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Microsoft Copilot: one name, many products, several model vendors

Copilot is Microsoft's name for the AI assistants inside its own products: Windows, Edge, Microsoft 365, the Power Platform, the security tools and GitHub.

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In most of this family, the assistant is a feature of a product your organisation already pays for. Consumers sign in with a personal Microsoft account. Companies give access through Entra ID and a licence per seat. Microsoft runs the service and picks the model by default. In Microsoft 365 Copilot that is an OpenAI GPT model, with Anthropic's Claude as an option that admins can switch on or off.

GitHub Copilot sorts itself by who is driving: assistive features where you steer (chat, suggestions, code review) and agentic ones where Copilot steers (agent mode, the CLI, the cloud agent). It offers models from six vendors and runs on GitHub's service. Your own key in the CLI or the app is the only route to other endpoints, including a model on your own machine.

From my course slides (MASE-3, FH Burgenland), read 8 September 2026. Some details on the slide have changed since; the text on this page is current as of September 2026.
From my course slides (MASE-3, FH Burgenland), read 8 September 2026. Some details on the slide have changed since; the text on this page is current as of September 2026.[1]

The family

Microsoft Copilot app[2]

web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android
One Copilot app for personal and work accounts. You sign in with a personal Microsoft account or a work account, and the two stay separate.

Copilot on Windows[3]

Windows
Preinstalled on new Windows 11 PCs. It opens with the Copilot key, Windows key + C or "Hey Copilot", and Copilot Vision can see the apps you have open.

Copilot in Microsoft Edge[4]

browser
An assistant in the Edge sidebar that summarises pages, videos and PDFs. With a work account it opens Copilot Chat with enterprise data protection.

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat[5]

web, app, Outlook, Teams, Edge
Chat for work and school accounts, included with eligible Microsoft 365 licences. It answers from the web and from what you give it, not from the whole tenant.

Microsoft 365 Copilot[6]

Office apps
The paid licence: Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams, grounded in your organisation's mail, meetings, chats and files.

Copilot Cowork[7]

web, Windows, macOS
An agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot that takes on multi-step tasks. It has its own model picker, set to Auto by default.

Copilot Studio[8]

web builder
A low-code studio for building agents and workflows, published to Teams, Microsoft 365 Copilot, websites and other channels.

Microsoft Agent 365[9]

admin center
Admin layer to observe, govern and secure the agents in an organisation, with a registry, Entra, Purview and Defender. Generally available since 1 May 2026.

Security Copilot[10]

security consoles
Security agents and chat inside Defender, Entra, Intune and Purview, plus a separate portal. Included for eligible Microsoft 365 E5 and E7 customers.

GitHub Copilot in the IDE[11]

IDE
Chat, inline suggestions and agent mode in supported editors. Agent mode works on its own and asks before it acts.

GitHub Copilot CLI and Copilot app[12]

terminal, desktop
Copilot in the terminal and in a desktop app for agent-driven work. Both can use your own model key or a local model.

GitHub Copilot cloud agent and code review[13]

GitHub.com
The cloud agent researches a repository, plans and changes code on a branch, then opens a pull request. Each session has a hard limit of 59 minutes. Code review adds review comments to pull requests.

Plans

Plan names as of September 2026. The plan decides which data Copilot can reach, which terms apply and which models you get.

PlanForWhat changes
Microsoft Copilot (free)[14]Anyone with a personal accountUsage is limited and depends on capacity. Consumer terms apply.
Microsoft 365 Personal / Family[14]Individuals and householdsCopilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook with more usage than free. In Family, only the subscription owner gets the AI features.
Microsoft 365 Premium / Pro[14]Individuals who use Copilot a lotMore chat usage and an allowance for agentic tasks. Pro has the highest consumer limits.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat[5]Users with eligible Microsoft 365 work or school licencesIncluded in the licence. Enterprise data protection, web grounding, only limited access to organisational data.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business[15]Smaller organisations on Microsoft 365Add-on with Copilot in the Office apps, the Researcher, Analyst and Facilitator agents, usage analytics and model choice.
Microsoft 365 Copilot (add-on to E3 / E5)[6]EnterprisesChat grounded in Microsoft Graph, Copilot in the apps, SharePoint and declarative agents. E5 also includes Security Copilot.
Microsoft 365 E7[6]Enterprises that want one bundleE5 plus Microsoft Copilot, the Entra Suite and Agent 365 in one licence.
GitHub Copilot Free / Student[16]Individual developers and verified studentsAutomatic model selection only. Free has 2,000 completions a month. Student has no third-party agents.
GitHub Copilot Pro / Pro+ / Max[17]Individual developersYou choose the model. Includes the cloud agent, code review and third-party agents, with monthly AI credits that grow from Pro to Max. Pro+ adds premium models and audit logs.
GitHub Copilot Business[16]OrganisationsCentral licence management, Copilot policies and audit logs. Interaction data is not used for training.
GitHub Copilot Enterprise[17]GitHub Enterprise Cloud customersEverything in Business, plus codebase indexing, GitHub.com integration, custom private models and a larger AI credit pool.

Which model runs

In Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft picks the model by default. In Cowork and Copilot Studio, users or makers can choose, within what admins allow. In GitHub Copilot, paid plans can pick the model, while Free and Student get automatic selection. As of September 2026:

GPT-6 Sol and Claude Opus 5.5[18]Rolling out in Microsoft Copilot (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Chat, Cowork, Copilot Studio) since 22 Sep 2026. Availability varies by licence and region.
Auto[7]Default in Copilot Cowork: Microsoft picks the model for the task.
GPT-5.5, GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-5.6 Terra, GPT-6 Astra[7]OpenAI models in the Cowork picker.
Claude Opus 5, Claude Sonnet 5, Claude Fable 5.1[7]Anthropic models in the Cowork picker. Admins can switch Anthropic off for the whole tenant.
GPT-5.5 Chat[19]Default model for agents in Copilot Studio.
Claude Sonnet 4.6, Claude Opus 4.6, Claude Opus 4.7[19]Generally available in Copilot Studio, marked cross-geo: data may be processed outside your geography.
GitHub Copilot: OpenAI GPT-5 to GPT-6[20]Including GPT-5.3-Codex, GPT-5.5, GPT-5.6 Luna / Sol / Terra and GPT-6 Astra / Luna / Sol.
GitHub Copilot: Anthropic Claude[20]Haiku 4.5, Sonnet 4.6 and 5, Opus 4.7 to 5.5, Fable 5 and 5.1. With Fable, Anthropic keeps prompts and outputs by default for safety classifiers.
GitHub Copilot: Google, Microsoft, Moonshot AI, xAI[20]Gemini 3.5 to 3.8 Flash, MAI-Code-1.1-Flash, Kimi K2.7 Code and K3, Grok 4.5 to 4.7.

What you can configure

Identity and permissions[21]Work access runs through Microsoft Entra ID. Copilot shows only data that the person can already open in Microsoft 365.
Sensitivity labels, DLP, audit, eDiscovery, retention[22]Microsoft Purview applies to Copilot. Labels and encryption are respected, DLP can block prompts with sensitive data, prompts and answers go to the audit log, and retention policies cover "Microsoft Copilot Experiences".
Anthropic models on or off[23]Microsoft 365 admin center, Copilot, Settings, "AI providers operating as Microsoft subprocessors". Needs the AI Administrator or Global Administrator role and applies to the whole tenant.
Flex routing (EU and EFTA)[24]Admins decide whether Copilot may process prompts outside the EU Data Boundary at peak load. The Microsoft 365 admin center covers Copilot and Copilot Chat. The Power Platform admin center covers Dynamics 365, Power Platform and Copilot Studio.
Agents[9]The agent registry in the Microsoft 365 admin center and Agent 365 show which agents exist and govern them with Entra, Purview and Defender.
Copilot Studio models and regions[19]External models such as Claude must be allowed in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Preview and experimental models also need Power Platform settings, including "Move data across regions".
GitHub Copilot policies[25]Enterprise and organisation owners decide which features, agents and models people may use. Policies apply in the IDE, on GitHub.com and in the CLI.
GitHub content exclusion[26]Organisations can keep chosen files and paths out of Copilot's context.
GitHub Copilot customisation[11]Spaces, custom instructions, memory, prompt files, MCP servers, Agent Skills and custom agents.

What happens to your data

Consumer Copilot[27]For signed-in adults, conversations are used to train Microsoft's models unless they opt out. The EEA is not on the list of exempt regions. Conversations are kept for 18 months by default, and you can delete them.
Work accounts (Entra ID)[28]Prompts, responses and data from Microsoft Graph are not used to train foundation models. Copilot follows your labels, retention policies and audit settings.
GitHub Copilot Free, Pro, Pro+[29]Since 24 April 2026, interaction data (inputs, outputs, code snippets, context) is used for training unless you opt out under Privacy in your settings.
GitHub Copilot Business and Enterprise[29]Not affected by the training change. Interaction data from these plans and from enterprise-owned repositories is not used.

Europe: GDPR, data residency and the AI Act

DPA / GDPR terms[28]Copilot and Copilot Chat for organisations fall under the Microsoft Data Protection Addendum and Product Terms, with Microsoft as processor. GitHub Copilot falls under the GitHub Data Protection Agreement for GA features.
EU Data Boundary[21]EU traffic for Microsoft 365 Copilot stays inside the EU Data Boundary. Exceptions: web search queries, flex routing when it is on, and Anthropic models.
Anthropic models and flex routing[23]Anthropic models are "currently excluded from the EU Data Boundary" and are off by default for EU, EFTA and UK tenants. The Word, Excel and PowerPoint setting is on by default for tenants created after 25 March 2026. Flex routing is also on by default for those new tenants and allows processing in the US, Canada or Australia at peak load.
Processing inside the country[30]Microsoft changed its plan on 3 April 2026. EU and EFTA countries get processing at EU level, under the EU Data Boundary, instead of processing inside each country. GitHub offers Copilot with EU data residency on GHE.com.
AI Act[31]Microsoft is listed as a signatory of the EU General-Purpose AI Code of Practice. Microsoft's Trust Center has a page on the EU AI Act.

What the AI Act and the GDPR ask of you as a user →

Hybrid: the same models in your own account

The same model families also run in your own Azure subscription, region and identity, and GitHub Copilot can talk to a model you host yourself. The limits differ by route.

Microsoft Foundry in your own Azure subscription[32]You deploy OpenAI models yourself. A Data Zone EU deployment processes data within the Azure EU Data Boundary. A Standard deployment stays in the geography you choose. Data at rest stays in your geography.
Foundry data terms[33]Prompts and completions are not available to OpenAI and are not used for training. Azure terms apply, not the Copilot terms.
Claude in Microsoft Foundry[34]Claude models run "Hosted on Azure" or "Hosted on Anthropic infrastructure". Documented options are Global Standard in US regions and a US data zone. No EU data zone is listed for Claude.
Your own agents with Copilot Studio[8]You build agents in your own tenant, with your connectors and your choice of model. They still run on Microsoft's service.
GitHub Copilot CLI with your own key or a local model[12]The CLI connects to OpenAI-compatible endpoints (including Ollama, vLLM and Foundry Local), Azure OpenAI or Anthropic. With COPILOT_OFFLINE=true it does not contact GitHub's servers.
GitHub bring your own key (BYOK)[35]Local BYOK works in VS Code, JetBrains, Xcode, the CLI and the Copilot app, and keys stay on your device. Enterprise BYOK serves custom models to Business and Enterprise users. The cloud agent works only with repositories hosted on GitHub.
GitHub Copilot with EU data residency[36]On GHE.com, requests go to model endpoints in your region, and code and prompts do not leave it during inference. The model list is shorter and changes over time.
The same finished product, in three configurations: consumer, business, or on a cloud account you already have.
The same finished product, in three configurations: consumer, business, or on a cloud account you already have.[37]
Recently changed
  • The consumer app and the work app are now one Copilot app. Group Chats, Podcasts and Deep Research for consumers were retired (18 Aug 2026).
  • Flex routing is on by default for eligible EU and EFTA tenants created after 25 March 2026. It can move inference outside the EU Data Boundary at peak load (25 Mar 2026).
  • GitHub uses interaction data from Copilot Free, Pro and Pro+ for training unless you opt out (24 Apr 2026).

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Sources

  1. Linda Mohamed, course slides “The projects”, appendix layer 0, MASE-3, FH Burgenland, September 2026
  2. Microsoft Copilot app, support.microsoft.com. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-copilot/learning/changes-microsoft-copilot-app
  3. Copilot on Windows, support.microsoft.com. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot/getting-started-with-copilot-on-windows
  4. Copilot in Microsoft Edge, support.microsoft.com. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot/getting-started-with-copilot-in-microsoft-edge
  5. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, learn.microsoft.com. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/overview
  6. Microsoft 365 Copilot, learn.microsoft.com. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/microsoft-365-copilot-license-feature-overview
  7. Copilot Cowork, learn.microsoft.com. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/cowork/cowork-models
  8. Copilot Studio, learn.microsoft.com. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/fundamentals-what-is-copilot-studio
  9. Microsoft Agent 365, learn.microsoft.com. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-agent-365/overview
  10. Security Copilot, learn.microsoft.com. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/security/security-copilot-inclusion
  11. GitHub Copilot in the IDE, docs.github.com. https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/get-started/features
  12. GitHub Copilot CLI and Copilot app, docs.github.com. https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/copilot-cli/customize-copilot/use-byok-models
  13. GitHub Copilot cloud agent and code review, docs.github.com. https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/agents/cloud-agent/about-cloud-agent
  14. Microsoft Copilot (free), microsoft.com. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-copilot/pricing/individuals
  15. Microsoft 365 Copilot Business, microsoft.com. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-copilot/business
  16. GitHub Copilot Free / Student, docs.github.com. https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/get-started/plans
  17. GitHub Copilot Pro / Pro+ / Max, github.com. https://github.com/features/copilot/plans
  18. GPT-6 Sol and Claude Opus 5.5, techcommunity.microsoft.com. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoft-copilot-blog/more-models-one-copilot/4559035
  19. GPT-5.5 Chat, learn.microsoft.com. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/authoring-select-agent-model
  20. GitHub Copilot: OpenAI GPT-5 to GPT-6, docs.github.com. https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/reference/ai-models/supported-models
  21. Identity and permissions, learn.microsoft.com. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/microsoft-365/microsoft-365-copilot-privacy
  22. Sensitivity labels, DLP, audit, eDiscovery, retention, learn.microsoft.com. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/ai-m365-copilot
  23. Anthropic models on or off, learn.microsoft.com. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/connect-to-ai-subprocessor
  24. Flex routing (EU and EFTA), learn.microsoft.com. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/copilot-flex-routing
  25. GitHub Copilot policies, docs.github.com. https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/policies
  26. GitHub content exclusion, docs.github.com. https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/context/content-exclusion
  27. Consumer Copilot, support.microsoft.com. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot/privacy-faq-for-microsoft-copilot
  28. Work accounts (Entra ID), learn.microsoft.com. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/microsoft-365/enterprise-data-protection
  29. GitHub Copilot Free, Pro, Pro+, github.blog. https://github.blog/news-insights/company-news/updates-to-github-copilot-interaction-data-usage-policy/
  30. Processing inside the country, microsoft.com. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/blog/2025/11/04/microsoft-offers-in-country-data-processing-to-15-countries-to-strengthen-sovereign-controls-for-microsoft-365-copilot/
  31. AI Act, digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/contents-code-gpai
  32. Microsoft Foundry in your own Azure subscription, learn.microsoft.com. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/foundry-models/concepts/deployment-types
  33. Foundry data terms, learn.microsoft.com. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/responsible-ai/openai/data-privacy
  34. Claude in Microsoft Foundry, learn.microsoft.com. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/foundry-models/concepts/models-from-partners
  35. GitHub bring your own key (BYOK), docs.github.com. https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/models/bring-your-own-key
  36. GitHub Copilot with EU data residency, docs.github.com. https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/admin/data-residency/github-copilot-with-data-residency
  37. Linda Mohamed, course slides “Start here”, MASE-3, FH Burgenland, September 2026
  38. GitHub Copilot, ai-solutions.wiki. https://ai-solutions.wiki/tools/github-copilot/
  39. ChatGPT vs Microsoft Copilot, ai-solutions.wiki. https://ai-solutions.wiki/comparisons/chatgpt-vs-microsoft-copilot/
  40. Get started with the Microsoft Copilot app. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-copilot/what-is-microsoft-copilot-app
  41. Microsoft Copilot Chat in Edge (work accounts). https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/edge
  42. Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps with Anthropic models. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/copilot-anthropic-apps
  43. Power Platform: move data across regions for Copilots. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/geographical-availability-copilot
  44. Resources for approval of GitHub Copilot (GitHub DPA). https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/get-started/resources-for-approval
  45. EU Data Boundary overview. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/privacy/eudb/eu-data-boundary-learn
  46. Microsoft Trust Center: EU AI Act. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/trust-center/compliance/eu-ai-act

Checked against the vendors' own pages in September 2026. Plans, models and features change often: check the linked pages before you decide.