Microsoft Copilot, the consumer-facing assistant Microsoft introduced in 2023, comes built into Windows and the Edge browser by default, alongside Bing, giving it a default-installed presence on a huge number of existing PCs rather than requiring a separate download the way most competitors do.
That's distinct from Copilot Studio, Microsoft's separate enterprise tool for building custom agents, covered elsewhere in this directory: this consumer Copilot is a ready-to-use assistant for everyday questions, web search, and image generation rather than a platform for building something custom. It draws on OpenAI's models under Microsoft's licensing arrangement, with web grounding included by default.
A free tier covers standard use, and Copilot Pro starts around $20 a month for priority access and deeper integration with Microsoft 365 apps like Word and Excel for subscribers. For a Windows user who wants an assistant already sitting on their desktop and browser without installing anything new, Copilot's default presence across Microsoft's most widely used consumer software is its clearest advantage.
