Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat vs. Microsoft 365 Copilot

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot use the same conversational AI experience, but differ significantly in what information they can use. The easiest way to remember the distinction is web AI vs. work-aware AI.

The key difference: grounding

Copilot Chat

LLM
 ├─ Web
 └─ Files/content you explicitly provide

Microsoft 365 Copilot

LLM
 ├─ Web
 └─ Work IQ
     └─ Microsoft Graph
         ├─ Emails
         ├─ Teams chats & meetings
         ├─ OneDrive / SharePoint files
         └─ People & organizational context

With a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, Work IQ lets Copilot reason over work information the user is permitted to access. Without that license, Copilot Chat is primarily web-grounded, although uploaded files and some app-specific experiences can provide additional context.

At a glance

Copilot Chat is included with eligible Microsoft 365 subscriptions, while Microsoft 365 Copilot requires an additional license.

Mental model:
Copilot Chat → AI assistant for work
Microsoft 365 Copilot → AI assistant that understands your work context