Is Copilot Free? What You Get Without Paying in 2026

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Copilot is free as a chat tool: on copilot.microsoft.com, in Windows 11, in Edge, and in the mobile app, you pay nothing. Since September 2026, this chat has a daily limit, and AI in Word and Excel requires a paid Microsoft 365 plan. Below, I’ve broken down exactly what you get for free, where the boundaries are, and when paying makes sense. The full guide to all versions is on the Microsoft Copilot page.

What You Get in Free Copilot

Free Copilot is a full-featured AI chat, not a demo version. Without paying, you can:

• ask questions and hold conversations,
• search the internet with source-based answers and citations,
• create and edit images (with a lower limit than paid plans),
• talk by voice,
• upload files and photos for analysis,
• use memory, which remembers information from previous conversations.

The last three features require logging in. The login page on copilot.microsoft.com lists them explicitly: file uploads, “Voice without limits,” and personalization through conversation memory. You can log in with a Microsoft, Google, or Apple account, so you don’t need to create a new one.

Where the Free Version Ends

The most important limitations I verified in Microsoft’s documentation and pages:

Pricing from Microsoft’s pages, checked October 4, 2026. I compared all paid plans in the table in the Copilot guide.

Daily Chat Limit - What We Know

This is now the most important change for people using Copilot for free. After the update on September 8, 2026, users began reporting on the Microsoft Q&A forum a message about reaching the daily chat limit, sometimes after just a few messages. The message gives the time when you can return.

What a Microsoft moderator responded in that thread:

• daily limits are an expected part of the current free service,
• paid plans have higher limits,
• Microsoft does not publish a guaranteed number of daily chats for the free version,
• if the limit appears after 2-5 simple questions, it may indicate a problem with the account or service and you should contact technical support.

Microsoft announced this earlier when merging the apps: basic chat remains free, but “subject to throughput and limits,” and some people will hit the limit faster than before. I don’t have my own measurement of how many messages trigger the limit, because Microsoft doesn’t provide it, and user reports mention numbers ranging from a few to a dozen messages.

How to Get the Most from the Free Version

1. Log in. Without an account, you can’t upload files or use memory.
2. Write longer, complete prompts. With a daily limit, one good question with context is better than five short clarifications.
3. Don’t start a new conversation unnecessarily. Continuing a thread preserves context.
4. Use chat as a helper for Word and Excel. You don’t have Copilot in the apps for free, but you can paste a text fragment or data description into chat and transfer the result manually.
5. Have a backup chat. When Copilot shows the limit, ask the same question in free ChatGPT or Gemini. I described their free plans in the texts ChatGPT for free and Gemini.

Free Month of Microsoft 365 with Copilot

Microsoft’s pricing for Personal, Family and Premium plans shows a “Try free for 1 month” button. This is the simplest way to test Copilot in Word and Excel without paying. Remember two things:

• the subscription renews automatically at the standard price unless you cancel it in your Microsoft account - do this before the end of the month if you don’t want to pay,
• in Family and Premium plans, only the subscription owner has AI features, so testing on a family member’s account won’t show anything.

If you want to test Researcher, choose Premium right away, because Personal doesn’t have it.

Free Copilot at Work

A work account is a separate world. Companies with Microsoft 365 have Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat - an internet-based chat with corporate data protection, at no additional license cost. However, it doesn’t see the organization’s email, calendar, or files. For that, you need the Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on, which costs 15.60 euros net per person per month in a promotion until December 31, 2026 (regularly 18.20 euros). In the new app, you switch between personal and work accounts, and according to Microsoft, the data doesn’t mix.

Should You Pay for Copilot

My recommendation is simple:

• Stay on free if you ask a few questions a day and don’t work in Word or Excel.
• Get Personal if you need the Office suite anyway - Copilot in documents is then an add-on to Word, Excel, and 1 TB on OneDrive.
• Don’t pay for Copilot just for chat. For conversation alone, other chats have a better price-to-capability ratio, which I detailed in the AI subscription comparison.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Copilot free?

Copilot chat is free in the browser, Windows, Edge, and mobile app. Since September 2026, it has a daily limit whose size Microsoft doesn’t disclose. Copilot in Office applications is paid, pricing varies by region.

Is Microsoft Copilot paid?

Paid are the Microsoft 365 packages with Copilot (Personal, Family, Premium, Pro) and the business add-on. The chat itself requires no payment or card.

Does free Copilot have a limit?

Yes. Microsoft confirms daily limits in the free version and higher limits in paid plans, but doesn’t publish specific numbers. After reaching the limit, the message gives the time when you can return.

Can you have Copilot in Word for free?

Only through a one-month trial of a Microsoft 365 plan. After that, the subscription renews automatically, so cancel it earlier if you don’t want to pay. How to use Copilot in documents is described in the guide Copilot in Word and Excel.

Sources checked October 4, 2026: Microsoft 365 pricing (microsoft.com), copilot.microsoft.com login page, Microsoft help on AI credits and limits, Microsoft Q&A thread on daily limit, GeekWire report on app merging, Microsoft 365 Copilot for business page.

Kinetyra