Checked by Hanny Ramzy on 26 September 2026. We used AI to help write it. We then checked it against Microsoft's own earnings releases and documentation, and our own Microsoft 365 admin centre.
On 25 September 2026, a reply to a post by Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella on X asked a blunt question: “Serious question: does ANYONE use copilot?” (@vishalsingh2972, seen more than 270,000 times). Nicolas Bustamante, who works on AI for knowledge workers at Microsoft, answered that Microsoft 365 Copilot “now has over 30 million paid seats”.
That is the view of one Microsoft employee. So we checked the number on the investor pages and documentation of Microsoft. We also checked what it means for a Malaysian business. Office Niaga supplies Microsoft 365, through a Microsoft CSP partner, and Google Workspace.
The short answer: yes, and Microsoft has published the number
The 30 million figure is real. It comes from Microsoft, not only from the post on X. In its results for the quarter ended 30 June 2026, released on 29 July 2026, Satya Nadella said “Microsoft 365 Copilot reached over 30 million paid seats”.
Microsoft gave a figure in each of its last three earnings calls. This table shows the growth of paid seats:
| Earnings call | Paid Microsoft 365 Copilot seats | What else Microsoft said |
|---|---|---|
| 28 January 2026 | 15 million | Daily active users up 10 times year on year |
| 29 April 2026 | Over 20 million | Accenture has over 740,000 seats, its largest Copilot customer so far |
| 29 July 2026 | Over 30 million | Enterprise customers who give Copilot to most of their office staff grew nearly 75% in a quarter |
Keep two points in mind. First, a paid seat is a licence that someone bought. It does not prove that the person uses it every day. Microsoft shared growth rates for daily use, but not a count of daily users.
Second, 30 million is big but not universal. In January 2026 Microsoft said it had over 450 million paid Microsoft 365 commercial seats. So fewer than one in ten paid business users had the paid Copilot licence at the latest count.
Many people do not see Copilot because it runs inside company accounts. The names also cause confusion. In August 2026 Microsoft renamed the Microsoft 365 Copilot app to Microsoft Copilot. Our guide to what happened to the Microsoft 365 app explains every Copilot name.
Why large organisations choose Copilot
Bustamante said that big companies care about data, privacy and control. Microsoft documentation supports each point:
- It works on data you already have. Copilot answers from the emails, files, meetings, chats and SharePoint sites in your Microsoft 365 account, through Microsoft Graph.
- It follows your existing permissions. Microsoft says Copilot “only surfaces organizational data to which individual users have at least view permissions”. It also honours sensitivity labels and encryption from Microsoft Purview.
- Your data is not used for training. Microsoft states that “prompts, responses, and data accessed through Microsoft Graph aren’t used to train foundation LLMs, including those used by Microsoft Copilot.”
- It has the same contract as your email. Microsoft calls this enterprise data protection. The same Data Protection Addendum and Product Terms cover prompts, responses, your email in Exchange and your files in SharePoint. Microsoft is a data processor.
- Compliance papers exist. Microsoft lists compliance offerings for Copilot, including GDPR, ISO 27001, HIPAA and ISO 42001, the standard for AI management systems.
- IT stays in control. Admins manage Copilot in the Microsoft 365 admin centre.
In our own admin centre, Copilot > Settings > View all lists more than 20 Copilot controls. They range from web search and image generation to the AI model providers that are allowed:
What this means for a Malaysian business or agency
The same reasons apply in Malaysia. Check a few details before you decide.
Personal data and the PDPA
Microsoft is a data processor for your Copilot prompts and responses. You still have your own duties under the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (PDPA) of Malaysia. Copilot can see only what each user can already open. If a staff member with the paid licence can open the HR folder today, Copilot can use that folder.
Where the data is kept
Microsoft says Copilot works within the service boundary of your Microsoft 365 tenant. It says stored prompts and responses are kept “in alignment with contractual commitments” for your other Microsoft 365 content. The physical location needs a closer look:
- Malaysia is a local region. Microsoft lists Malaysia, with a data centre in Kuala Lumpur, as a local data location for Microsoft 365, including Copilot.
- The written commitment is an add-on. For an organisation signed up in Malaysia, the commitment to store Copilot data at rest in Malaysia comes with the Advanced Data Residency or Multi-Geo add-ons.
- Processing can happen elsewhere. Microsoft says customers outside the EU “may have their queries processed in the US, EU, or other regions”.
An admin can check this under Settings > Org settings > Organization profile > Data location. Government agencies and GLCs with data residency rules must read this panel before a pilot.
Which plans can use Copilot
The free and paid versions have different requirements. This table shows what Microsoft lists, as of 26 September 2026:
| What you want | Plans Microsoft lists |
|---|---|
 Copilot Chat, at no extra cost | Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium; Microsoft 365 E3, E5 and E7; Office 365 E1, E3 and E5; the F plans; education and government plans |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Business, the paid add-on for smaller businesses | Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium, Microsoft 365 Apps for business or Teams Essentials |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot, the paid add-on for larger organisations | Microsoft 365 E3 or E5, Office 365 E1, E3 or E5, and many other enterprise and frontline plans. Microsoft 365 E7 already includes it |
Microsoft documentation now shortens these names to Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft Copilot Business. The Malaysian website of Microsoft still sells the small business version as Microsoft 365 Copilot Business, for organisations of up to 300 users.
One plan is not in the Copilot Chat list: Microsoft 365 Apps for business. Our test account is on that plan, and Chat said it was not available:
To see your plan, go to Billing > Your products in the admin centre. Our guide to assigning Microsoft 365 licences shows the page. If the plan names confuse you, read Office 365 vs Microsoft 365.
How to start small
You do not need to buy Copilot for everyone. Microsoft recommends a pilot with a small group of users first. We suggest this order:
- Turn on Copilot Chat first. On Business Basic, Standard or Premium, your staff already have it. Tell them to sign in with their work account so that enterprise data protection applies. Our Microsoft 365 sign-in guide covers the work account, and Microsoft Authenticator protects it.
- Write a one-page AI rule. Say what staff can paste into Copilot Chat, such as customer names, IC numbers or tender prices. Say what they must check before they send a draft.
- Fix oversharing before you buy paid seats. The paid licence lets Copilot search everything that a user can open. Old “anyone with the link” shares will show in answers. Our guides to sharing OneDrive files and SharePoint team sites show where these settings are.
- Pilot paid seats with a few people. Pick three to five staff who work mostly in email, meetings and documents. Give them a few weeks and specific tasks.
- Measure, then decide. The admin centre has Copilot usage reports. Ask the pilot group which tasks became faster.
In our own admin centre, Copilot > Overview > Security has a Manage data oversharing section for step 3:
Microsoft says SharePoint Advanced Management is included with Copilot licences. It can find overshared sites and hide them from Copilot while you fix them.
When Copilot is not worth it
We suggest that you wait in these cases:
- Your work is not in Microsoft 365. The paid licence has little to use if files are on an office shared drive or in WhatsApp groups.
- Your sharing is messy. Fix it before Copilot can search it.
- Staff need only an occasional draft. The free Copilot Chat can rewrite an email or summarise a pasted document.
- You are on Microsoft 365 Apps for business only. You need Business Basic or higher to get Copilot Chat.
- Your data residency rules need a written commitment. Plan for the residency add-on, or ask your data protection officer, before you start.
What about Google Workspace and Gemini?
Google includes Gemini in its Business plans. Gemini in Gmail is on every plan. Gemini in Docs, Sheets and Meet starts from Business Standard. We cover each plan in Gemini for business and in our Gemini guide for Malaysian offices.
What are Copilot CLI and Copilot Cowork?
Bustamante said he uses “Copilot CLI for coding” and “Copilot Cowork” every day. GitHub Copilot CLI is a coding assistant for software developers. Copilot Cowork is part of Microsoft Copilot. Microsoft says it “carries out tasks on your behalf”. Microsoft bills it by usage, so an admin must switch on usage-based billing.
How we checked this guide
We checked the 30 million figure against the earnings release of Microsoft of 29 July 2026 and its earnings calls of January, April and July 2026. Every statement about licences, data protection, data residency, admin controls, oversharing and Cowork comes from Microsoft Learn. The Copilot CLI information comes from the documentation of GitHub. The screenshots are from our own admin centre and test account on 26 September 2026. We did not include prices, because they change often.
We used AI to help write this guide. Hanny Ramzy then checked every number, plan name and menu path on 26 September 2026. We will update this page when Microsoft changes its figures or licence rules.
Planning Copilot or Microsoft 365 for your organisation?
If you want a second opinion before a Copilot pilot, WhatsApp our team on +60 16-916 3324. We can check your plans and tell you what to tidy up first. We supply both Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, so we will tell you plainly which one fits.
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Hanny Ramzy runs Office Niaga at Web Impian Sdn. Bhd. (SSM 920163-H) in Kota Bharu, Malaysia, helping businesses and agencies move to Google Workspace and business email with Ringgit billing and local support.