Microsoft repackages Copilot

Microsoft is pulling Copilot out of the “free with Office” pitch and pushing it harder as a paid product. (bloomberg.com) Bloomberg reported on April 2 that Microsoft changed course after Wall Street feedback and set internal goals to sell more paid Copilot seats in the quarter that ended in March. Judson Althoff, who runs Microsoft’s commercial business, said the company had essentially hit those goals, according to people familiar with the meeting. (bloomberg.com) Microsoft’s own pricing page now draws a sharper line between free and paid tiers. It says Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is included at no extra cost for eligible Microsoft 365 users, while Microsoft 365 Copilot is sold as an add-on starting at $18 a user a month on an annual plan and unlocks fuller in-app features across Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Teams. (microsoft.com) That split became more visible on April 15. Microsoft said unlicensed Copilot Chat users would lose the full Copilot experience inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, reserving advanced reasoning and model choice in those apps for customers with a paid Microsoft 365 Copilot license. (microsoft.com) At the same time, Microsoft is remaking Copilot into software that can keep working after a prompt ends. In a March 9 post, the company said its new “Cowork” system brings “long-running, multi-step work” into Microsoft 365 Copilot so tasks can run for minutes or hours with visible progress and user controls. (microsoft.com) Microsoft describes that shift as moving from a chatbot that answers questions to an agent that can carry out jobs across tools and files. Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said on March 17 that Copilot is evolving toward “executing multi-step tasks with clear user control points,” and the company reorganized its Copilot teams around a more unified product. (blogs.microsoft.com) The company is also selling more of that automation as a business platform, not just a button in Word. Microsoft’s pricing page says using agents requires an Azure subscription, and its March 9 product post said agentic features are being embedded across Microsoft 365 apps and Copilot Chat. (microsoft.com 1) (microsoft.com 2) For smaller companies, Microsoft is still bundling Copilot in some packages while raising the pressure to buy. A March 17 Microsoft post said Microsoft 365 + Copilot Business bundle prices will rise for some plans on July 1, 2026, while the standalone Copilot Business price stays at $21 per user a month and the promotional add-on price is $18 through June 30. (techcommunity.microsoft.com) Reports this week said Microsoft is preparing a broader agentic Copilot reveal ahead of Build, its annual developer conference. Microsoft’s Build site lists this year’s event for June 2-3, 2026, in San Francisco and online, giving the company a near-term stage to show whether paid Copilot can become more than an Office upsell. (cnet.com) (build.microsoft.com)