Copilot in 2026: which one do you have?

1. Read your Copilot label

personal: Personal accounts don't get a label. Sign in to your Microsoft account dashboard (or on Windows 11 select Start, then your account) to see your subscription. With Personal, Family or Premium, only the subscription owner can use Copilot in the desktop apps.

Microsoft now shows a label under your name that tells you which Copilot you have. It takes 30 seconds and saves a lot of confusion later.

1. Go to m365.cloud.microsoft and sign in with your work account
2. Scroll to the bottom of the home page and read the label under your name You'll see Copilot Chat (Basic), M365 Copilot (Basic) or M365 Copilot (Premium).
3. Write the label down Every later lesson tells you what changes for your label.

2. What your label means

work_free: Your IT team buys and assigns licences. If you think you need one, the task map prompt at the end of this lesson helps you build the case.

Copilot Chat (Basic): free work chat grounded in the web and files you upload. No Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint or OneNote.

M365 Copilot (Basic): no licence, but standard access to Copilot in Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

M365 Copilot (Premium): the paid licence. Priority access, plus your email, meetings, chats and files.

All three include Copilot Chat in Outlook for inbox and calendar questions.

3. Confirm you're protected

personal: A personal Microsoft account has no enterprise data protection. Never paste client or company data into it.

Enterprise data protection means your prompts and responses aren't used to train the underlying models and are covered by the same terms as your work email. You only get it when you're signed in with your work account.

1. Open Copilot Chat at m365.cloud.microsoft/chat
2. Check for the "Work" label under your profile in the navigation pane
3. Look for the green data protection shield No shield or no Work label means you may be in a personal account. Sign out and back in with your work email.

4. Ask Copilot what it can see

Copilot will describe its own access. Then you'll prove it with the / menu in the next step, because a self-description can be wrong.

Before we start working together, tell me in a short table exactly what you can and can't access in this chat. Rows: my Outlook email, my calendar, my Teams chats, my Teams meeting transcripts, my OneDrive and SharePoint files, the public web, and files I upload. Columns: Can you access it (Yes / No / Only if I attach it), and one example question I could ask you about it as a {{role}}. Keep it to one table and one sentence of advice after it. British English.

• Your role, for example: operations manager at a UK logistics firm

Where to paste: A new Copilot Chat conversation, signed in with your work account

What you should get: A seven-row table. With M365 Copilot (Premium) and Work IQ on, most rows say Yes. With Copilot Chat (Basic), work rows should say No or Only if I attach it, and the web says Yes. If the table claims access you know you don't have, trust the / test in the next step instead.

Follow-ups

• Now give me five more example questions for the rows marked Yes, ordered by how much time they'd save me each week.
• Rewrite the table as a one-paragraph explanation I can send to a colleague who isn't sure which Copilot they have.

5. Prove it with the / menu

personal: Personal Copilot doesn't use the work / menu. Skip this check.

The / menu is the most reliable test of your access.

1. Type / in the Copilot Chat box
2. If you see tabs for people, files, meetings and emails, you have a licence with Work IQ on
3. If you only see files, you're on Copilot Chat without a licence, or Work IQ is switched off

6. Build your personal Copilot task map

Turn the label into a plan. This prompt gives you a reusable list of the tasks worth trying first.

I'm a {{role}} at {{organisation}}, a {{org_type}} in the UK. My Copilot label is {{copilot_label}}. List the 6 recurring tasks in my week where Copilot would save the most time. For each one give: the task, the Microsoft 365 app I'd use (Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Copilot Chat), whether it needs my work data (email, meetings, Teams chats, files) or only the web and files I upload, whether my label is likely to cover it, and a one-line first prompt to try. Output a table, then the single task I should start with this week and why. British English, no jargon.

• Your role, for example: finance manager
• Your organisation, for example: Hartley & Co
• Type of organisation, for example: 40-person accountancy practice
• Your Copilot label, for example: Copilot Chat (Basic)

Where to paste: Copilot Chat, with Work IQ on if you have it

What you should get: A six-row table with realistic tasks for your role and a clear recommendation. Check the 'covered by my label' column against what you learned in step 2: tasks that need email or meeting data shouldn't be marked as covered for Copilot Chat (Basic).

Follow-ups

• Turn the first task into a step-by-step plan I can follow tomorrow morning.
• Write a 120-word note to my manager explaining which of these tasks would need a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence and the time it could save.

Quick check

1. Where do you check which Copilot label you have?

   • In Word, under File > Account
   • At m365.cloud.microsoft, under your name at the bottom of the home page (correct)
   • In Teams settings
   • On the Microsoft pricing page

   Microsoft shows Copilot Chat (Basic), M365 Copilot (Basic) or M365 Copilot (Premium) under your name on the Microsoft 365 home page.

2. You type / in Copilot Chat and only see files. What does that usually mean?

   • You have a licence and everything is working
   • You're on Copilot Chat without a licence, or Work IQ is off (correct)
   • Your OneDrive is full
   • You're signed in with a personal account

   Without a licence, or with Work IQ switched off, only files can be referenced with /.

3. Which label means no Copilot inside Word, Excel and PowerPoint?

   • M365 Copilot (Premium)
   • M365 Copilot (Basic)
   • Copilot Chat (Basic) (correct)
   • Microsoft 365 Family

   Copilot Chat (Basic) users don't have access to Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.