March 26, 2026
BlogMajor M365 Copilot Changes Coming April 15
If you use M365 Copilot, or more specifically Copilot Chat, get ready for a number of changes on April 15
Microsoft announced in the M365 Admin Message Center two significant changes to Copilot Chat, coinciding with general availability of advanced reasoning for the service. Microsoft will be updating the names of M365 Copilot and Copilot Chat, tying each to performance. It also is pulling back some features of Copilot Chat from enterprise organizations.
The impacts of these changes are still being explored so some of the details could change. But here’s what’s new this month:
In MC 1253863, dated March 15, Microsoft announced plans for the new naming scheme for Copilot. In MC1253858, also dated March 15 — and only viewable by organizations with more than 2,000 M365 users — Microsoft announced restrictions coming on April 15 to Copilot Chat for unlicensed users.
We asked Microsoft to confirm whether the company planned to restrict Copilot in its Office apps for Basic/Unlicensed users, and a spokesperson told us that the information in the Microsoft Support article about this topic was “the source of truth.” However, that article did not mention anything about the coming restrictions. We asked again for clarification and received no response from Microsoft.
Premium and Basic Distinctions Coming
It’s good news that Microsoft added a naming convention to M365 Copilot and Copilot Chat to clear up some of the confusion and ambiguity surrounding the versions of Copilot Chat versus the chat feature itself.
“M365 Copilot (Premium)” will refer to the $30 USD per user per month add-on license, and “Copilot Chat (Basic)” will become the new name for the service not requiring an add-on license. The name changes also will come with designated performance levels. It’s long been assumed that Microsoft applied some kind of throttling to the Copilot service, and now it’s documented, although not quantifiable.
“Priority access” for Premium will provide consistent and faster response times including during peak usage times. “Standard access” for Basic can experience fluctuations in the service throughout the day where capabilities may be temporarily restricted. This is by design to support the priority access of premium users. You’ll be notified if a service isn’t available.
Bigger Orgs to Face Bigger Restrictions
Microsoft plans to remove Basic Copilot from the Office apps for customers with over 2000 M365 seats. This will affect Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Basic Copilot still will be available through the M365 Copilot app and in Outlook. Customers with fewer than 2000 M365 users will not be affected. Affected users who up until now had access to Basic Copilot will lose it and access to the new advanced reasoning capabilities in Office, including the ability to interactively generate and modify content within the apps (previously known as Agent Mode) and access to Anthropic models.
Microsoft hasn’t explained the reasoning behind removing Basic Copilot from enterprises, however, a drive for more licenses is likely. Larger customers typically have more capital (and more leverage to negotiate) than smaller companies. If Microsoft’s calculation is successful, and enterprises decide they will pay for add-on M365 Copilot licenses to keep the lost functionality this change could potentially drive up Microsoft’s adoption numbers for the end of its fiscal year (June 2026).
It isn’t surprising that something had to change. The fixed fee model for M365 Copilot may not be viable due to ongoing feature updates, capabilities shifting to the base service, and increased costs from new partnerships like Anthropic. While removing features from Basic Copilot doesn’t affect pricing, we’ll find out if customers think Copilot’s Office integration is worth the expense.
