Which Copilot do you have?
Microsoft shows three labels inside its apps:
- Copilot Chat (Basic): free with eligible Microsoft 365 work licenses, including the government G3 and G5 plans. A secure chat that answers mostly from the public web, plus whatever you paste or upload.
- Copilot (Basic): some Copilot features inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams, depending on your license.
- Copilot (Premium): the paid add-on. It works across your email, files, meetings, and chats automatically.
Microsoft does not define these three labels on its pages. These descriptions are our reading of how they line up with licenses, so ask your IT staff to confirm what your tenant shows.
How to tell: sign in to Copilot with your county work account and look for the green shield next to the New Chat button (that’s enterprise data protection). The app’s address is now copilot.cloud.microsoft, and it also accepts personal Microsoft accounts, so look for the Work label under your name too. If your IT staff block websites, they need to allow everything under *.cloud.microsoft. (Microsoft) Then open Word or Outlook and look for the Copilot button. If you’re not sure what your license includes, ask your IT staff or managed service provider. They can see it in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Free Copilot Chat vs. the paid add-on
| Feature | Copilot Chat (free with your license) | Microsoft Copilot (paid add-on) |
|---|---|---|
| Chat grounded in the web | Yes | Yes |
| Enterprise data protection (stays in your tenant, not used for training; web search is the exception) | Yes | Yes |
| Upload a file and ask about it; create images | Yes | Yes |
| Uses your email, calendar, and meetings | Only in some Outlook situations | Yes |
| Searches across all your Microsoft 365 files, email, chats, and meetings | No | Yes |
| Full Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote | No (limited) | Yes |
| Built-in agents (Researcher, Analyst) and Copilot Cowork | Limited or pay-as-you-go | Yes |
| Priority access when the service is busy | No | Yes |
| Price | $0 extra | $30 per user per month, paid yearly |
Sources: Microsoft Copilot overview, Microsoft 365 Copilot overview, pricing. Microsoft’s price pages still use the old name, “Microsoft 365 Copilot.” Smaller organizations on Microsoft 365 Business plans can buy Copilot Business for $21 per user per month, paid yearly. Microsoft’s $18 price is a first-year promotion for purchases made between July 1 and December 31, 2026. The add-on is available in the government cloud (GCC), but Microsoft doesn’t publish GCC prices. See Pricing & Plans.
How it stays inside your tenant
Your county’s Microsoft 365 tenant is its private space in Microsoft’s cloud: your email, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams. When you use Copilot signed in with your work account:
- Your prompts and Copilot’s answers are processed inside the Microsoft 365 service boundary, under the same agreement that covers your county’s email.
- They are not used to train the underlying AI models.
- They’re stored in your tenant, where your administrators can apply retention, audit, and eDiscovery (legal search of stored email and files) with Microsoft Purview, Microsoft’s compliance toolset, the same tools they use for email. That helps with public records.
The exception is web search. When Copilot searches the web, it turns your prompt into a short search query and sends it to Microsoft’s Bing, with your user and tenant IDs removed. Bing follows different rules than your county’s Microsoft 365 agreement. Don’t put anything in a prompt that you wouldn’t want in a web search. See Copilot web search. (Microsoft)
That changes the data conversation. Yellow information can reasonably go into Copilot if your county’s IT policy allows it, because it never leaves the county’s Microsoft environment. Red information is still red.
Agents: Researcher, Analyst, and Copilot Cowork
The paid add-on includes agents. Researcher runs multi-step research across the web and your work content and produces a cited report. Analyst works through data. Copilot Cowork can send email, schedule meetings, create documents, and post in Teams, asking you to approve each action first. Treat Cowork like any tool that can take actions: start with it off, and turn it on only under an IT-approved policy. See Connectors and actions.
Where this site’s examples run
Every example on this site is a folder project: the AI downloads public sources, works through a batch of files, and saves finished files in a folder on your computer. Those run in the Claude desktop app’s Code tab or in Codex in the ChatGPT desktop app, not in Copilot. See Which Tool for Which Job and Folder Projects.
Government tenant notes
- Microsoft’s licensing page lists the Copilot add-on for GCC, GCC High, and DoD clouds with plans including G3 and G5, but its price page says the timeline for sovereign clouds is still being set, so confirm with your reseller. New features often arrive in government clouds later than in commercial tenants. (Microsoft)
- In GCC, web search in Copilot is off until an admin turns it on. (Microsoft)
- Microsoft announced a new Microsoft 365 G7 plan on September 15, 2026, bundling Copilot with security and compliance tools. It became available to eligible GCC customers on October 1, 2026, with more purchase options from November 1. Microsoft hasn’t published a price, so ask your Microsoft partner. The announcement covers GCC only: it doesn’t mention GCC High or DoD. Copilot features such as memory and Edit with Copilot arrive in phases after launch. (Microsoft)