Copilot User Guide

Basic & Premium — Tips, Guides & Free Training

Zoom

How to use this guide

This guide is split into four tabs: Copilot Premium for users with a Microsoft 365 license connected to their work account, Copilot Basic for browser-based use, Plans & Limits with pricing and limit details for each tier, and Training & Resources with free, vetted videos and courses.

Both license tabs cover core skills — prompting, drafting, summarizing, and meeting support — so you can see what each license can (and cannot) do.

Prompt patterns Drafting & editing Summaries Meetings & notes App integrations Free training
⚠ Reminder: Copilot is a helper, not an autopilot. Always review the output, correct any issues, and make sure it matches your role, your organization's policies, and your audience before you share it.

What Copilot Premium adds

Copilot for Microsoft 365 connects Copilot directly to your work account — email, calendar, files, chats, and meetings — while honoring your existing permissions. It's embedded inside the apps you already use every day.

Copilot inside your Microsoft 365 apps — top 5 helpers per app

SP
SharePoint
  • Summarize site pages and content instantly
  • Draft news posts and announcements
  • Answer questions about content stored on a site
  • Generate page layouts and descriptions
  • Surface relevant files and documents on demand
Te
Teams
  • Summarize missed meetings with decisions and action items
  • Answer "what was decided?" during or after a call
  • Draft meeting agendas from a chat thread
  • Recap long chat threads in seconds
  • Suggest follow-up tasks after a meeting
Ou
Outlook
  • Draft replies with the right tone in one click
  • Summarize long email threads into key points
  • Suggest follow-up actions from an email chain
  • Rewrite messages to be clearer or more concise
  • Prepare for a meeting using related email context
W
Word
  • Draft full sections from a short outline
  • Rewrite for clarity, tone, or reading level
  • Summarize long documents into key takeaways
  • Generate a first draft from a prompt or template
  • Ask questions about the document's content
Ex
Excel
  • Explain trends and patterns in natural language
  • Suggest and build formulas from a description
  • Create charts and highlight key data automatically
  • Summarize a dataset or table in plain English
  • Identify outliers or anomalies in your data
PP
PowerPoint
  • Create a full draft deck from a Word doc or outline
  • Generate speaker notes for any slide
  • Rewrite slide text for clarity or executive audiences
  • Suggest slide layouts and design improvements
  • Summarize a long presentation into key slides
ON
OneNote
  • Summarize notebook sections into key points
  • Generate a to-do list from meeting notes
  • Draft structured outlines for a new page
  • Rewrite or expand rough notes
  • Answer questions based on your notebook content
Fo
Forms
  • Generate a complete form or survey from a prompt
  • Suggest relevant questions for a given topic
  • Rewrite questions for clarity or plain language
  • Summarize form response data in plain English
  • Draft branching logic recommendations
Pl
Planner
  • Break a project goal into tasks and subtasks
  • Draft task descriptions from a short summary
  • Identify missing tasks in an existing plan
  • Suggest task owners and due date sequences
  • Summarize plan status across buckets
OD
OneDrive
  • Summarize document content without opening the file
  • Answer questions about files stored in your drive
  • Compare two document versions for key changes
  • Draft file descriptions for sharing and metadata
  • Surface relevant documents based on your current task
Lo
Loop
  • Generate structured page content from a prompt
  • Summarize and rewrite collaborative workspace content
  • Draft agendas, briefs, and project plans in a Loop page
  • Suggest follow-up actions from brainstorm content
  • Catch up on changes made while you were away
WB
Whiteboard
  • Generate ideas and suggestions directly on the board
  • Organize sticky notes into categorized groups
  • Summarize a whiteboard session into action items
  • Suggest creative directions based on a prompt
  • Draft a recap of the brainstorm for sharing

Limits and service behavior

Premium licenses are designed for work scenarios and include guardrails that keep content within your permissions.

  • Conversation scope Copilot focuses on the document, email, or meeting you are working in and may reset when you switch context.
  • Rate limits Very long or complex prompts may time out or ask you to simplify the request.
  • Service pauses During high demand you may see messages asking you to retry or return later.

Shorten your prompts, focus on a smaller section, or start a fresh request to work around most limits.

Good habits for Premium users

  • Limit each request to one clear goal — draft, summarize, rewrite, or explain.
  • Use Copilot to speed up your work, not to bypass existing review and approval steps.
  • Be mindful of which documents and chats you include — especially when external parties are involved.
  • Compare Copilot's meeting summaries against your own notes for accuracy.
  • Use track changes in Word so you can see exactly what Copilot changed.

What Copilot Basic is for

Copilot Basic (free or individual plans) runs in the browser and is best for quick questions, drafting, rewriting, and summarizing public or non-sensitive content. It does not have direct access to your work email, calendar, meetings, or files.

Core capabilities

AreaWhat you can do
Prompting Ask questions, brainstorm ideas, and follow up with clarifying questions in the same chat.
Drafting Generate first drafts of emails, outlines, messages, or lists based on your instructions.
Summarizing Summarize pasted text, web pages, or non-sensitive documents into shorter formats.
Reasoning Compare options, list pros and cons, and explain concepts in simpler language.
Web search Find and synthesize up-to-date information from the web as part of your response.

Limits and cooldowns

Basic accounts have limits on messages per conversation and may pause during high demand. When you hit a limit, start a new chat, narrow your request, or try again after a short cooldown.

  • Conversations can time out — you may see "This conversation has reached its limit."
  • Occasional "try again later" messages during peak usage periods.
  • No memory between sessions — each new chat starts fresh with no prior context.

Prompting basics (Basic)

A good prompt tells Copilot who you are, what you need, and what kind of answer you want. Use this pattern:

🎯
Role
Describe who you are or who you're writing for.
✏️
Goal
Say what you need: summarize, draft, rewrite, or explain.
👥
Audience
Explain who will read it — staff, leaders, public, etc.
📋
Format
Ask for bullets, a paragraph, a table, or numbered steps.

Prompt template

"You are a writing assistant. Summarize the text below for [audience] in [number] bullet points and one short paragraph. Use clear, neutral language and do not add new facts."

Everyday examples

  • "Draft a short email that thanks the sender, confirms receipt of their request, and lists three next steps."
  • "Rewrite this paragraph in plain language suitable for the general public."
  • "List the key risks and open questions based on this description."
  • "Summarize these meeting notes into 5 bullet points with action items."

Good habits for Basic users

  • Use non-sensitive content when practicing prompts.
  • Copy output into your own document and edit before sharing.
  • Track which prompts gave you the best results so you can reuse them.

Microsoft Copilot Plans & Limits

This section covers the Copilot tiers relevant to this guide. Microsoft does not publish hard per-session chat message counts for any tier -- the information below reflects what Microsoft publicly documents.

Plan overview

Plan Price Who it is for M365 app integration Graph data grounding
Copilot Free
copilot.microsoft.com		 $0 Anyone; browser only No No
M365 Copilot Business
Add-on		 $21/seat/month (annual)
$25.20/month flexible		 Organizations up to 300 users; requires M365 Business base license Full org deployment Yes
M365 Copilot Enterprise
Add-on		 $30/seat/month (annual) Larger organizations; requires M365 E3/E5 or qualifying plan Full org deployment Yes

M365 Copilot Business pricing was permanently reduced from $30 to $21 per seat per month in December 2025. The all-in cost for Enterprise (add-on + M365 E3/E5 base license) is typically $66-$87 per user per month.

Copilot Free (copilot.microsoft.com)

The free web-based version of Copilot is available to anyone with a Microsoft account at copilot.microsoft.com, in Microsoft Edge, and on Windows and mobile. It provides a useful comparison point for what the licensed versions add.

  • GPT-powered chat with real-time web search grounding
  • Document and webpage summarization in Edge
  • Image creation via Microsoft Designer (limited daily boosts; exact free count not published)
  • Chat history when signed in
  • No connection to Microsoft 365 desktop apps
  • No Microsoft Graph data grounding
  • No admin controls

At limit Lower response priority during peak hours; image generation stops when daily boost cap is reached. No published hard chat message count.

AI Credits: Personal and Family context

Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions include Copilot with a monthly AI credit allowance. These are consumer tiers and are not the same as the Business or Enterprise add-ons, but understanding the credit model helps explain how limits work across the product line.

  • M365 Personal and Family: 60 AI credits per month for actions in M365 apps (drafting, editing, summarizing, image generation)
  • Each AI action consumes one credit -- e.g., "summarize my inbox" = 1 credit
  • Unused credits do not roll over
  • Microsoft 365 Premium (replaces legacy Copilot Pro): extensive use beyond standard credit limits -- no fixed monthly credit cap
  • Microsoft Designer image generation: 100 boosts per day on Premium and legacy Pro plans

The Personal/Family credit model does not apply to M365 Copilot Business or Enterprise, which are licensed separately as organizational add-ons.

M365 Copilot Business -- $21/seat/month (annual)

M365 Copilot Business is the primary add-on for this guide's "Copilot Premium" content. It requires a qualifying Microsoft 365 Business base license and supports organizations with up to 300 users.

What is included

  • Microsoft Graph grounding: Copilot draws on your organizational data -- emails, files, chats, calendar, Teams meetings, and SharePoint -- while respecting your existing permissions
  • Copilot in Teams: meeting summaries, recaps, and action items
  • Copilot in Outlook: email drafting and thread summarization grounded in work context
  • Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote with organizational data context
  • Copilot in Forms, Planner, Loop, OneDrive, and Whiteboard
  • Priority access for faster and more consistent response times
  • Agents grounded in shared tenant data at no extra cost
  • More security, privacy, and compliance controls for IT admins

Limits and data handling

  • Chat limits Microsoft does not publish hard per-session or daily message counts for M365 Copilot Business. The product is designed for professional use and does not expose a fixed cap the way consumer products do.
  • Rate limits Very long or complex requests may time out or prompt you to simplify. During high demand, you may see retry messages.
  • Context scope Copilot focuses on the document, email, or meeting in your current context and may reset when you switch tasks.
Data privacy: M365 Copilot Business does not use your prompts or organizational data to train Microsoft's foundation AI models. Microsoft Graph data stays within your tenant and is processed in compliance with your existing Microsoft 365 data protections.

M365 Copilot Enterprise -- $30/seat/month (annual)

M365 Copilot Enterprise is an add-on for organizations on Microsoft 365 E3, E5, or a wide range of other qualifying enterprise plans. It supports unlimited org size and adds compliance and data residency commitments on top of the Business tier.

What Enterprise adds over Business

  • Supports a wider range of qualifying base licenses including M365 E3/E5, Office 365 E1/E3/E5, and various standalone plans
  • Full compliance certifications: GDPR, HIPAA, ISO 27001, ISO 42001
  • Data residency commitments
  • Enterprise-grade security and compliance tools for IT administrators
  • Microsoft explicitly commits that organizational data is not used to train foundation language models

Limits and data handling

  • Chat limits No hard per-session message counts are published for Enterprise -- same policy as Business.
  • At-limit behavior Throttling and retry prompts may appear during peak load; no published failover model.
Data privacy: Like Business, M365 Copilot Enterprise does not use prompts or organizational data to train foundation AI models. Microsoft Graph data remains within the tenant. Enterprise adds formal data residency and additional compliance certifications.

Limits at a glance

Plan Chat message limit Image generation Trains on your data? Graph data grounding
Copilot Free Not published; lower priority at peak Limited daily boosts (exact count not published) No official statement No
M365 Personal / Family Extensive chat; 60 AI credits/month for app actions Within 60 credit allowance No official statement Limited
M365 Premium (legacy Pro) Extensive; beyond standard credit limits 100 boosts/day (Designer) No official statement No (personal)
M365 Copilot Business Not published; no hard limit documented Not separately stated No Yes (full org)
M365 Copilot Enterprise Not published; no hard limit documented Not separately stated No Yes (full org)

Pricing and limit information reflects publicly available Microsoft documentation as of late 2025 / early 2026. Features, pricing, and policies may change. Always verify current details at microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot and review your organization's licensing agreement.

🎓 Copilot Basic — Free Training

Free resources from Microsoft and reputable platforms to get started with Copilot in the browser. No license required.

Microsoft — YouTube 📹 Video · 18 min · Beginner Microsoft 365 Copilot Tutorial – Beginner's Guide (2025) End-to-end walkthrough of the all-new Copilot app. Covers Copilot Chat, AI creation, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. Free for all M365 users. Watch on YouTube → YouTube — 2025 📹 Video · Full Course · Beginner Microsoft Copilot Full Course for Beginners (2025) Comprehensive beginner course covering Copilot fundamentals, prompting techniques, and everyday use cases. Great starting point for new users. Watch on YouTube → LinkedIn Learning 🎓 Course · 40 min · Beginner Learning Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat (Free Version) Master prompt writing, understand license types, and apply Copilot across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Practical and hands-on. View on LinkedIn Learning → Microsoft ⚡ Interactive Practice Try Copilot in the Browser The best way to learn is by doing. Open Copilot directly and try sample prompts, drafting, and summarizing right away — no install needed. Open Copilot →
⭐ Copilot Premium — Free Training

Official Microsoft training and top-rated courses focused on Copilot inside Microsoft 365 apps — Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more.

Microsoft Learn — Official 🎓 Learning Path · Free · Self-paced Get Started with Microsoft 365 Copilot Microsoft's official free learning path. Covers Copilot in all M365 apps with hands-on exercises, knowledge checks, and a completion badge. Start on Microsoft Learn → Microsoft Learn — Official 🎓 Module · Free · ~45 min Introduction to Microsoft 365 Copilot Official introduction module. Learn what Copilot is, how it integrates with M365, and how to use it responsibly. Includes a completion certificate. Start on Microsoft Learn → Microsoft Support 📹 Video Library · Free Microsoft 365 Copilot Video Tutorials Official short video tutorials for each Microsoft 365 app. Covers Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more — each video under 5 minutes. Watch the tutorials → LinkedIn Learning 🎓 Learning Path · 8 courses Get Started with Microsoft Copilot (Learning Path) 8-course path covering Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and Outlook. Includes AI-driven data analysis, presentations, and collaboration. View on LinkedIn Learning → Coursera · Microsoft 🎓 Course · Free to audit Introduction to Microsoft 365 Copilot Microsoft-authored course on Coursera. Free to audit. Covers core capabilities, responsible AI use, and app-specific features with quizzes. View on Coursera → Microsoft 📖 Guides + Demos Copilot for Work — Scenarios & Guides Real-world scenario guides for how to use Copilot in work tasks. Covers common job roles and workflows with step-by-step examples. Explore scenarios →

This guide is for training and orientation only. Features, limits, and available apps may change as Microsoft updates Copilot and Microsoft 365 services. Always follow your organization's data security and acceptable use policies.