Copilot is Microsoft's assistant, sold as part of Microsoft 365. ChatGPT is OpenAI's, sold on its own. They share history and some models, but not accounts, limits, ads or data rules, so the question is whether you want Office with an assistant attached or an assistant on its own.
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Pick Microsoft Copilot if you already pay for Microsoft 365 or were going to, because Personal at $9.99 puts Copilot inside the Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook desktop apps, with the apps and 1 TB of storage in the same subscription.
Pick ChatGPT if the assistant is the product you want: a model you can see and pick, projects, custom GPTs, deep research and Codex, with no ads from $20 a month.
Pick neither if what you actually need is help with code, because the Copilot for that is GitHub Copilot, a separate product with its own free plan, or you chat a few times a week, which both free tiers cover without a card.
prices checked 2026-10-13 · by dan scutaru
| Microsoft Copilot | ChatGPT | |
|---|---|---|
| price | free tier · from $9.99/mo | free tier · from $8/mo |
| free tier | Chat with web search, image creation and file uploads, "subject to available capacity and limits". Microsoft publishes no counts. No sign-in needed for basic chat; users without a Microsoft 365 subscription may see ads. | Unlimited text chats with GPT-6 Luna (subject to abuse guardrails), with limited uploads, image generation, voice, deep research, memory and Codex access. |
| runs on | web, ios, android, mac, windows | web, ios, android, mac, windows |
| Cheapest paid plan | Microsoft 365 Personal, $9.99/mo or $99.99/yr: Copilot in the Office desktop apps, 1 TB | Go, $8/mo: more messages, uploads and images, may show ads |
| The $20 plan | Microsoft 365 Premium, $19.99/mo: Researcher and Analyst agents, Cowork preview (US and Canada) | Plus, $20/mo: GPT-6 reasoning models, projects, custom GPTs, expanded Codex, no ads |
| Top plan | Microsoft 365 Pro, $99.99/mo | Pro 100, 200 or 500, $100 to $500/mo |
| Which model answers you | Not named, "selected by Microsoft" | Shown in the picker: GPT-6 Luna free, GPT-6 Sol and Astra on Plus |
| Ads | Possible without a Microsoft 365 subscription | Possible on Free and Go, none on Plus and Pro |
| Training on your chats | Not used for foundation models, Microsoft says | On by default, opt-out on every plan |
No. Copilot doesn't run ChatGPT, the app. It is Microsoft's own product, with its own account, history, limits and privacy rules. What links them is the model underneath and the money: Microsoft owns roughly 27% of OpenAI, and OpenAI says GPT-5.6 is the preferred model in Microsoft 365 Copilot. Microsoft also builds its own models, called MAI, and says it will keep using "the very best models from our team, our partners".
The consumer app names none of them. Its pricing FAQ says only that models are "selected by Microsoft". ChatGPT shows the model in a picker, so the same prompt can get different answers in each, and only one tells you why.
Copilot Pro, the $20 add-on most comparisons still price, is no longer sold, and its support ended on August 1, 2026. The like-for-like pair today is Microsoft 365 Premium at $19.99 a month against ChatGPT Plus at $20.
Premium is a bundle: the Office apps, extensive Copilot chat, the Researcher and Analyst agents, Cowork in preview. Plus is the assistant made deeper: reasoning models, expanded deep research and Codex, projects, scheduled tasks, custom GPTs, no ads. Neither gives a number for the usage you pay for. If you won't open Word or Excel this month, Premium is apps you pay for to get a chatbot.
This page is about Microsoft Copilot, the assistant in Windows, Edge, the Copilot app and Microsoft 365. GitHub Copilot is a different product that writes code in your editor, with its own plans: Free, then Pro at $10 a month. Both are Microsoft's, which is why one Hacker News commenter had to spell it out: "There's Copilot the ChatGPT-like service, then there's Copilot for Visual Studio".
If you came here about code, the fair fight is GitHub Copilot against ChatGPT's Codex, limited on Free and Go and expanded on Plus. Microsoft Copilot answers coding questions in chat, but nothing on its plans page is about code.
Not as an assistant on its own. If the assistant is the point, ChatGPT gives you more for the money: model choice, projects, custom GPTs, deep research, Codex. Copilot is the better deal if you would pay for Microsoft 365 anyway. For a plain question, either free version will do.
Microsoft doesn't say for the consumer app. Its pricing page only says models are "selected by Microsoft". For Microsoft 365 Copilot, OpenAI said on July 9, 2026 that GPT-5.6 is the preferred model.
No, it owns a stake. After OpenAI's restructuring in October 2025, Microsoft put its holding at roughly 27 percent. ChatGPT is OpenAI's product and Copilot is Microsoft's, with separate accounts and plans.
Yes. Microsoft offers a free version "subject to available capacity and limits", and basic chat works without signing in. Signing in adds history, image creation, longer chats and voice. Without Microsoft 365 you might see ads. The full answer →
On Free and Go, it can. OpenAI began testing ads in the US on February 9, 2026, below responses. Plus and Pro have none. Copilot is similar: you might see ads without a Microsoft 365 subscription.