What changed on April 15, 2026

Microsoft removed the Copilot button inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote for users who do not have a paid Microsoft 365 Copilot license. This means Copilot no longer appears directly inside those applications for most users. 

What is still available without a Copilot license

Even without a Copilot license, users still have access to Copilot Chat:

• Copilot Chat remains available at
  https://copilot.cloud.microsoft/
• It is secure and enterprise‑protected
• It can answer questions, summarize content, and help generate drafts using web-based knowledge
• It can also work with files that users upload directly into the chat (such as Word documents or Excel files) [support.mi...rosoft.com]

Copilot Chat in Outlook (email and calendar help) also remains available without a license. 

How to use Copilot Chat with Word or Excel

Although Copilot is no longer embedded inside Word or Excel, users can still use Copilot Chat alongside those tools:

1. Open Copilot Chat in a browser:
   https://copilot.cloud.microsoft/
2. Upload a Word or Excel file directly into the chat or
3. Copy and paste text, tables, or formulas into Copilot Chat and ask questions such as:
   • “Summarize this document”
   • “Rewrite this section more clearly”
   • “Explain this Excel formula”
   • “Help me create a formula for this data”
4. Copy the result back into Word or Excel

This provides AI assistance, but it is not connected directly to the open document and does not automatically see your files, emails, or Teams data.

What requires a paid Copilot license

The full Microsoft 365 Copilot experience (the in‑app Copilot button in Word, Excel, etc.) requires a paid license. That version can:

• Work directly inside documents and spreadsheets
• Reference organizational data (OneDrive, SharePoint, Outlook, Teams)
• Perform multi-step edits and deeper reasoning automatically

What Teams Premium does not include

A Teams Premium license does not add Microsoft 365 Copilot across Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint. If you want Copilot to help you draft, rewrite, summarize, and work inside those apps, Teams Premium alone will not do that.

When Microsoft 365 Copilot is the better fit

Microsoft 365 Copilot is a better match when your meeting is just the starting point and your real work happens afterward across Microsoft 365. The most practical difference is that Microsoft 365 Copilot can help you use meeting information as part of your work in other apps.

Common examples:

• Drafting a follow-up email in Outlook that captures decisions and due dates (you review, edit, then send).
• Creating a one-page project update in Word based on your notes or transcript (you verify details in the source).
• Summarizing decisions for a stakeholder brief and then moving to slides or a document for revision.