Microsoft expands Copilot to Personal and Family plans — but with a price hike
Right now, the new plans are being tested in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand.
Microsoft has been taking leaps with its in-house AI model, Copilot, recently. With the announcement of Copilot's Wave 2, the company's suite of apps has had a lot of AI upgrades in all its software.
Initially, all AI features were only available to those paying the Copilot Pro subscription or those using the Microsoft Business or Enterprise subscription plan. But now, the company is also looking to bring it's Copilot features to Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers too, but at a slightly higher price.
According to Microsoft's announcement, these AI features will be limited. Personal and Family plan users will get 60 AI credits each month, which can be used across apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Photos, Paint, and even Microsoft Designer for creating images.
So, every time you use a Copilot feature, like generating text or creating a chart, one credit will be deducted. Sadly though, Microsoft says credit counts reset at the start of each month, meaning unused credits won’t carry over to the next month.
There's also a slight catch for family plan subscribers. Only the primary account holder will get the AI credits, other members will need to get their own Copilot Pro subscription if they want to access Copilot in all its glory.
Right now, Microsoft is still testing its new structure in select regions like Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand with the price of Australia's annual family plan reportedly going up from $AU139 ($92.23) for the AI-free version to $AU179 ($118.77) for the Copilot integration plan. For now, though, it's not exactly sure how high the price will soar in other regions.
Louis Eriakha
Microsoft is gradually switching all existing plans to these AI-upgraded plans. But no need to worry about the pricing just yet, the new prices won't come into effect until their next billing cycle.
That said, it may still take a while for other countries like the US or places in Europe to see these updates. When asked about rollout plans by ZDNet, the company said it would focus on these select regions to "listen, learn and improve."
For anyone who feels like 60 credits might not be enough, there's the option of the Copilot Pro Plan which gives access to unlimited AI features across Microsoft apps and allows access to Designer, Microsoft's supposed Canva-killer for an extra $20 a month.
But if you want out of all of Copilot and the higher price tag, Microsoft is still offering the Microsoft 365 Classic plan. This option keeps everything as it was before, with no AI features, and will be available at a price similar to what you were paying before the changes. But to use it, you would need to cancel your current subscription and sign up for the Classic version.
With Copilot being a relatively small AI Chatbot with 28 million active users, compared to Gemini's 42 million according to Business of Apps and ChatGPT's over 180 million users per Exploding Topics, it would be interesting to see if this might boost those numbers significantly or if most of the users forced into the new plan cancel plans to the Classic version or just jump ship entirely to a different productivity suite like Google Workspace.
