Microsoft Launches Copilot Pro, Priced Much Higher Than the M365 Suite

Microsoft has introduced Copilot Pro, a new subscription tier for its Copilot services with advanced features for small businesses and individuals.

Priced at $20 a month, the Copilot Pro subscription is about thrice as expensive as Microsoft's flagship 365 suite.

The paid Copilot tier will be adding the AI companion to Word, Powerpoint, Excel, OneNote, and Outlook, Microsoft's consumer chief marketing officer Yusuf Mehdi revealed in a post.

Users who have Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscriptions can enjoy the integration across Windows PCs, iPads, and Macs.

What Does Copilot Pro Offer?

A handful of Copilot GPTs will start to roll out beginning today with specific purposes such as fitness, travel, cooking and more", Mehdi wrote in his post.

While free-tier users won't be able to build their own models, they can still access a variety of Copilot GPTs tailored for various topics.

He also went on to add that Copilot Pro users will soon be able to use the Copilot GPT builder to develop their own Copilot GPTs.

The service is aimed at providing a single AI experience across multiple devices, by understanding your context on the web, on your PC, across your apps and soon on your phone to bring the right skills to you when you need them", he explained.

Users subscribing to Copilot Pro will be granted priority access to the latest OpenAI models - a spot currently taken by GPT-4 Turbo. This means Copilot Pro subscribers can immediately enjoy access to GPT-4 Turbo for faster performance during peak hours.

The Copilot Pro subscription also includes augmented AI image creation using the Image Creator from Designer, which was previously known as Bing Image Creator. Users can enjoy significant improvement in the detailing of the images and the speed of image generation, with 100 boosts a day.

The Copilot mobile app, which had been quietly rolled out for Android and iOS in late 2023, has been formally debuted by Microsoft. Additionally, the M365 mobile app has now been integrated with the Copilot functionality as well.

A Better Understanding of the Copilot Pro Pricing

Copilot Pro is now available to M365 Personal and Family subscribers for $20 per month. The M365 Personal plan is priced at $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year, while the Family plan costs $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year for six users.

Hence, the Copilot Pro subscription is significantly more expensive - almost three times as much as the monthly subscription for M365 Personal.

Until now, only organizations willing to acquire at least 300 seats could buy Copilot for Microsoft 365. This requirement has now been removed for Microsoft 365 Business Standard and Business Premium Subscribers.

However, while they are free to buy anything between 1 and 299 seats, if they don't need 300, it would cost $30 per person per month. Once again, it's a hefty premium in addition to the monthly cost of the M365 subscription.

However, the subscription price shouldn't come as a surprise. Microsoft has invested heavily in OpenAI and in integrating Windows, Microsoft 365, Edge, and other products with AI features.

The tech giant's refocusing on AI is one of the key reasons why it is currently one of the most valuable companies in the world. The Pro subscription tier would enable Microsoft to monetize copilot profitably and enjoy returns on its huge investments.

While the success of Copilot Pro remains to be seen, Microsoft appears confident in its ability to deliver AI at a substantial scale while maintaining a user experience that would justify the pricing.

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