Microsoft introduces Copilot Pro, a $20 monthly subscription that unlocks AI capabilities in Office applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for consumers. In addition, the company drops the previous minimum of 300 seats for Copilot for Microsoft 365, making it cheaper for small and midsize businesses to get started with AI.
With Copilot Pro, users can create PowerPoint presentations with chatbot-like prompts, rephrase paragraphs in Word, summarize documents, and more. This integration of OpenAI's AI models into Microsoft's Office apps was previously only available to enterprises.
The subscription also includes priority access to the latest OpenAI models, improvements to Designer's Image Creator, and the ability to create custom Copilot GPTs.
According to Microsoft, Copilot Pro subscriptions are targeted at power users who need more performance, creativity tools, and quick access to the latest AI models, calling it "our best experience for individuals."
The features are available on the web, in Windows or Mac applications, and on mobile devices. To access the Copilot features associated with Office, customers must also subscribe to Microsoft 365 Personal or Family.
Copilot for Microsoft 365 gets cheaper for small businesses
Microsoft is also making Copilot for Microsoft 365 generally available to organizations, removing the 300-seat minimum that resulted in a minimum annual cost of $108,000.
Companies can now purchase Copilot without restrictions for $30 per user per month. Microsoft's revised pricing strategy may be a response to OpenAI's new ChatGPT Team offering, which starts at two accounts.
Copilot is based on GPT-4 and brings OpenAI's most powerful AI model to Office applications such as Word and Excel. The model is also available in Microsoft Teams to summarize meetings and in Outlook to summarize email threads and generate email responses.
In addition to Copilot Pro for consumers and Copilot for Microsoft 365, Microsoft continues to offer the free Copilot for Windows and Bing.
