In the AI race, Microsoft established its presence rather early, thanks to its partnership with OpenAI. It began with Bing AI, now rebranded to Copilot, and its slow integration throughout the Microsoft ecosystem. Then came Copilot for Businesses (Copilot for Microsoft 365), which gave us a glimpse of truly how powerful AI could be in assisting in our day-to-day lives.
And just last month, Microsoft introduced Copilot Pro, a middle-ground between Copilot and Copilot for Businesses. Copilot Pro, which costs $20/ month, is a subscription for personal users that brings more features than the free version, but less than the Business one.
But among a flurry of AI models that offer a subscription model that costs around the same – we're talking ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro, and Gemini Advanced – where does Copilot Pro stand? Here are my two cents on it after having tested it this past month.
Copilot Pro: A Mix of Potential and Limitations
Copilot Pro has potential. And lately, Microsoft has even accelerated the update deliveries for Copilot. But when traveling the distance from potential to performance, it sometimes falls short; its promise is eclipsed by its flaws that can be borderline annoying at times.
With Copilot Pro, you get priority access to GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo, even during peak times, custom Copilot GPT creator, integration in Microsoft 365 apps (a separate Microsoft 365 subscription required), and accelerated performance.
Pros
Copilot Pro definitely has some pros over the free version as well as over other AI tools, like ChatGPT.
Speed:
Copilot Pro gives users access to GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo, while with the free version, you can access GPT-4 for free.
But GPT-4 in Copilot has a very annoying quirk: it's maddeningly slow.
Copilot Pro, on the other hand, overcomes this and is lightning fast; it's often so fast that it puts ChatGPT to shame.
No Usage Cap:
With Copilot Pro, there seems to be no usage cap on GPT-4, or at least I haven't encountered it. This means that you don't have to basically contend with sending only 40 messages every 3 hours if you need to use Copilot Pro more.
Available Everywhere:
It's easy to access Copilot; you can access Copilot literally everywhere if you're a Windows 11, Microsoft Edge, or a Bing user. So, it's easier to reach for it than any other AI service.
But that you can do with the free account as well, so that's not something that weighs the scales insanely in favor of buying a Copilot Pro subscription.
Has Access to the Latest Information:
It mostly knows what you're talking about, even if the topic is considerably newer and not a part of the GPT's training. ChatGPT Plus, as of late, skips browsing the internet even when it does not know what the user is talking about and hallucinates more. I find that I have to instruct it to browse the internet explicitly sometimes.
Sakshi Garg
But again, the free version of Copilot does that too.
Cons
Now, of course, it's not without its cons.
Short Answers:
Copilot mainly shines only when it's helping with search answers. The answers it generates are often too concise, as opposed to other AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude, which provide detailed answers organized neatly or more in-depth instructions when you ask them how to do something.
So, especially if you want to use AI for help with content creation or coding, Copilot Pro would not be the one I'd reach for.
Too Many Constraints:
While Copilot uses the same foundational technologies from OpenAI as ChatGPT, Microsoft uses its own set of rules and safeguards for its AI companion. This often results in Copilot stubbornly refusing to answer some even harmless queries, which can be frustrating.
It is also more prone to breakdowns and forces you to start a new chat out of nowhere, even with prompts that should not elicit such responses.
Copilot Pro in Microsoft 365 Apps
Let's come to the main one, shall we? Copilot Pro's integration with Microsoft 365 apps has been one of the main reasons users are getting attracted to the subscription.
None of the other AI apps offer an integration right into your suite of working apps (except Gemini Advanced, which will soon offer AI features in Google apps like Gmail, Docs, etc. but soon is the keyword here); this can potentially mean great things for your productivity.
But is that potential being realized? Apart from the fact that you can access Copilot right in these apps without leaving them, how helpful Copilot really is?
In my opinion, it could be way more useful. For all that it's offering currently, it does not stand out. There's nothing that Copilot is doing in Word, for instance, that I cannot use another AI tool for. I can just as easily ask ChatGPT to write a draft for me or rewrite paragraphs. I can also upload a document with ChatGPT Plus and ask questions about it to the AI – one of the other things you can use Copilot Pro in Word for.
The same goes for writing an email in Outlook or improving it. Yes, Copilot in Outlook can summarize your email threads, but that only gives it a slight edge. It's nothing that'd knock your socks off.
Even with PowerPoint, Copilot needs to up its game if it wants my attention. Having tested some other tools that can handle presentations with AI, like Gamma and Tome, Copilot Pro in PowerPoint failed to impress me.
If Copilot Pro could access my documents in Microsoft 365 apps, like Copilot for Microsoft 365 can, it would be a different story. But in its current state, Copilot Pro needs to become more helpful if it really wants an endorsement.
Needs More Refinement
There's so much room for improvement in Copilot Pro. You cannot edit your prompts once you've sent them to Copilot. Moreover, while the interface for the Copilot web app has improved in recent iterations, there's still room for improvement. It instills a feeling of chaos for me.
When using Copilot chat in Microsoft 365 apps, your chats with the AI companion aren't saved. So, if you want to revisit them, you can't.
Moreover, if you regenerate a response from Copilot in Word, the old response isn't saved. As is sometimes the case when working with AI, sometimes the new response is worse than the old response. If that happens with you when working with Copilot, again, there's really nothing you can do about it.
While the things I've mentioned above are things you can live with, there are some areas Microsoft needs to fix ASAP.
Copilot Pro was working fine on Windows (except in Outlook – did I mention it outright refused to appear in the Outlook apps on both Windows and Mac? The only way I could test Copilot in Outlook was on the web app), it kept running into errors on Mac.
So, if you only own a Mac, what are you going to be paying for? An AI companion that's helpful, until it's not. One expects better from a huge corporation like Microsoft; it needs to better test its products before releasing them!
Moreover, out of nowhere, I have lost access to Copilot GPTs and the GPT creator. I'm sure they'll reappear in a day or two, maybe even earlier, but could a service have any more errors?
Final Verdict: Don't Rush to Buy the Subscription
It's not that Copilot Pro is useless. It's shown some rather impressive improvements, especially with performance. It definitely has potential. But it also disappoints often, especially if you saw that super ambitious Super Bowl ad and came with some great hopes.
When you weigh the pros and cons, and test it against the free version and with other subscriptions like ChatGPT Plus, it doesn't really pass with flying colors.
There are plenty of features that you currently get with the free version of Copilot. If that changes in the future, then we'd need to do a reassessment, but until Copilot Pro steps up its game, I'll be canceling my subscription.
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