There are two ways to try out paid Copilot for less money. If you’re not sure but want to try the enhanced AI features in Office there are a smart ways to get Copilot without dropping a lot of money in advance for unknown benefits.
Let’s face it, Microsoft is asking a lot with their business pricing of Copilot for Microsoft 365. Copilot and AI generally is still very much a ‘work in progress’ but still Microsoft expects businesses to drop US$360 upfront for a year!
Happily, there are two ways to try out paid Copilot for less money or no money at all. One is good for small businesses reluctant (understandably) to commit hundreds to Copilot’s business extra. The other is ideal for anyone who wants to understand what’s possible with AI before spending any money at all.
Copilot Pro
Copilot for Microsoft 365 is expensive with a large upfront commitment ($360) but there’s a cheaper way to try it out.
Choose Copilot Pro with a Microsoft 365 consumer license (most likely share a Microsoft 365 Family plan), because it’s not only cheaper but also paid monthly, just US$20. You can cancel anytime.
Copilot Pro is similar with the same integration into the main Office apps. It will give you a good idea of what’s possible with the business version of Copilot.
TIP: Even buying a year of Microsoft 365 Personal ($70) plus Copilot Pro ($20 a month) is cheaper than dropping $360 upfront for the business version of Copilot for Microsoft 365 plans.
If you find Copilot Pro useful then consider switching and committing to the business version of Copilot (Copilot for Microsoft 365) for your business/small business account. This plan only costs more but requires a one-year commitment paid upfront (US$360 per user).
Copilot Free
A lot of the core Microsoft Copilot AI features are available for free right now. Yes, it’s a little clumsy compared to Copilot integrated into Office apps and it’ll be slower than paid Copilot. But it’s a lot cheaper.
Ahem … our Office Watch 2023 Annual has an exclusive chapter “Get AI goodness now and for free” (see page 9 onwards). “Start using AI tools now – check out the Copilot AI magic that’s available now to help write, rewrite, summarize or research. Plus making unique images from text.”
The free Copilot services are a good way to start and see if paying for Copilot Pro even applies to you.
It’s also how people with older or perpetual license Microsoft Office can get some Copilot AI goodness. Office 2021, Office 2019, Office 2016 etc.
Go to https://copilot.microsoft.com/ where you can ask Copilot to do things that can be copied and pasted into Office documents.
Write
Copilot can make a draft version that you can adapt to suit.
“Write a short email explaining that I have Covid and can’t attend the monthly club meeting”
Rewrite
“Rewrite this in a formal/professional/casual/friendly way:” followed by some pasted text.
You might have seen Copilot rewrite prompts appearing in your browser when typing.
Summarize
Copilot in Edge appears in a side-pane and can summarize whole web pages
Or summarize text pasted into Copilot. Start with the request “Summarize this in sentences …” or “Summarize this in bullet points …” or just “Summarise this …” followed by the text in brackets. Copilot free is limited to 2,000 characters (4,000 characters in Copilot Pro)
Research
Copilot can do research, really smarter web searches. Even better, Copilot can make them into a table that can be exported to Excel or pasted into Word or PowerPoint.
Image making
And there’s also ‘text to image’ AI services from many, many web sites.
Microsoft has two main image makers.
Bing Image Creator https://www.bing.com/images/create
or Image Creator in Designer https://designer.microsoft.com/image-creator
Another “Ahem” our ebook Microsoft Designer: Straight Talk has a lot of in-depth help about making AI images in Designer, Bing and other AI services. With a whole chapter devoted to Designer’s Image Creator which has a lot of nifty options hiding under the bland opening page.
A much expanded version of this article is in our Office Watch 2023 Annual available for a donation to our annual appeal. If you already have the 2023 Annual, thanks, and open it to page 9.
Microsoft Designer: Straight Talk has more than two chapters on using AI to make images in Designer, Bing and other AI services plus using AI to edit pictures with smart erase, background remove/blur and expanding.
Two ways to pay for Office with Copilot
Copilot Pro brings AI into Microsoft Office
See what Copilot can do for Word – the videos.
