Copilot is a general-purpose AI assistant integrated into Microsoft's ecosystem with GPT-4 capabilities, while Perplexity AI specializes in real-time web search and source citation, making it better for research-focused queries. Perplexity excels at providing cited sources and current information, whereas Copilot offers deeper integration with Office and Windows.
Microsoft Copilot vs Perplexity AI — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
AI assistant integrated into Microsoft Office, Windows, and Edge with GPT-4 capabilities
AI-powered research engine with real-time web search and comprehensive source citations
Primary Function. Source Citation. Integration Ecosystem. Real-Time Information. Free Tier Availability. Underlying Model. Mobile App Quality
Choose Copilot if you're deeply invested in the Microsoft ecosystem (Office, Teams, Windows) and need seamless workspace integration. Choose Perplexity if you prioritize accurate, cited information for research, journalism, or staying current with breaking news and real-time developments.
Microsoft Copilot: Yes (via Bing) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Minimum Monthly Cost for Advanced Features
Microsoft Copilot: $0 (included with Windows/Microsoft 365) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Limited; basic customization | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Native to Microsoft 365; limited outside | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Yes, integrated with Windows UI | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Yes (Microsoft contracts) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: $30/month | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 95% | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Full native integration | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: M365 suite only | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Work IQ architecture | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Processes proprietary data within M365 | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 9.5/10 | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 128K tokens | Perplexity AI: 64,000 tokens
Microsoft Copilot: Bing integration only | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Limited context-based only | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: GitHub Copilot in 15+ IDEs | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Market leader in enterprise | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 120+ million Copilot Users | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Free (with ads) or Copilot Pro $20 | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 128,000 tokens (GPT-4 Turbo) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 35+ languages (Visual Studio optimized) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Cloud + On-premises + Sovereign Cloud | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: PDF, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Teams data | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 99.9% (Microsoft 365 SLA) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: iOS, Android (Copilot app + Teams) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Monthly Subscription Cost (Pro/Premium Tier)
Microsoft Copilot: $20/month | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 90.2% | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Premium only ($20/month) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: $20 (Copilot Pro) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: $20 (Copilot Pro standalone) or included | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Advanced (GPT-4 class, real-time in Office suite) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Deep (Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 150+ via Copilot plugins (limited scope) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 40+ built-in templates | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Full offline in desktop Microsoft apps | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 300+ million (via Microsoft 365) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 5 minutes (familiar Microsoft interface) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 128,000 tokens | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 88% accuracy | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 86.4% | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: $20/month | Perplexity AI: $20
Microsoft Copilot: Native system-level integration | Perplexity AI: Browser extension only
Microsoft Copilot: Limited (copilot.microsoft.com with restrictions) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: GPT-4 (Copilot Pro) / Bing model (standard) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 15 messages/day | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Yes—OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams access | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: $20 (Copilot Pro, separate from 365) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Yes—built into taskbar | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Limited—Copilot settings only | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Full—Azure AD, DLP, audit logs | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: $20/month | Perplexity AI: $20/month
Microsoft Copilot: Unlimited basic; limited advanced features | Perplexity AI: 5 pro searches/day
Microsoft Copilot: Full integration (Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams) | Perplexity AI: No native integration
Microsoft Copilot: GPT-4o (OpenAI) | Perplexity AI: Multi-model (Claude 3.5, GPT-4o, Llama)
Microsoft Copilot: Minimal citations (10-20%) | Perplexity AI: Comprehensive citations (95-100%)
Microsoft Copilot: 100+ million (Windows users) | Perplexity AI: 10+ million (as of 2025)
Microsoft Copilot: 78/100 | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Native across Word, Excel, Teams, Outlook | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: ~160 million (via Windows + Microsoft 365) | Perplexity AI: 5+ million
Microsoft Copilot: <1 second (local) | Perplexity AI: 4 seconds
Microsoft Copilot: Limited (varied) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Windows 11, Web, Teams, Outlook, Edge | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: FedRAMP Authorized, HIPAA, SOC 2, GDPR | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: DALL-E 3 | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 90% (GPT-4 Turbo) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Limited GPT-4o access | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 72% (HumanEval) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 5+ core Office applications | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Image and document analysis | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: GPT-4 Turbo | Perplexity AI: Proprietary + GPT-4 option
Microsoft Copilot: 1-2 citations | Perplexity AI: 8-15 citations
Microsoft Copilot: Unlimited (Bing Chat) | Perplexity AI: Unlimited (basic) + 5 Pro searches
Microsoft Copilot: 88.3% (GPT-4 Turbo) | Perplexity AI: 82.9% (Perplexity model)
Microsoft Copilot: 15+ (Windows, Office, Teams, Outlook, OneDrive, Visual Studio) | Perplexity AI: 3 (Web, browser extension, API)
Microsoft Copilot: iOS/Android (limited features) | Perplexity AI: iOS/Android (full-featured)
Microsoft Copilot: $20 (Copilot Pro standalone) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: $30+ (requires Microsoft 365 base) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 5 (Word, Excel, Teams, Outlook, Windows 11) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Limited (varies by Microsoft 365 license) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: GPT-4 (in Copilot Pro) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Limited, with reduced GPT-4 access | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 200,000 tokens | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: GPT-4 Turbo / GPT-4o | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: DALL-E 3 (highest rated) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 5 platforms (Web, iOS, Android, Windows, macOS) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: $3.00 | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 40.0% | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Full (Word, Excel, Teams, Outlook, PowerPoint) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Proprietary (Closed) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: $20.00 (Copilot Pro) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 78% | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 73% (built into Windows 11) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Not Available | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 8+ (Windows, Edge, Office 365, Mobile, Web, ChatGPT) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: GPT-4 Turbo with web search, DALL-E 3, plugins | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: DALL-E 3 (Copilot Pro only) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Native in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Built-in Bing integration | Perplexity AI: Default on every query
Microsoft Copilot: 150 chats/day | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: GPT-4 Turbo (limited) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Yes (included) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: $20 (Pro) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Limited (<1,000) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Yes (Windows 11/12) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Yes (DALL-E 3) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 100,000 | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 71% | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Built-in Copilot key + Copilot+ devices | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: DALL-E 3 integration | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Deep Office 365 (Word, Excel, Teams, PowerPoint) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 128,000 | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 128,000 (GPT-4 Turbo) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Native (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: Requires Pro subscription | Perplexity AI: Yes, unlimited searches
Microsoft Copilot: 10 GB | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: $20 | Perplexity AI: N/A
User Reported Reasoning Quality (Scale 1-10)
Microsoft Copilot: 8.2/10 | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: GPT-4: 86.5% | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 50+ languages | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 8+ (Windows, Office, Teams, Outlook, etc.) | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: 180+ countries | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: GPT-4: 90.2% | Perplexity AI: N/A
Microsoft Copilot: April 2024 | Perplexity AI: Real-time (updated within hours)
Microsoft Copilot: Unlimited | Perplexity AI: 5 Pro searches (standard: unlimited basic)
Microsoft Copilot: Free tier only (no premium) | Perplexity AI: $20
Microsoft Copilot: 0-10% (minimal citations) | Perplexity AI: 95%+ (every claim cited)
Microsoft Copilot: 12+ (Office, Teams, Edge, Windows, Outlook, OneDrive) | Perplexity AI: 1 (web browser plugin only)
Microsoft Copilot: GPT-4 + proprietary models (user cannot select) | Perplexity AI: 3 selectable (GPT-4, Claude 3, Llama 2)
Microsoft Copilot: 3.2/5 (iOS App Store, 8,400 reviews) | Perplexity AI: 4.6/5 (iOS App Store, 22,100 reviews)
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: Included with unlimited quick searches
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: Custom Skills for task automation
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: Model Council (multiple simultaneous)
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: Extended with Context Compaction
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: Live web integration for latest data
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: Strong aggregation, moderate synthesis
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: $20
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 9.5/10
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 9.7/10
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 8.5/10
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 9.0/10
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 200,000 (GPT-5.5)
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: €20-200
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 0.3%
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: Not publicly disclosed
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: AI-generated paragraph with citations
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 5-12% (LLM generation)
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: Full context memory across turns
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: Inline citations directly in answer text
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: $0-200 (free tier + Pro)
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 5 searches/day
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: $20/month
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 100% of responses cited
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 3+ models (Claude, GPT-4, Mistral)
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: ~5 million (2026)
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: Limited (web access)
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 71.4%
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: Yes (live search)
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: URLs with inline attribution
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 5 MB per file
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: $1.00 (Pro API)
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: JPEG, PNG, WebP (basic analysis)
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 4 searches/day
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: Claude 3.5 Sonnet (via selection)
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: Yes (default on all answers)
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: Limited (growing slowly)
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 600
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: AI-synthesized paragraph with citations
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: Yes (free & paid tier)
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: Real-time crawl (dynamic)
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 20 queries/day
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 100,000
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 95%
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 0
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: No
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 200,000,000
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: $500M+
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 92%
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 5 searches
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 3 primary models
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: Retained for model training
Microsoft Copilot: N/A | Perplexity AI: 2022
How to choose between Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity AI
Compare Microsoft Copilot vs Perplexity AI
Microsoft Copilot vs Perplexity AI — Structured Comparison Data
Machine-readable comparison dataset for Microsoft Copilot vs Perplexity AI. Contains 187 attribute comparisons, 5 FAQ pairs.
Microsoft Copilot vs Perplexity AI — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for Microsoft Copilot vs Perplexity AI.
Can I use Copilot or Perplexity for free?
Yes, both offer free tiers. Microsoft Copilot is completely free with unlimited queries for Microsoft account holders. Perplexity AI offers unlimited basic searches free, but limits 'Pro' searches (which access premium features) to 5 per day. Perplexity Pro costs $20/month for unlimited premium queries.
Which AI is better for researching recent events or breaking news?
Perplexity AI is significantly better for current information. It searches the live web in real-time and updates within hours of new publications, with inline citations showing exact sources. Copilot's knowledge cutoff (April 2024) means it cannot reliably answer questions about events after that date.
Can I verify the sources in the answers provided?
Perplexity AI provides clickable source citations for nearly every claim, allowing you to verify information instantly. Copilot rarely includes citations, making it impossible to verify where claims originate—a significant limitation for academic or professional work.
Which AI integrates better with my Microsoft Office documents?
Microsoft Copilot is purpose-built for Office integration. It works directly inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams to automate document creation, data analysis, and presentation generation. Perplexity has no native Office integration and would require manual copying/pasting of content.
Which AI can analyze images and documents?
Both can analyze images. Copilot offers GPT-4 vision capabilities for image interpretation. Perplexity allows you to upload PDFs, images, and documents for analysis as part of research queries. Perplexity's advantage is that it can search the web about uploaded content, while Copilot works only with the uploaded file itself.
How to Choose Between Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity AI
Primary Function: Microsoft Copilot has General-purpose AI assistant across Microsoft products, while Perplexity AI has Real-time web search and research engine.
Source Citation: Microsoft Copilot has Limited or no inline citations, while Perplexity AI has Comprehensive inline citations with clickable sources.
Integration Ecosystem: Microsoft Copilot has Deep integration with Office 365, Windows 11, Teams, Edge, while Perplexity AI has Standalone platform with limited native integrations.
Real-Time Information: Microsoft Copilot has Knowledge cutoff (April 2024), delayed updates, while Perplexity AI has Live web indexing with current data within hours.
Free Tier Availability: Microsoft Copilot has Free (limited) with Microsoft account, while Perplexity AI has Free with 5 Pro searches/day; Pro plan $20/month.
Underlying Model: Microsoft Copilot has GPT-4 and custom Microsoft models, while Perplexity AI has GPT-4, Claude, and Llama 2 (user selectable).
Mobile App Quality: Microsoft Copilot has Basic app with limited features, while Perplexity AI has Full-featured native iOS and Android apps.