Microsoft is REMOVING free Copilot from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
Starting April 15, Microsoft is drawing a hard line between free and paid Copilot experiences in Microsoft 365. If your tenant has over 2,000 seats, unlicensed users will lose Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote entirely. Smaller tenants keep access, but with throttling. Here's what changed, who's affected, and what the new Basic vs Premium branding actually means.
In this breakdown, I walk through both Message Center posts Microsoft published on March 17 and explain what happens for organizations above and below the 2,000-seat threshold. You'll see the difference between M365 Copilot (Premium), M365 Copilot (Basic), and Copilot Chat (Basic), including which apps keep Copilot access and which ones lose it. I also share my honest take on why Microsoft probably should have made this distinction clearer from the start, and some interesting edge cases around the seat threshold.
🔗 Links mentioned in this video:
MC1253858 : https://portal.changepilot.cloud/MC12...
MC1253863: https://portal.changepilot.cloud/MC12...
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Chapters:
0:00 Copilot licensing changes coming April 15
1:05 Two Message Center posts from March 17
1:34 What large tenants (2,000+ seats) are losing
4:01 What smaller tenants keep with Standard Access
6:25 Premium, Basic, and Chat Basic branding explained
7:17 The July 2026 price hike tension and edge cases
#MicrosoftCopilot #Microsoft365 #ITAdmin