Copilot Chat Adds Email Support: How It Compares to Microsoft 365 Copilot

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat (the free one) is getting an extra option to allow you to add your emails to your prompts.

The experience for unlicensed users is starting to look fairly similar to that of users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, so do you need the license?

Several recent updates to Copilot Chat have altered the process of including additional content (first files and now emails) in your prompts. It was previously the case that you could include files, but only via upload, and this created some artificial limitations and downstream problems for other aspects of best practice Microsoft 365 use.

What does a prompt with an included file (or email) look like in Copilot Chat? "Review the product suggestions <SALES EMAIL>. Search the web and find 2-3 alternative options in each category. Present them in a table showing the pros and cons".

Copilot Chat can take the content of your selected file(s), reason over them, and use other tools like web search to enhance the quality of the information it gives back. Its response will be specifically grounded on the individual files (or emails) you selected, any web-based materials it finds, and its general model knowledge.

This is powerful, but with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, you can take this to a different level: "Review the product suggestions in <SALES EMAIL>. Consider the capabilities highlighted against the needs of the Company A HR system integration project. Summarize in a table showing the project requirement and whether these options offer a fit"

Microsoft 365 Copilot will search the data you have access to within your Microsoft 365 tenant (SharePoint, OneDrive, emails, chats etc) to understand what the "HR system integration project" for Company A is. It will surface relevant planning documents for that project. It will then compare the specific email you've added to your prompts to the most relevant resources it found related to that project.

In this case you don't have to specifically search out the planning documents for your project, Copilot is able to search based on the context you mention across your data. This is a level of integration that is far greater than that of the free Copilot Chat.

Do you need a Microsoft 365 Copilot license? It entirely depends on whether you need those additional integrations that license offers. But remember, it's not just about the chat experience, a Copilot license also significantly upgrades the experience of Copilot across Microsoft 365's apps and services.

This new email integration for Copilot Chat will be rolling out in September. If you need help deciding whether Copilot Chat or Microsoft 365 Copilot is the best fit for users in your organization, please drop me a DM.

Posted on Linkedin on 08/22/2025 ->View Linkedin Post here