Microsoft Redraws the Line Between Free and Paid Copilot Features — Again

The lines between free Copilot Chat, available to all Microsoft 365 users, and licensed Microsoft 365 Copilot are being redrawn again! In the coming weeks, certain AI-powered experiences in Creates in the Microsoft 365 Copilot App will be made available to free users.

More premium capabilities such as video, survey creation, or brand kits will remain gated to paid users, but the basic capabilities to create visual content using Create will be available to all users. Full details are available in the Microsoft 365 message center, MC1136035.

It's been less than three months since the new Copilot App and the Create experience dropped. This is a sensible change, as free users do have access to visual creation capabilities elsewhere in Copilot and visual tools have become a common part of free access tiers across third-party tools. However, the effort to drive adoption of features when those features continuously change remains a concern for many who are looking at optimizing Copilot use holistically.

What isn't clear is how this fits into Microsoft's new standard versus priority access assessment for free use. If free users start making a lot of use of visual creation, does this consume standard capacity quicker than text, and does this mean service reductions on a per-user, per-org, or per-region basis versus Copilot licensed users? I'm not sure this has been made entirely clear by what was previously announced.

Overall, a greater level of consistency for all users is a good thing, and it appears that the Create experience is something Microsoft is devoting attention to.

First posted on Linkedin 08/17/2025 -> View Linkedin Post here