Microsoft Copilot vs ChatGPT: which AI companion should you be using? – Digital Trends
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With countless artificial intelligence companions available for the public to use, it can be hard to know which one is the best option for you to use. Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT are two of the most popular options with the first being built into the majority of Windows devices, and the latter being one of the most popular chatbots.
Whether you’re just on the hunt for a chatbot to give you advice, or you want something more intensive to automate mundane tasks like reading emails for you, we have all of the details of two of the most popular AI companions.
We’ve considered functionality, pricing and platforms to help you decide if you need to be using ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot.
Microsoft Copilot is an AI companion which can help you with a range of tasks from automating tedious processes down to coding projects. Unlike many other popular artificial intelligence models available to the public, Microsoft Copilot isn’t just a chatbot – though you can use it like one.
Instead it’s a tool than can be used standalone or alongside other Microsoft 365 apps like Excel, Word and PowerPoint, helping you create documents, presentations or spreadsheets, and even offering you editing suggestions on your work.
Microsoft Copilot currently runs on GPT-5, which is OpenAI’s latest generative AI model – released in early August 2025. This latest model allows for much more enhanced reasoning which can provide you with faster responses to complicated questions. You also get stronger creation capabilities such as image generation and writing drafts.
ChatGPT is an AI chatbot directly from OpenAI, which allows you to ask it a question and it will generate a reply. You can make a range of different requests from just having a general conversation and asking for advice down to asking for image generation.
A key difference between Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT is that the latter is only a chatbot and can’t be implemented within other software. While it can’t generate a slideshow for you within PowerPoint itself, you can ask ChatGPT to design the slides for you and then replicate them yourself.
ChatGPT also runs on GPT-5, again giving you enhanced reasoning and extended creation capabilities.
Considering they run off of the same generative AI model – GPT-5, the actual performance of Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT is the same. However there are still some key differences between the capabilities of the two thanks to their interfaces.
ChatGPT is a chatbot, meaning it can only be used in a conversation format – you’re able to ask the AI questions or to complete certain tasks like write you an essay, but it cannot be implemented within other software. You get a feature-rich chat experience which allows you to generate images but in order to complete other tasks, you’ll have to use OpenAI’s other products like Sora which allows you to create video from text prompts.
Those who are on the free tier of ChatGPT are limited to a certain number of messages every five hours when using the primary models (including GPT-5 or GPT-4o). This comes out to roughly 10 messages in a five hour window – and you’ll get a notification once you’ve reached this limit.
Microsoft Copilot, on the other hand, can be used as more than just a chatbot. Implement Copilot into your Outlook inbox and it can summarize your emails to save them all stacking up. You can ask the software to analyze data for you in Excel or keep track of your schedule in Teams.
One of the major benefits of Microsoft Copilot is that all users, including those on the free tier, get unlimited access to Voice – the chatbot of Copilot, as well as Think Deeper – the advanced reasoning model. However, those without a paid subscription are limited to just a certain number of image generations per day.
The paid edition of Copilot – entitled Microsoft Copilot Pro – costs $20 a month. You will also need to have a separate qualifying Microsoft 365 plan (from $9.99 per month) if you would like to use Microsoft 365 Copilot which unfortunately does not come included in the cost of Copilot Pro.
The paid edition of Copilot gives you access to more functions, unlimited usage as well as the ability to use the AI on multiple devices at once.
You can also upgrade to a paid tier of ChatGPT, which is also $20 a month. This gives you access to OpenAI’s most advanced models and features including the o1 reasoning model and Advanced Voice Mode, as well as unlimited usage.
Microsoft Copilot can be used on a range of devices and platforms and you may notice that it comes built into a range of Windows PCs and laptops.
For those who want to use the AI on the go, you can also access Copilot on iOS and Android through the Copilot app as well as on the Microsoft Edge browsers. You can also access the software on Macs with a dedicated app.
Similarly to Copilot, you can use ChatGPT on your browser as well on a range of phones via the mobile app (iOS app / Android app).
Using the app is almost identical to the chatbot in web browser. There’s also an official ChatGPT app for the Mac which is able to be used for free.
Overall, Microsoft Copilot is more secure thanks to its built-in data security features and nothing leaves your secure tenant. Your data or your businesses data isn’t sent to Microsoft and is not used to train the AI.
On the other hand, ChatGPT automatically gathers your data by default – unless you turn this off – posing a security risk. All prompts you put into the chatbot are used to train the AI and can be accessed by OpenAI, however it’s worth noting that there’s a very slim chance that anything you input is actually looked over by a human and instead its likely that your messages are scanned by AI.
Overall, Microsoft Copilot offers you more features when compared to ChatGPT but in order to unlock some of them you need to pay for the premium tier. Another major benefit to using Microsoft Copilot is that you get unlimited access to the Chatbot without even having to pay – setting it apart from ChatGPT, where free users are limited in their prompts.
However, ChatGPT may be the better option for you if you’re hoping to use a more general AI chatbot which isn’t integrated into your PC or Microsoft Suite of products.
All in all, which AI companion you decide to use will be based on what your needs are and what you are looking for out of artificial intelligence. Both options here are great with benefits to both.
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