Copilot vs ChatGPT: Which Copilot You Mean and What It Costs

Microsoft Learn, read on 25 October 2026, says Copilot Chat includes “models (like GPT-5)” and that “by default, Copilot uses a real-time router to adjust the underlying model it uses based on your prompt”. Both assistants offer OpenAI models, and Microsoft now offers GPT-6 and Claude models to licensed Copilot users too, which leaves three things to weigh in Copilot vs ChatGPT: where each assistant lives, what data it can see and what it costs.

That last part depends on which of the seven Copilot rows in the table below you mean. Asking whether Copilot beats ChatGPT has no single answer, in my view, until you name which Copilot: the free app, a Microsoft 365 home plan, the chat your employer’s license includes, or a paid add-on. Each one maps to a different ChatGPT plan, at a different price.

Copilot vs ChatGPT in One Answer

Copilot is Microsoft’s assistant and ChatGPT is OpenAI’s. Microsoft’s work plans offer OpenAI’s GPT-5.X, and Microsoft is adding GPT-6 Sol, GPT-6.1 Sol and Claude models for licensed users in phases. The paid license brings Copilot into Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams, grounded in your email, meetings and files. ChatGPT is a standalone app on GPT-6. If your work lives in Microsoft 365, start with Copilot.

Is Copilot the Same as ChatGPT?

No. Copilot and ChatGPT are separate products from separate companies, sold and billed separately, though Microsoft’s Copilot plans run OpenAI models.

Here is what each vendor’s own page says about the models, as read on 25 October 2026:

Microsoft’s plan pages still say GPT-5 and GPT-5.X, but its Copilot blog says licensed users can pick GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6.1 Sol, plus Anthropic’s Claude Opus 5.5 and Sonnet 5.5. The models overlap more than the plan pages suggest. What differs is which plan gets which model: Copilot Chat (Basic) and the consumer plans name no GPT-6 model, while OpenAI’s release notes date ChatGPT’s move to GPT-6 to 7 October 2026. The data differs too, since a licensed Copilot can reason over your Microsoft 365 content, which ChatGPT reaches through connectors (more on that below).

Which Copilot Are You Comparing?

Microsoft’s naming has changed, and its own pages do not all use the same names yet. Microsoft Learn’s licensing page calls the paid work license “Microsoft Copilot”, which “is available with Microsoft 365 E7 or as an add-on”, and its small-business version “Microsoft Copilot Business”, an add-on “for organizations with up to 300 users” (license options, updated 19 October 2026). The pricing pages sell them as “Microsoft 365 Copilot (for Department) (add-on)” and “Microsoft 365 Copilot Business (add-on)”. Every price in the table below was read on 25 October 2026.

The “nearest ChatGPT plan” column is my pairing by buyer and price, not a pairing either vendor publishes. On the OpenAI side, its pricing page listed Go at $8 a month, Plus at $20 and Pro from $100 (“Plans at $100, $200, or $500 USD per month”) on 25 October 2026. For what each ChatGPT plan includes, my Go vs Plus vs Pro comparison goes row by row through OpenAI’s own table.

To tell which Copilot you already have at work, read the label in the app. Microsoft Learn says “Copilot Chat (Basic)” means no add-on, and its users “don’t have access to Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote”; “Microsoft 365 Copilot (Basic)” means standard access in those apps without the add-on; and “Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium)” or “(Pro)” means the add-on license with priority access.

GitHub Copilot is a different product again, a coding assistant sold by GitHub (GitHub Copilot), and nothing in this comparison applies to it.

Is Copilot Free?

Yes, with limits, in two forms. A personal Microsoft account gets a free tier, and Microsoft’s plan comparison describes paid Personal as “Advanced Copilot chat with higher usage than free”. At work, Microsoft Learn says “Using Copilot Chat doesn’t require a Microsoft 365 Copilot license”, because Copilot Chat (Basic) is “included with eligible Microsoft 365 licenses”.

What the free and included tiers leave out, per Microsoft’s pages:

• Volume. The free account’s usage is listed as “Limited”, and Copilot Chat’s access to “file upload, image generation, and models (like GPT-5)” is “subject to service capacity availability”.
• Your work data. Without a Copilot license, Copilot Chat “doesn’t provide the broad Microsoft 365 organizational grounding that’s available through Work IQ”, except inside supported Outlook experiences.
• Copilot in the desktop Office apps. For home users it starts at Microsoft 365 Personal; Microsoft’s footnote says “AI features are not available in Microsoft 365 Basic”, its cheaper storage plan, which is a different thing from Copilot Chat (Basic).

Microsoft’s US and India individuals pages both advertised a one-month free trial of Microsoft 365 Premium on 25 October 2026. ChatGPT’s free plan is $0 too and runs GPT-6 Luna. ChatGPT Go is not free for new sign-ups in India any more, and the end of the free Go year has its own post.

Copilot vs ChatGPT Cost in the US and India

I fetched Microsoft’s US and India consumer pages logged out from an Indian connection (Cloudflare’s trace reported loc=IN) on 25 October 2026. The business rows come from Microsoft’s en-us and en-in Copilot pricing pages, read the same day. Prices and limits change, so recheck before you buy.

Microsoft 365 Plans With Copilot, for Individuals

Sources: the US comparison page, the India comparison page, and the US and India individuals pages for Pro.

How to read the individual prices:

• Yearly billing saves money on Microsoft’s side. In the US, a year of Personal paid monthly is 12 x $9.99 = $119.88, or $19.89 more than the $99.99 yearly price, which matches the “Save $19.89 with a yearly plan” line Microsoft prints. In India the same sum is 12 x ₹689 = ₹8,268 against ₹6,899 yearly, ₹1,369 less (my arithmetic). For Premium it is 12 x ₹1,999 = ₹23,988 against ₹19,999, ₹3,989 less.
• ChatGPT has no yearly option on individual plans: OpenAI’s Go help article says it does “not support annual billing” for “ChatGPT Go, Plus, or Pro subscriptions”. Premium at ₹1,999 a month is the same monthly figure as ChatGPT Plus in India, which is billed monthly only; my rupee price list for every ChatGPT plan has the rest. Premium’s yearly price undercuts twelve Plus payments, and it adds the Office apps and 2 TB of storage.
• Personal includes “1 TB of secure cloud storage” alongside the Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote desktop apps, per the India comparison page.
• Family’s AI is not shared. Microsoft’s India FAQ says the AI features in Family, Premium and Pro “are only available to the subscription owner and cannot be shared with others.”
• I found no GST or tax wording on Microsoft’s en-in comparison page on 25 October 2026.
• Microsoft 365 Pro is sold in India: the India individuals page lists it at ₹9,999 a month, monthly billing only.

Copilot for Business vs ChatGPT for Business

Sources: Microsoft’s business pricing and India business pricing, its enterprise page and India enterprise page, and OpenAI’s Work and Codex pricing page. The Copilot add-ons need a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan on top; Microsoft’s enterprise page says “A separate license for a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan is required.”

Microsoft also bills some features beyond the seat price. Its pricing page footnote says “Some AI experiences require usage-based billing and may result in charges based on usage, beyond your license fees”, and Cowork and Autopilot are listed as “Usage-based”.

Copilot or ChatGPT for Work: What Each Can See

Microsoft Learn’s Copilot Chat overview sets out grounding by experience:

With the license, Microsoft says Copilot can reason across emails, meetings, calendars, chats, documents, sites and files that the user already has permission to open, and it “Doesn’t grant access to additional organizational content.” Since both sides now offer GPT-6 models to paying work users, I would weigh data access before model quality when choosing for work.

On the ChatGPT side, OpenAI’s pricing page lists for Business “No training on your business data by default” and “A secure, dedicated workspace with essential admin controls, SAML SSO, and MFA”. Microsoft’s comparison page against ChatGPT Enterprise argues that Microsoft 365 data reached through ChatGPT connectors “is processed outside the Microsoft 365 service boundary”. That is one vendor’s claim about a rival, and the page’s footnotes describe its comparisons as simulated videos captured between 19 December 2025 and 17 August 2026.

Copilot vs ChatGPT: Which to Pick by Reader

If you track where AI referrals to your site come from, Copilot shows up there too, and GA4’s AI Assistant channel is where to look for it. If Claude is also on your list, my Claude vs ChatGPT comparison runs the same exercise across marketing jobs.

Copilot vs ChatGPT: Name the Copilot Before You Compare

The comparison stops being a vague question once you name which Copilot you mean: the included work chat, a home plan, or a paid add-on, and each pairs with a different ChatGPT plan at a different price. Microsoft’s Learn pages and its pricing pages use different names for the same add-ons, and its plan pages lag its model announcements, so the tables above are dated to the day I read them, 25 October 2026.

Check the Copilot label in your own Word or Outlook today and match it to a row in the “Which Copilot” table.