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Bing Chat Enterprise

Microsoft 365 Copilot Pricing and Bing Chat Enterprise: What Microsoft Announced and What Changed

Microsoft’s 2023 announcement paired a $30-per-user Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on with Bing Chat Enterprise, a protected web-chat preview. Here is what those prices meant and how Microsoft’s current Copilot lineup differs.

By TheFinanceBase Team 6 min read
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At Microsoft Inspire on July 18, 2023, Microsoft announced a commercial price of $30 per user per month for Microsoft 365 Copilot, charged in addition to a qualifying Microsoft 365 subscription. It also previewed Bing Chat Enterprise: a work-focused, web-grounded chatbot with Microsoft’s stated commercial data-protection controls. Bing Chat Enterprise was initially included for qualifying subscribers, with a planned standalone price of $5 per user per month.

Those figures describe the 2023 announcement, not one combined subscription. Microsoft’s current pages still list enterprise Microsoft 365 Copilot at $30 per user per month paid yearly, while the comparable included chat experience is now presented as Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat.

What Microsoft announced in July 2023

  • Microsoft 365 Copilot: A $30-per-user-per-month commercial add-on for customers with Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard or Business Premium. It was still in a paid Early Access Program involving about 600 organizations; Microsoft had not announced broad general availability on July 18, 2023. Sources: Petri and Thurrott.
  • Bing Chat Enterprise: A preview of protected, work-oriented Bing chat. It was offered at no additional charge to qualifying Microsoft 365 subscribers during the initial rollout, with a planned $5-per-user-per-month standalone price. Sources: Petri, SD Times and No Jitter.

The announcements were related but addressed different jobs: Copilot brought AI into Microsoft 365 applications and company context, while Bing Chat Enterprise was primarily a protected general-purpose chat and web-research tool.

What the $30 Microsoft 365 Copilot price meant

The announced price was an add-on, not the total cost of Microsoft 365. A customer still needed an eligible base license, and enterprise agreements could have different negotiated terms. At list price, the arithmetic before taxes, discounts or other licensing costs was:

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Licensed users Monthly Copilot add-on Annual Copilot add-on
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The annual figure is simply $30 multiplied by 12; it excludes the underlying Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Contemporary coverage compared the $30 add-on with a reported $36-per-user-per-month Microsoft 365 E3 price, but that was a 2023 comparison, not a current E3 quote. See Petri and Thurrott.

What Microsoft 365 Copilot was designed to do

Microsoft described Copilot as large-language-model assistance connected to Microsoft 365 applications and Microsoft Graph. Reported examples included:

  • Word: Draft and rewrite documents.
  • Excel: Analyze data and help explain patterns.
  • PowerPoint: Create or revise presentations.
  • Outlook: Assist with inbox and email work.
  • Teams: Summarize meetings and discussions when the necessary transcript and permissions are available.

Graph-based grounding could include documents, email, calendars, chats, meetings and contacts that the requesting user and service were authorized to access. It did not mean that Copilot could freely read every file in a tenant or bypass existing permissions. Microsoft’s 2023 descriptions and examples are reported by Thurrott and SD Times.

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What Bing Chat Enterprise offered

Bing Chat Enterprise was the 2023 enterprise version of Bing’s AI chatbot. It was grounded primarily in public web information rather than an organization’s Microsoft Graph and was intended for workplace use. Users could reach it at Bing.com/chat and through the Microsoft Edge sidebar; Microsoft also said the experience would come to Windows Copilot. Responses were designed to include citations and visual results.

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Microsoft positioned “commercial data protection” as the central distinction from consumer chat. In the 2023 announcement as reported at the time, Microsoft said chat data was not saved, that Microsoft could not view it, and that prompts and responses were not used to train the underlying models. Those statements applied to the named commercial service and period; they should not be generalized to every Bing or consumer Copilot conversation. See Thurrott and No Jitter.

Microsoft 365 Copilot versus Bing Chat Enterprise in 2023

Capability Bing Chat Enterprise (2023) Microsoft 365 Copilot (2023)
Primary grounding Public web data Microsoft Graph and Microsoft 365 work data, plus web data
Main experience Standalone enterprise chat and search Assistance embedded in Microsoft 365 applications
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams Limited or absent in the initial product Central to the product
Data positioning Commercial data protection was the core selling point Microsoft 365 commercial security, privacy and compliance controls
2023 price Included for qualifying subscribers; planned $5 standalone price $30 per user per month as an add-on
Best fit Protected general-purpose work chat and web research Employees needing AI inside Microsoft 365 workflows

Security, privacy and governance boundaries

“Commercial data protection” was not a promise that every AI interaction could never leave an organization or that an administrator could ignore tenant configuration. Current Microsoft documentation describes enterprise protections such as encryption, tenant data isolation, contractual privacy commitments, permission enforcement, sensitivity-label inheritance, retention policies, auditing and administrative controls: Microsoft Learn.

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Microsoft also says Bing search operates separately from Microsoft 365 and has different data-handling practices. A web-grounded answer therefore should not automatically be treated as governed in exactly the same way as an answer grounded in Microsoft 365 content.

Copilot can expose information that a user already has permission to see. It cannot repair overshared SharePoint or OneDrive folders, incorrect Teams access, weak retention settings or missing sensitivity labels. Before licensing a large population, administrators should:

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  1. Audit SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams and Exchange permissions and remove unnecessary access.
  2. Review sensitivity labels, retention policies, audit coverage and tenant-wide sharing settings.
  3. Run a limited pilot with representative users and realistic data.
  4. Define prohibited uses and require human review for legal, financial, HR, security and customer-facing work.
  5. Measure adoption, error rates and time saved against a baseline.

Citations improve traceability but do not guarantee that an AI answer is complete or correct. Meeting summaries also depend on transcript availability, language support, meeting settings and user permissions.

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What changed by August 2026

Microsoft’s current product pages use Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat for an enterprise, web-grounded chat experience. Microsoft describes it as available at no additional cost to users with eligible Microsoft Entra accounts and Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Microsoft’s current enterprise page still displays Microsoft 365 Copilot at $30 per user per month, paid yearly, and says a separate qualifying Microsoft 365 license is required: Microsoft’s enterprise pricing page.

For organizations with up to 300 users, Microsoft’s business page currently displays Microsoft 365 Copilot Business at $18 per user per month paid yearly, reduced from an indicated original price of $21. This is a current pricing-page signal, not a price that should be attributed to the 2023 announcement: Microsoft’s business pricing page.

Microsoft’s pages also indicate that agents may involve metered usage, Azure requirements or Copilot Studio capacity, depending on the scenario. Buyers seeking automation should examine those costs separately at Copilot Studio.

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Do not assume that the planned $5 Bing Chat Enterprise price remains available under that name. Microsoft’s branding, eligibility and packaging have evolved, so confirm the current product and contract terms before procurement.

Which option fits an organization?

Choose paid Microsoft 365 Copilot when

  • The organization already standardizes on Microsoft 365.
  • Users spend substantial time in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams.
  • Permissions and business data are organized well enough for reliable grounding.
  • The business can measure enough productivity value to justify the add-on and governance work.

Start with Copilot Chat when

  • Employees mainly need protected general-purpose chat, drafting or web research.
  • The organization wants an AI pilot without assigning the $30 add-on to every user.
  • Deep access to Microsoft 365 work data inside Office applications is not essential.

Evaluate Copilot Business when

  • The organization has no more than 300 users and wants integrated Copilot features.
  • The displayed $18 yearly-billing price is applicable in its market and licensing channel.
  • A separate qualifying Microsoft 365 plan is already in place or budgeted.

Delay purchase when

  • SharePoint, OneDrive or Teams permissions are materially overshared.
  • Retention, sensitivity labeling or audit requirements are unresolved.
  • No owner can define acceptable use, training or a measurable success baseline.

Bottom line for buyers

Microsoft’s July 2023 announcement created a two-tier enterprise AI proposition: a lower-cost protected chat experience and a $30-per-user productivity assistant connected deeply to Microsoft 365. The important question was not simply whether Copilot was available. It was whether application integration and work-grounded answers justified an additional license, disciplined data governance and human oversight. In 2026, compare Microsoft 365 Copilot with the included Copilot Chat experience, verify eligibility and billing, and treat historical Bing Chat Enterprise pricing as a record of the 2023 announcement rather than a current quote.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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