Microsoft removes in-app Copilot Chat features for non-licensed users
Microsoft announced that, effective April 15, 2026, Copilot Chat users will no longer be able to access Copilot directly in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. The full Copilot experience in these apps—with advanced reasoning and model choice— will be accessible only for users with a paid Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
Copilot Chat still offers secure, AI web chat and the Word, Excel and PowerPoint agents for chat-first content creation within the Microsoft 365 Copilot app and on the web at https://copilot.microsoft.com/. Additionally, users still get Copilot in Outlook with inbox and calendar grounding. There are no other changes for users without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
Microsoft is also adding in-product labels to help end users and admins identify their user experience. Users without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license will see the label “Copilot Chat (Basic)” whereas users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license will see the “M365 Copilot (Premium)” label.
Copilot Chat still offers secure, AI web chat and the Word, Excel and PowerPoint agents for chat-first content creation within the Microsoft 365 Copilot app and on the web at https://copilot.microsoft.com/. Additionally, users still get Copilot in Outlook with inbox and calendar grounding. There are no other changes for users without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
Microsoft is also adding in-product labels to help end users and admins identify their user experience. Users without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license will see the label “Copilot Chat (Basic)” whereas users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license will see the “M365 Copilot (Premium)” label.