in advance tells you which version you need.

The same idea the free chat can doCopilot

Here is an email thread [paste text]. In five bullet points, list the main risks it raises to a client renewal, then draft a 90-word note to my manager flagging them. Don't invent details I haven't given you.

Why this works: It supplies the content by pasting, so it needs no work grounding; the free consumer chat handles it. Naming the audience, length and format keeps the answer usable.

A quick 'which am I in?' checkCopilot

Which version of Copilot am I using right now, and can you access my work emails and files, or only what I type and the public web?

Why this works: Asking Copilot to describe its own grounding is a fast, durable way to confirm the tier when the interface is ambiguous; its answer tells you whether it can reach your work content.

Where the chat actually lives

Once you know which Copilot you want, here's where to find it.

On the web: copilot.microsoft.com. Sign in with a personal account for the consumer chat, or your work account for Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat.
The Copilot app: on a phone, tablet or desktop, the same chat in a dedicated window.
Built into Windows: a Copilot icon (often on the taskbar) opens a side panel without leaving what you're doing.
In the Edge browser: a Copilot icon opens a panel alongside the page you're reading.
Inside the Office apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams show a Copilot button on the ribbon only if your account has the paid licence. No button almost always means no licence, not a fault.

The chat interface itself

Wherever you open it, the chat works the way you already know from Phase 0: a single message box at the bottom, your conversation building up above it, and a + or attach control for adding a file or image. You type a prompt, read the reply, and refine with a follow-up. Some versions add extras like voice, image creation, saved history, or a menu of styles, but the core loop is identical everywhere. The differences that matter aren't in the buttons; they're in the grounding.

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Common mistakes

Assuming every Copilot can see your files. Only the paid Microsoft 365 Copilot licence has work grounding. The free chat and Copilot Chat work from the web plus what you hand them.
Reading "no Copilot button in Word" as a fault. It almost always means your account lacks the paid licence: a purchasing decision, not a broken install.
Confusing Copilot Chat with the paid licence because both use your work login. Same sign-in, very different reach. Chat is web-grounded; only the licence reaches your emails and documents.
Following advice about Copilot Pro. That consumer product is being retired (supported to around 1 August 2026) and replaced by Microsoft 365 Premium. Treat any "get Copilot Pro" instruction as stale.
Over-trusting a confident answer because it came from "the work version". Signing in with a work account doesn't make replies correct. Even grounded answers can misread the source, so verify anything that matters, which the later lessons return to.

Keeping current

Microsoft renames and reshuffles these tiers regularly, so treat any specific label or price as a snapshot. Microsoft's own What's the difference between Microsoft Copilot free and Copilot in Microsoft 365 and the Microsoft 365 Copilot help hub are the pages to re-check before you rely on the details. Accurate as of 13 July 2026.

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