Microsoft 365 Copilot is Microsoft's AI assistant embedded directly into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and OneDrive. It uses your organisation's own content, emails, documents, meeting transcripts, SharePoint files, to answer questions, draft content, summarise meetings, and analyse data. Unlike public AI tools, Copilot runs inside your Microsoft 365 tenant and respects existing file permissions.
In Outlook: Draft email replies, summarise long threads, extract action items from conversations.
In Teams: Generate meeting summaries and action items in real time, catch up on missed meetings, draft follow-up messages.
In Word: Draft first versions of documents from a brief prompt, summarise long documents, rewrite selected passages.
In Excel: Analyse data tables in plain English, generate formulas, build charts, identify trends.
In PowerPoint: Generate a slide deck from a Word document or a prompt, add slides, reformat layouts.
In OneDrive/SharePoint: Search across all your files using natural language ("find the Q4 forecast Simon shared last month").
How you pay for Copilot changed in 2026, and most articles on the subject still describe the old model. For small and mid-sized businesses it is no longer a $40 add-on bolted onto a base licence, because Microsoft folded Copilot into the Business plans themselves. Canadian list prices, from Microsoft's Copilot pricing page on 14 August 2026, per user per month:
Business Standard with Copilot: $31.90 paid yearly, or $38.28 on a monthly commitment. Business Premium with Copilot: $43.40 paid yearly, or $52.08 monthly. Both include Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business, the add-on route, lists at $24.43 per user per month paid yearly, discounted from $28.50, or $34.20 on a monthly commitment. It requires an existing Microsoft 365 Business plan and centres on AI chat and pre-built agents rather than the in-app Copilot. On the enterprise side, the Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on for E3 and E5 lists at $40.70 per user per month paid yearly. Our page on what every Microsoft 365 plan costs in Canada sets these against the base licence prices.
Copilot Chat is available at no additional cost to eligible Microsoft 365 business and enterprise customers. It is web-grounded chat without the in-app integration or your tenant data behind it, and it is the honest starting point if you are not yet sure your team will use AI at all.
The practical consequence for an SMB is that the decision is no longer "should we add Copilot" but "which edition do we renew on". Moving 25 users from Business Standard with Copilot to Business Premium with Copilot costs $287.50 a month and buys the security stack, not the AI, because the AI is in both.
For knowledge workers whose time has measurable value, yes, but only if they actually use it for the right tasks.
High-ROI use cases (most users recover cost within a week):
Lower-ROI use cases:
The practical test: pilot Copilot with 5 - 10 of your most document- and meeting-heavy users for 30 days and measure time saved. If the numbers work, roll out. If not, the pilot was cheap.
Yes, with important nuances:
The most important pre-rollout step is a permission audit. If your SharePoint has files that sensitive roles should not see but were never properly secured, Copilot will surface them to anyone who asks. Fix permissions before rollout.
They are complementary, not competing, for most businesses.
Do I need Microsoft 365 Business Premium to use Copilot? No. In-app Copilot ships inside Business Standard with Copilot, Business Premium with Copilot, and the E3 and E5 add-on. Business Basic remains ineligible, so a Basic tenant has to move up a tier before Copilot is available at all.
Can Copilot read my emails without my permission? Copilot only accesses content that the signed-in user already has access to in their own account. It cannot read other users' private emails.
Does Copilot work in French? Yes. Microsoft 365 Copilot supports both official Canadian languages.
What is the difference between Microsoft Copilot (free) and Microsoft 365 Copilot (paid)? The free tier, now called Copilot Chat, is web-grounded chat available at no additional cost to eligible business and enterprise customers. Microsoft 365 Copilot is the paid version that works inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams and reaches your own tenant content.
Can North Star help us deploy Copilot? Yes. North Star helps Canadian SMBs license, configure, run permission audits, and train staff on Microsoft 365 Copilot for real productivity gains.
Thinking about Copilot for your team? Call 672-983-1174 or book a free Copilot readiness review at northstarit.ca.
Quick answers.
What is Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Copilot is Microsoft's enterprise AI assistant integrated into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and OneDrive. It uses your organizational data securely and respects existing permissions.
How much does Copilot cost in Canada?
For small and mid-sized businesses it is now included in the licence rather than added to it. Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot lists at $31.90 per user per month paid yearly and Business Premium with Copilot at $43.40, as published on microsoft.com on 14 August 2026. The Microsoft 365 Copilot Business add-on, which needs an existing Business plan, lists at $24.43 paid yearly. On E3 and E5 the Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on is $40.70. Copilot Chat is available at no additional cost to eligible business and enterprise customers.
Is Copilot worth the cost?
For knowledge workers who write, summarize meetings, build slide decks, or analyze spreadsheets, yes. Most users save 30 to 90 minutes per week, easily covering the cost.
Is my data safe with Copilot?
Yes. Copilot operates inside your Microsoft 365 tenant boundary, respects existing file permissions, and Microsoft does not train public models on your data.
Can North Star help us deploy Copilot?
Yes. North Star helps Canadian SMBs license, configure, and train staff on Microsoft 365 Copilot for real productivity gains.
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