Checked by Hanny Ramzy on 26 September 2026. We used AI to help write it. We then checked it against Microsoft's own documentation and tested it on our own Microsoft 365 account.
If the app that opens Word and Excel now says Microsoft Copilot, nothing is wrong. In August 2026 Microsoft renamed the Microsoft 365 Copilot app to Microsoft Copilot. Most people still call it the Microsoft 365 app or the Office app. It has a new icon. Its web address is moving from m365.cloud.microsoft to copilot.cloud.microsoft. Your account, your files and your licence did not change.
“Microsoft Copilot” is now also the name of the paid AI licence and of the free Copilot for personal accounts. Office Niaga supplies Microsoft 365 to Malaysian businesses, through a Microsoft CSP partner, and Google Workspace. This guide explains each “Copilot” and how to find out which one you have.
Every “Copilot” in one table
These are the Copilot names that a Malaysian business user is most likely to see, as of 26 September 2026:
| Name you see | What it is | Free or paid |
|---|---|---|
 Microsoft Copilot (the app) | The home app for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive and Copilot Chat. Formerly the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, and before that the Microsoft 365 app. | Comes with your Microsoft 365 plan |
| Microsoft Copilot Chat | AI chat for people signed in with a work account. Formerly Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. | Included at no extra cost with eligible plans |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot, now also called Microsoft Copilot | The paid add-on licence. Copilot works across your email, files, meetings and chats. For businesses of up to 300 users it is sold as Microsoft 365 Copilot Business, or built into Business Standard with Copilot and Business Premium with Copilot. | Paid |
| Microsoft Copilot for personal use | The consumer Copilot at copilot.microsoft.com and in the Copilot app, used with a personal Microsoft account such as Outlook.com. | Separate from your work account |
| GitHub Copilot | A coding assistant for software developers. | Separate product |
| Copilot Studio | A Microsoft tool to build your own AI agents. | Separate product |
How the app got its new name
The app changed its name several times. Microsoft published these dates:
- Office. The original Office app and office.com, where you opened Word, Excel and PowerPoint online.
- Microsoft 365 app. Microsoft renamed the Office app to the Microsoft 365 app.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot app. On 15 January 2025, Microsoft launched Copilot Chat for businesses. It sent people to “the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, available at m365copilot.com”.
- Microsoft Copilot. On 14 August 2026 Microsoft told its partners that from 18 August the app would get “a simplified app name and icon”. Broad deployment begins in mid-September.
Microsoft says “Security, compliance, and governance controls remain unchanged.” On Windows and Mac, Microsoft merges the personal Copilot app and the work app into one unified Copilot app. It shows account labels and a green shield for work accounts.
On 25 September 2026, Microsoft announced “the new Copilot”. It brings the Home, Code and Autopilot experiences together in one place. It rolls out first through the Frontier programme, so most businesses will not see it yet.
Microsoft documentation says: “Microsoft 365 Copilot is now named Microsoft Copilot, and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is now named Microsoft Copilot Chat.” Some licences and screens keep the old names during the change. On 26 September 2026 the Malaysian website of Microsoft still sold the paid licence as Microsoft 365 Copilot Business. It also listed Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot and Business Premium with Copilot. Inside our Microsoft Copilot app, one heading still said “Use across Teams, Outlook, and Microsoft 365 Copilot”. Do not rely on the name. Look at the account you use and at the Copilot label, as shown below.
What is free and what needs the paid licence
The free part is Copilot Chat. Microsoft says it is available “at no extra cost for eligible users who sign in with a Microsoft Entra work or school account and have a qualifying Microsoft 365 subscription”. For small businesses, this means Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium, including the “(no Teams)” versions.
Microsoft 365 Apps for business is not on the list of Microsoft. We saw this ourselves. Our test account is on Apps for business. On 26 September 2026, Chat in the Microsoft Copilot app said “Copilot Chat isn’t available”. Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneDrive worked as normal.
This table compares the included chat with the paid licence, as Microsoft lists them:
| What you can do | Copilot Chat (included) | Paid Copilot licence |
|---|---|---|
| Ask questions answered from the web | Yes | Yes |
| Upload a file and ask about it, or create images | Yes | Yes |
| Enterprise data protection when signed in with a work account | Yes | Yes |
| Ask about your inbox and calendar in Outlook | Yes, in supported Outlook experiences | Yes |
| Copilot finds your emails, files, meetings and chats by itself | No, you paste or upload what it needs | Yes |
| Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote | Limited, or not at all, depending on your plan and settings | Yes, the full experience |
| Priority access when the service is busy | No | Yes |
Microsoft says the chat is “primarily web grounded”. With the paid licence you can ask “summarise what the client said about the delivery date across my emails and last week’s meeting”. You do not copy anything in yourself.
To buy the paid licence, a business needs a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan first. Microsoft lists Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium, Apps for business and Teams Essentials as the plans that can take the Microsoft 365 Copilot Business add-on. We did not include prices, because they change often.
What changes for you in practice
For most people, day-to-day work stays the same. You will notice these points:
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A new name and icon. On your computer, phone and browser, the app is now Microsoft Copilot. Microsoft says: “Your experience is the same.”
-
Your apps are in the same place. In our web app, the left menu shows Search, Create and Apps. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and OneDrive are pinned below. Outlook, Teams and the rest are under Apps > All apps. Install apps at the top right downloads the desktop apps. See our guide to installing the Microsoft 365 apps.
The Apps page in our Microsoft Copilot web app on 26 September 2026, with the left menu and the Install apps button highlighted. -
A Work label. Next to your name at the bottom left, the app shows Work when you sign in with your company account. If you see a personal account, you use the consumer Copilot. Your company Microsoft 365 protections do not cover it.
The Work label next to the user's name at the bottom left of the app, in our test account. -
Old bookmarks still work. On 26 September 2026, when we signed in, www.office.com sent us to m365.cloud.microsoft. Its page title now says Microsoft Copilot. The address copilot.cloud.microsoft opened the same app with the same sign-in.
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Your files and email do not change. The rename does not change your OneDrive files, your mailbox or your licence. You sign in with the same work email address and password. If you are new to Microsoft 365, read our first sign-in guide.
How to check whether you have the paid Copilot
A user and an admin have different ways to check.
If you are a user, look at the label that Microsoft shows in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and the Microsoft Copilot app. Microsoft uses these labels:
- Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) or (Pro): you have the paid licence.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot (Basic): you have no paid licence. You have standard access to some Copilot features in the Office apps.
- Copilot Chat (Basic): you have no paid licence and no Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint or OneNote. You have the chat only.
If you see “Copilot Chat isn’t available”, your plan does not include Copilot Chat or your admin turned it off.
If you are the admin, sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin centre at admin.microsoft.com. Go to Billing > Your products. A paid licence shows as a separate subscription, such as Microsoft 365 Copilot Business, or as part of a plan name that ends in “with Copilot”. After the rename, it can also show as Microsoft Copilot. To see who has it, go to Users > Active users. Select a person and open Licenses and apps. Our guide to assigning Microsoft 365 licences shows both pages.
For admins: what changed for IT
Microsoft published deployment guidance for the unified app. These points matter most to a small business IT team:
- Allow the new address. Make sure that your firewall, proxy or web filter does not block copilot.cloud.microsoft. Microsoft suggests
*.cloud.microsofton allow lists where appropriate. If the address is blocked, users are not redirected. - Windows rollout. The Copilot Unification Allowed policy controls which devices get the unified app in the early phase. From September, Microsoft rolls it out more widely. Devices need EdgeUpdate version 1.3.253.25 or later. To stop the rollout, set the Pause Copilot App Unification Rollout registry key.
- Mac. Deploy the macOS installer package (.pkg) through your device management tool, such as Microsoft Intune or Jamf.
- Taskbar pinning. Go to Copilot > Settings > View all > Pin Microsoft Copilot to the Windows taskbar to pin the app on Intune-managed Windows 11 devices. It is off by default and needs the Intune Administrator role.
- Copilot Chat pinning. Microsoft pins Copilot Chat by default in the Microsoft Copilot app, Teams and Outlook for most eligible users.
- Billing for new Copilot Business licences. From 2 November 2026, new Microsoft 365 Copilot Business licences from a Microsoft CSP partner have usage-based (pay-as-you-go) billing on by default. Check your usage settings after you buy.
How we checked this guide
Every fact comes from pages of Microsoft. We used its Partner Center announcements for August and September 2026, the Microsoft Learn guides to the unified Copilot app, Copilot Chat, Copilot licensing and taskbar pinning, and its Malaysian Microsoft 365 and Copilot business pages. We tested the app on 26 September 2026 on our own Microsoft 365 Apps for business account.
We used AI to help write this guide. Hanny Ramzy then checked every name, date and menu path on 26 September 2026. For the plan names behind all of this, read our earlier guide, Office 365 vs Microsoft 365. We will update this page when the names change again.
Not sure which Microsoft 365 plan or Copilot you need?
If you are not sure what your team has, or if Copilot is worth adding, WhatsApp our team on +60 16-916 3324 and we will check it with you. 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.