When ChatGPT beta launched, it took the world by storm, hitting 100 million users in just two months. But recently, Sam Altman said that despite its costly $200/month Pro plan, the model is still losing money.
While Microsoft Copilot isn’t as popular, it seems to be boosting Microsoft’s revenue by driving more Microsoft 365 subscriptions. But the question is this: Can it stand up against the powerful ChatGPT?
However, users have defined many distinguishing factors, such as differences in use cases, integration, ecosystem, and pricing. After testing and researching both options, here’s our unbiased guide on Copilot vs ChatGPT.
What Are Copilot and ChatGPT?
In this section, we’ll check both tools, exploring what they do, how they differ, and which one might better fit your needs.
Microsoft Copilot
Copilot was introduced in November 2023 to facilitate interactive user conversations while seamlessly integrating with the Microsoft suite of apps, a key selling point.
Although this model competes directly with ChatGPT, it still relies on the Prometheus Large Language Model. Built on OpenAI’s GPT-4 framework, Microsoft has fine-tuned it to enhance specific capabilities and functionalities.
Copilot has three different AI tools as follows:
- Copilot – This was formerly Microsoft Bing Chat. It’s an AI chatbot app that offers text generation and web information retrieval.
- Copilot Pro – It’s a paid version of Copilot that offers more features, including enhanced capabilities like advanced data analytics and custom instructions.
- Copilot for Microsoft 365: This top-tier copilot option combines the power of large language models with your organization’s data. It draws insights from emails, documents, and other data sources and delivers a personalized experience. It offers context-aware suggestions, automated task management, and advanced data analysis.
The infographic below details the general features of Copilot:
ChatGPT
ChatGPT uses machine learning and advanced algorithms to identify patterns in data, enabling it to understand queries and generate coherent and contextually relevant information.
As the model that kickstarted the AI trend, ChatGPT has developed cutting-edge features to provide users with the most relevant and helpful answers.
The model has had four phases of upgrade. Since its early days, each version has introduced significant improvements. GPT-3.5, released in late 2022, was built on 175 billion parameters. It offers more coherent responses and a better grasp of context, setting the stage for future advancements.
Then came GPT-4 in March 2023, a game-changer with multimodal capabilities, allowing it to process text and images. With around 1 trillion parameters, it handled complex instructions more effectively and significantly improved content safety. Alongside it, GPT-4 Turbo was introduced, optimized for speed and efficiency while retaining GPT-4’s advanced abilities.
With an impressive input capacity of up to 128,000 tokens (roughly 96,000 words), it enables much longer interactions, making it ideal for speed and depth applications. Here’s a breakdown:
Copilot vs ChatGPT: Key Features
It’s okay to say that both tools have a lot in common. They can understand, generate text, and even use OpenAI’s latest models. But some key features set them apart.
Microsoft Copilot
Copilot is a weaker competitor in computing power, knowledge base, and creative content generation. But it stands out thanks to some unique features in its tech stack, including:
- Integration with the Microsoft ecosystem: Connecting Copilot to most Microsoft 365 apps has been a massive win for the model. You can use it on Bing to refine your search queries, on Edge to get quick answers, and within Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel to assist with your tasks. Task Automation: Microsoft Copilot streamlines business workflows by integrating with Teams, Word, Excel, and Outlook. It helps automate tasks like scheduling meetings, summarizing emails, generating reports, and assigning tasks—all within the apps you already use.AI agents: Copilot leverages AI agents that assist with specific tasks like summarizing emails, and generating reports. They also act as computer-using agents. These agents directly interact with Microsoft applications (Word, Excel, Outlook, and Teams) to execute commands, making them highly efficient for automating repetitive processes.
- Enhance meetings: Copilot in Microsoft Teams allows you to summarize discussions, suggest action items, translate and transcribe conversations in real time, and pull data from other Microsoft tools to support users during meetings.
ChatGPT
With Open AI starting the AI boom, it makes more sense that ChatGPT has more advanced features. We can’t list all of them here, but the following are the most cutting-edge compared to Copilot.
- Better search functions: ChatGPT is connected to information sources in sports and news, making it the most reliable search engine. Multimodal capabilities: Thanks to its multimodal capabilities, ChatGPT can now see, hear, and talk, which opens up many new use cases. For example, it can analyze images or videos to provide detailed insights or assist with voice-based interactions.Conversational Adaptability: ChatGPT is designed to understand the context of a conversation, using the information to learn patterns and generate more relevant responses. For instance, if you’re discussing a project and mention deadlines, ChatGPT can tailor its responses to help you stay on track.Thinking Token Inspired by DeepSeek R1: One of ChatGPT’s newest innovations is the “thinking token” approach, which improves long-form reasoning and problem-solving. This concept, inspired by DeepSeek R1, boosts response accuracy by structuring AI-generated thought processes.
Copilot vs ChatGPT: Use Cases
Both options can help solve thousands of everyday problems, but the difference lies in task complexity. While they serve the same purpose, they’re designed differently to handle various use cases.
Copilot
Based on its ability to integrate with Microsoft 365, the use cases are more focused on this to help Microsoft users gain more from the ecosystem.
- Summarizing lengthy documents: Copilot in Microsoft 365 quickly summarizes documents by extracting key points, highlighting insights, and generating context-aware overviews, making it easier to digest information and take action.
- Upgrading Excel and PowerPoint experience: The AI model can assist with Excel formulas and formatting. In PowerPoint, it can create professional slide designs, edit content, and even generate presentations from existing Word documents or PDFs.
- Automate Repetitive Tasks: Whether scheduling meetings and responses in Outlook, generating charts in Excel, or sending email reminders, Copilot can handle them on the fly, saving you from doing it manually each time.
ChatGPT
ChatGPT’s advanced computing power enables a wide range of use cases. The paid version also gives you API access to build custom AI workflows. Here are some of the most popular use cases.
- Content creation: This is by far the most used case of ChatGPT. Whether you want blog posts, product descriptions, or social media copy, ChatGPT is ready to generate them in seconds.
- Translation: ChatGPT is trained on diverse data, including languages, so the platform can help translate from one language to another. A real-life example of this is Spotify, which uses the tool to provide customer support in over 60 languages.
- Conversational AI: Companies use ChatGPT to create intelligent chatbots that interact with customers in human-like conversations. These chatbots are helpful for customer service, virtual assistance, and sales.
- Coding-related tasks: The AI model can write code for simple and repetitive tasks. While it might not be accurate, it can help with other coding tasks like debugging, code completion, code refactoring, and documentation. This has become a massive win for beginner developers who want to brainstorm ideas, write test cases, and optimize code.
Copilot vs ChatGPT: Choosing the Right Tool
Copilot and ChatGPT are potent tools with similar features but slight differences. What you can’t do with one is pretty tiny. So you must be super-precise to get the best option. That said, here’s what you should keep in mind.
Integration Needs
Copilot is perfect if you use many Microsoft 365 apps, such as Excel and PowerPoint presentations. Since the AI is natively integrated into the system, you don’t have to do manual integrations. You can also integrate it with third-party apps that allow API access.
ChatGPT supports third-party integrations, but it may not be the best option if you primarily use Word, Excel, or Outlook. However, like Copilot, you can connect it to any app supporting API integration.
The advantage of integrating ChatGPT is its robustness, enabling a wide range of well-defined use cases, such as:
- Batch Content Generation – You can store multiple content prompts in a database like Google Sheets or Airtable, then connect them to the OpenAI API with the right software. This allows ChatGPT to instantly generate responses for tasks like SEO keywords, business glossary definitions, etc.
- Automating Social Media Promotion – Instead of manually crafting and posting updates, you can use a tool like Make Scenario to monitor new blog posts on platforms like WordPress. ChatGPT will then generate optimized social media content for each platform and automatically publish posts across all your accounts in one go.
Budget Constraints
The AI models offer free plans but with limited access. You have to upgrade to unlock premium features and tools.
ChatGPT offers two pricing options at $20/month, allowing you to increase productivity and creativity with expanded access. The best-paid option is the Pro option, which gives you access to the latest version of GPT. 4.o, but it costs $200/month.
Copilot only has one pricing plan: $20/month, which you can use only on Microsoft apps like Word and Outlook. To access the desktop versions of these apps, you’ll need a different tool called Copilot for Microsoft, which gives you access to all Microsoft apps and more features. This goes for $30/user/month.
Here’s a table breaking down the prices:
Specific Tasks
ChatGPT stores your data, which is a key point. You can have it interview you to build knowledge about you. It will then pull this data on any future interactions and tasks you might have.
For example, I asked it to write me a cover letter based on my past interactions, and it did that perfectly.
This is one area where ChatGPT excels at handling specific tasks. Integrating it with your API can also help streamline workflows that align with your brand. For example, in the SaaS space, you could use it to generate personalized onboarding emails for new users based on their interactions.
Copilot’s strength still lies in its Microsoft 365 integration. Microsoft users gain a significant advantage in smart document assistance and workflow automation. With Power Automate, you can describe your needs in plain language, and the system converts your input into actionable workflows.
Copilot vs ChatGPT – The Takeaway
While your needs will primarily determine your choice between the two, ChatGPT is a far much better option if you’re looking for a robust AI model that will allow you to perform complex tasks and give the most accurate results. Copilot will only come in handy if you’re an avid Microsoft user and want to perform simple tasks.
Either way, neither can operate independently without curation or editing, and you’ll need strong prompt-writing skills to get the best results.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How do ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot handle real-time web access and updates?
ChatGPT doesn’t always have real-time internet access. GPT-3.5 relies on pre-trained data, while some GPT-4 versions offer browsing in specific plans. On the other hand, Copilot has the edge in real-time access to live data from emails, documents, and the web (via Bing), making it better for up-to-date insights.
Which model is better for business?
Each model has its own capabilities. For example, If you use Microsoft 365 for business, Copilot is ideal, as it offers rich integration workflow automation. However, ChatGPT is better for business integration thanks to its creativity, versatility, and strengths in brainstorming, content creation, and general AI support.
Which AI assistant is better for content creation and productivity?
For writing and creativity, ChatGPT is superior in generating blogs, emails, and marketing copy. Copilot is better for business productivity, summarizing documents, automating tasks, and enhancing Microsoft 365 workflows. Choose ChatGPT for content and Copilot for structured work tasks.
What does customer support look like for the models?
ChatGPT offers 24/7 toll-free support and email assistance. However, the response times and user satisfaction vary. Microsoft Copilot, on the other hand, has a more structured support system with phone, chat, and premium options for business users. Still, only those with specific admin roles can submit support tickets.
Which option is better for content creation?
While Copilot enhances productivity within Microsoft’s ecosystem, ChatGPT takes the trophy here. With ChatGPT, you can quickly generate content like blog posts, emails, and social media posts and tune them to your specific styles and tone.
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