Copilot Pro Is Gone: Microsoft 365 Premium Arrives

Copilot Pro is no more. Microsoft has now announced Microsoft 365 Premium as its replacement.

This new plan adds a tier for Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions that sits above Personal and Family. Premium retains the 6-person (family) usage rights of the Family plan but layers on top addition AI capabilities not included in those other plans (though SOME AI capabilities ARE included in those other plans).

I have long believed that Microsoft's goal in the consumer space with Copilot should be similar to what we saw with Windows 95 and Office in the 90s. Instead of having a distinct consumer product, Microsoft 365 Copilot should just be so good that it's logical to use it both at work and at home. Microsoft Copilot (the consumer one), Copilot Pro, and the distinct consumer-facing AI services, have been, in my view, a distraction from what should be the primary goal.

However, I am concerned that the new Microsoft 365 Premium adds a layer of potential confusion to licensing AI services that might make this option less appealing to those who aren't already consumers of M365 services:

If you choose to buy Microsoft 365 Premium or transition your Copilot Pro subscription to this new plan, you automatically get services like Microsoft 365 apps and storage for up to 6 users (the same as the Family plan), but it also still has the Family plan's limitation that advanced AI services are only offered to the plan owner. Got a kid in school who wants to use AI a lot? Tough.

The flavor of Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat in the consumer plans is not the same service as the Copilot/Copilot Pro AI chat service. You can (very usefully) use Copilot and ground on individual files in the M365 plan context, but other features like GPT-5 access or Copilot Actions seem to be locked in the other portal. There is no unified chat history - so, the most favorable telling of this is you get two Copilots for the price of one?

The usage limits are weird. On the upgraded package you get 15 minutes per day instead of 10 for AI vision, 60 minutes instead of 30 for voice, and you can run 10 action tasks per month. This is not designed as a plan with services you can open in the morning and use all day, for any service you find you like, you're getting a small AI tease.

The reported and logical objective of this change is to better compete with ChatGPT Plus (another service I subscribe to). However, just throwing in everything including the kitchen sink in one way while maintaining a set of fairly complicated availability caveats in another strikes me as a questionable way to achieve this goal.

Is Microsoft 365 Premium a good deal? Yes. If you want to maximize the access you get to Microsoft's consumer services, then it's a much better package than Copilot Pro. But if you're currently a ChatGPT Plus user who doesn't need Microsoft 365, is there a more compelling reason to switch than there was previously with Copilot Pro? Not yet.

First posted on Linkedin on 10/09/2025 -> View Linkedin post here