ChatGPT vs Copilot

Microsoft Copilot is the better buy if you want Word, Excel and PowerPoint themselves, since Microsoft 365 Premium bundles the Office apps, 2 TB of storage for up to six people and Copilot for $19.99 a month. ChatGPT Plus costs $20 a month and is the stronger AI on its own: Microsoft does not say which models consumer Copilot uses, while ChatGPT's models rank on public leaderboards.

Microsoft Copilot wins if what you need is Office: Microsoft 365 Premium costs $19.99 a month in the US and bundles Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook with Copilot's highest consumer usage, against $20 a month for ChatGPT Plus, which includes no Office apps. ChatGPT wins if you want the AI itself: OpenAI publishes its models, limits and plans in detail, its models rank on independent leaderboards, and ChatGPT now works inside Office too through add-ins for Excel, PowerPoint and Word. Microsoft names no model behind consumer Copilot on its pages as of Nov 6, 2026, which makes a model-for-model comparison impossible.

Learn more: Microsoft Copilot on Ai.vi.ki.

Quick facts

Free plans	ChatGPT Free: unlimited text chats, limited tools; Copilot: limited usage with a free Microsoft account
Paid plans	ChatGPT Go $8, Plus $20, Pro $100, $200 or $500 a month; Microsoft 365 Personal $9.99, Family $12.99, Premium $19.99 a month
Office apps	Included with Microsoft 365; ChatGPT has add-ins for Excel, Google Sheets, PowerPoint and Word
Copilot Pro	No longer sold since Oct 1, 2025, replaced by Microsoft 365 Premium
Models named	ChatGPT: GPT-6 Sol, GPT-6 Astra and others; consumer Copilot: none named by Microsoft
Training opt-out	Both: on by default for signed-in personal accounts, can be turned off

Sources, as of Nov 6, 2026 (US prices): ChatGPT pricing, Codex pricing, Microsoft 365 plans compared, Meet Microsoft 365 Premium, Copilot, GPT-6 and other models in ChatGPT.

Verdict by task

Task	ChatGPT	Copilot	Verdict
Writing	GPT-6 models ranked on Arena	Model not named; not on Arena	No reliable comparison yet
Office documents	Add-ins for Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Sheets	Copilot inside the Office apps it bundles	Copilot, if you need the apps
Coding	Codex on every plan	Copilot Code in preview "later this year"	ChatGPT
Research	Deep research, Free limited	Researcher on Premium	No reliable comparison yet
Images	ChatGPT Images 2.6	Image generation, "higher" on paid plans	No reliable comparison yet
Voice	Live voice with published hours	Voice not documented on the pages read	No reliable comparison yet
Price	$20 for Plus, no Office	$19.99 for Premium with Office and 2 TB	Copilot for value
Privacy	Opt-out of training	Opt-out of training; 18 months' history by default	Tie
Limits	Published allowances	"Higher than free", "Extensive", no numbers	ChatGPT for clarity

Sources for the table: ChatGPT pricing, ChatGPT release notes, Microsoft 365 plans compared, Introducing the new Copilot, Copilot privacy FAQ, Text Arena leaderboard, all read Nov 6, 2026.

What Copilot is in 2026

Consumer Copilot lives at copilot.com, where it offers chat, search, image creation, Notebook (formerly Projects), Cowork (formerly Tasks), Researcher and Guided Learning, free with a Microsoft account "subject to usage limits". Microsoft stopped selling Copilot Pro when it launched Microsoft 365 Premium on Oct 1, 2025, which combines Microsoft 365 Family and Copilot Pro. On Sep 25, 2026 Microsoft announced a new Copilot with Home, Code and Autopilot, aimed mostly at organizations; its consumer coding part is a preview for Premium subscribers "later this year".

Writing and answer quality

There is no reliable comparison. Microsoft's consumer pages read on Nov 6, 2026 name no current model behind Copilot chat; secondary reports disagree on whether it runs GPT-5, GPT-6 variants or Claude, and none of that is confirmed by Microsoft. No Copilot or Microsoft MAI chat model appears among the first 153 rows of Arena's text leaderboard, and no 2026 hands-on test of the two was found. ChatGPT's models are on the record: GPT-6 Sol powers its Instant to Extra High modes for Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise, and OpenAI's best ranks 22nd of 418 on Arena text (Oct 27, 2026).

Office documents

Copilot wins for people who need the Office apps, because Microsoft 365 Premium includes the Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote desktop apps for up to six people, with 2 TB of shared cloud storage, at $19.99 a month or $199.99 a year. Premium's launch post lists Researcher and Analyst agents and early access to Office Agent and Agent Mode. One catch for families: AI features on Family and Premium are only for the subscription owner.

1:01 ChatGPT now reaches into the same apps without selling them. Its add-ins arrived for Excel and Google Sheets on May 5, 2026, PowerPoint on Jul 6 and Word on Sep 17; Free and Go get limited use, and Plus and Pro draw on the same allowance as Codex. You still need your own Office license or Google Sheets. See ChatGPT in Office.

Coding

ChatGPT wins: Codex is included on every ChatGPT plan and in full on Plus, with cloud tasks and code review. Consumer Copilot's Code feature, built on the same technology as GitHub Copilot, was announced on Sep 25, 2026 as a preview to come. Programmers comparing Microsoft's coding product should look at GitHub Copilot instead: Codex vs GitHub Copilot.

Research, images and voice

Both have a research agent: ChatGPT's Deep Research is on every plan in limited form on Free, and Copilot's Researcher (formerly Deep Research) is on copilot.com, with "Agentic AI for advanced research" listed for Premium only. No test compares their reports.

For images, ChatGPT Images 2.6 is on every ChatGPT plan. Microsoft lists AI image generation as "Higher than free" on Personal and Family and "Extensive" on Premium, and its Premium launch post named 4o image generation, OpenAI's earlier image model; Microsoft also has its own MAI Image 2.6 in Foundry preview, but which model Copilot uses today is not stated. Voice is documented for ChatGPT, with 3 hours a day of Live voice on Plus, and not on the Copilot pages read. No reliable comparison yet on any of the three.

Price

On price alone the two main plans are a cent apart: Microsoft 365 Premium $19.99 and ChatGPT Plus $20. Premium is the better value if you would otherwise pay for Microsoft 365, since Microsoft 365 Family alone costs $12.99 a month. Lower down, Microsoft 365 Personal at $9.99 a month adds Copilot usage "Higher than free", and ChatGPT Go costs $8. At the top, ChatGPT Pro at $100, $200 or $500 a month has no Copilot equivalent for consumers. Free ChatGPT and Go may show ads. See ChatGPT Plans and Pricing.

Privacy

The two are close. OpenAI uses personal Free, Plus and Pro chats for training by default and lets you turn it off under Settings > Data controls. Microsoft uses data from Copilot for AI training except for those who opt out, people who are not signed in, organizational Entra ID accounts and Copilot inside Microsoft 365 Personal and Family apps; it keeps conversation history for 18 months by default. Both let you delete conversations. See Privacy and Data Controls.

Limits

ChatGPT is clearer. OpenAI publishes unlimited text chats on Free, voice hours per plan, and agent message ranges per five hours for Plus. Microsoft describes Copilot usage only as "Limited", "Higher than free" and "Extensive", with no numbers. See ChatGPT Usage Limits.

When to choose Copilot, and when ChatGPT

Choose Copilot through Microsoft 365 Premium if you need Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook anyway and want AI included for one price. Choose ChatGPT if you want a coding agent today, published models and limits, a cheaper $8 plan or a high-capacity Pro plan, or if you already own Office and only want an assistant inside it. More rivals: When to Use Something Else.

Learn more: Microsoft Copilot on Ai.vi.ki.

Frequently asked questions

Is Copilot better than ChatGPT? There is no reliable way to say, because Microsoft does not name the model behind consumer Copilot and no 2026 test compares them. Copilot is the better deal if you want Office apps; ChatGPT is better documented and adds coding with Codex.

Is Copilot the same as ChatGPT? No. Copilot is Microsoft's assistant and ChatGPT is OpenAI's. Microsoft's 2025 Premium post named OpenAI's 4o image generation, but Microsoft's pages read on Nov 6, 2026 do not say which models Copilot chat uses now.

Does Copilot Pro still exist? Microsoft stopped selling Copilot Pro when Microsoft 365 Premium launched on Oct 1, 2025, at $19.99 a month; existing Copilot Pro subscribers can switch.

Is Microsoft 365 Premium worth it over ChatGPT Plus? If you would pay for Microsoft 365 anyway, yes: Premium costs $19.99 a month with the Office apps and Copilot's highest consumer usage, against $20 for ChatGPT Plus without Office.

Can I use ChatGPT in Word and Excel? Yes. OpenAI's ChatGPT add-ins work in Excel and Google Sheets (since May 5, 2026), PowerPoint (Jul 6, 2026) and Word (Sep 17, 2026), with limited use on Free and Go.