Microsoft Copilot review

The AI assistant already sitting on the office Windows PC and in the Microsoft 365 account a lot of shops already pay for: free for chat, photos, files and hands-free questions, but drafting inside Word, Excel and Outlook only works if you carry a Microsoft 365 subscription.

What it costsas of August 2026

Free: $0/moWith a Microsoft account
Microsoft 365 Personal: $9.99/moOr $99.99 a year
Microsoft 365 Family: $12.99/moOr $129.99 a year; AI is for the subscription owner only
Microsoft 365 Premium: $19.99/moOr $199.99 a year; AI is for the subscription owner only
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat: $0Included with an eligible Microsoft 365 subscription
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business: $18/user/moPaid yearly; $25.20 monthly; add-on, not a standalone plan
Business Standard with Copilot: $23.50/user/moPaid yearly; $28.20 month to month
Business Premium with Copilot: $32/user/moPaid yearly; $38.40 month to month

Microsoft labels the $18/user/mo Copilot Business price as promotional through 30 September 2026 against a regular $21, and that add-on sits on top of a Microsoft 365 subscription rather than replacing it. The free version answers questions on the web and in the app, but drafting inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook takes a paid Microsoft 365 plan.

We have not published a long-form verdict on Microsoft Copilot yet. What is below comes from the vendor's own documentation and pricing, checked and dated.

What Microsoft Copilot does

Pricing & terms

Starts atThe real monthly cost to get in the door, before add-ons.

Free to start. Inside Microsoft 365 it is $9.99 a month for one person

How pricing worksFlat tiers, per user, or per job. This decides how fast the bill grows as you add people.

Flat price per person, bundled with Office; the work add-on is $18 per user

Free trial or planCan you try it with your own jobs before paying?

No trial of the paid plans, but the free version has no time limit

ContractMonth-to-month vs a year-plus commitment you can't easily leave.

Month to month for one person; the work add-on is cheapest paid for a year

Fit & support

Ease of useHow hard it is to get a non-technical crew actually using it.

Already on most Windows PCs, so for a lot of shops there is nothing to set up

SupportWhat owners say about reaching a human when something breaks.

Help articles and forums; a paid Microsoft 365 plan adds real tech support

What it does

Writing quotes & emailsTurns a few notes into a quote, a follow-up or a reply you can send.

Turns rough notes into a quote or an ad; drafting inside Word needs a plan

Reads photosSend it a picture of the job or a nameplate and ask what you are looking at.

Send a photo of a part or a nameplate, or point your phone camera at it

Reads your documentsDrop in a manual, a spec sheet or a contract and ask questions about it.

Reads a PDF manual or spec sheet, up to 20 files a chat, 50 MB each

Works hands-freeTalk to it from the truck instead of typing with dirty hands.

Talk to it hands-free; on a Windows PC you start it by saying Hey Copilot

Usable free versionWhether you can get real work out of it without paying.

Free version chats, reads photos and files and talks, with a Microsoft account

Alternatives to Microsoft Copilot

Other tools that do the same job for a trade business. Prices are what each vendor publishes, dated when we checked.

ChatGPT

The AI chat assistant with the best hands-free story for a truck: you can talk to it on a CarPlay screen, and it will write a quote or read a photo of a nameplate. It reads the words in a manual but not the diagrams, which is the catch for equipment paperwork.Free to start. The usual paid plan for one person is $20 a month

Claude

The AI chat assistant that handles paperwork best: it reads a manual or a contract up to 100 pages with the diagrams included, and turns rough notes into a quote or a follow-up. Talking to it hands-free still carries a beta label, and the vendor will not say how much the free plan gives you.Free to start. $20 a month for one person, or $17 if you pay for a year

Google Gemini

The AI chat assistant already sitting in the Google account most shops run on: it drafts inside Gmail on paid plans, reads photos and spec sheets, and takes hands-free questions with the phone locked. Its free plan is the least restricted of the three.Free to start. $19.99 a month for one person, or $4.99 for a lighter plan

Birdeye

A reputation and local-marketing platform that automatically asks finished customers for Google reviews, pulls reviews from 200-plus sites into one dashboard so you can reply in one place, and keeps your business listings, texts, and social posts consistent so more local homeowners find you.Quote only. Reported entry is about $299/mo per location billed annually

Constant Contact

An email marketing tool that lets a trade owner build a customer list and send branded promotions, seasonal reminders, and follow-up campaigns from ready-made templates without any design work.$12/mo for Lite at 500 contacts; Standard $35 and Premium $80 at that size

Housecall Pro

Field-service management for home-service trades, strong on dispatching, service agreements, and customer marketing.$59/mo (Basic, billed annually)

HubSpot

A CRM with a free tier that lets a trade owner keep every lead, call, and email in one place, then add paid marketing and sales tools like email campaigns and forms as the business grows.Free CRM at $0 for 2 users; paid Starter is about $20/seat/mo

Mailchimp

Email marketing you can run yourself to stay in front of past customers, send seasonal reminders and promotions, and turn your customer list into repeat and referral work.Free up to 250 contacts; paid starts about $13/mo at up to 500 contacts

How we research this

Pricing comes from Microsoft's own pricing pages and is dated at the time we checked it. Features are taken from the vendor's documentation, not from a sales call. We are independent and rank on fit, never on what a tool pays us. See how we review.