How to Use Microsoft Copilot Inside Word, Excel and Outlook
Microsoft Copilot appears in two forms that are easy to confuse. The free Copilot chat at copilot.microsoft.com is a general assistant. Copilot in Microsoft 365 is the paid version embedded in Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Teams, and it can see the files and mail in your tenant.
This guide covers the embedded version, because that is where the useful work happens.
What does Copilot actually do in each app?
The capabilities differ enough that treating it as one product leads to disappointment.
| App | Strongest use | Weak spot |
|---|---|---|
| Word | Drafting and summarising long docs | Overwrites formatting |
| Excel | Formulas, pivots, trend analysis | Struggles past ~100k rows |
| Outlook | Thread summaries, reply drafts | Tone needs editing |
| PowerPoint | Deck from a Word doc | Generic visuals |
| Teams | Meeting recap and action items | Needs transcription on |
How do you start using it in Word?
Open the Copilot pane from the ribbon. Reference a file with a slash command, then give an instruction. “Draft a 400-word summary of /Q3report.docx for the finance committee” produces a usable first pass.
The trap is formatting. Copilot’s output inherits whatever style is active at the cursor, so generate into a clean section, then apply your real styles.
How does Excel Copilot work?
Select a range or a table, open Copilot, and describe the outcome rather than the formula. “Show monthly revenue growth as a column chart with the YoY percentage in a new column” is a good request. It writes the formula and explains it, which is genuinely useful for learning functions like XLOOKUP.
Limits matter here. Very large sheets slow it down or produce errors, and it cannot reason across multiple workbooks.
Is Copilot in Microsoft 365 free?
No. It requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, around $30 per user per month on top of your existing Microsoft 365 subscription. There is a free Copilot chat on the web, but it does not access your tenant files. For a ten-person team, that licence line is roughly $3,600 a year before any seat discount, so pilot it on two people before rolling out.
Where does it fall short?
Meeting recaps depend on Teams transcription being enabled, which many organisations turn off for privacy. Excel breaks on very large datasets. And Copilot will confidently summarise a document it only partially retrieved, so verify anything going to a client. It also cannot act across apps in one instruction, despite what demos suggest.
It fits organisations already standardised on Microsoft 365 where the data is already in SharePoint and OneDrive. It is a poor fit for teams outside the Microsoft ecosystem.
Key Takeaways
- Copilot in Microsoft 365 is separate from the free web chat and costs about $30 per user per month.
- It works best in Word for drafting and Excel for formulas and charts.
- Teams recaps require transcription to be enabled.
- Excel Copilot degrades on very large datasets.
- Best value for organisations already living inside Microsoft 365.
