Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft's AI assistant with a genuinely free chat tier for research, writing help, coding questions, and image generation. Works on the web, in Windows and Edge, and on mobile, with deeper Office-app integration on paid plans.

Best for: A free GPT-class assistant in your browser

What you get

• Free Copilot Chat: web-grounded conversations for writing, study, and coding help, plus image generation via Designer (~15 boosts before it slows; sources differ on daily vs. weekly - check their site)
• Free users get newer models off-peak but drop to a fallback model at peak hours
• Standalone Copilot Pro ($20/mo) retired to new users Oct 2025 (existing subs supported until Aug 1, 2026); consumer paid features now live in Microsoft 365 Premium at $19.99/mo (Copilot in Word/Excel/PowerPoint/Outlook + 6TB OneDrive)
• Student angle: verified US college students can get Microsoft 365 Personal with Copilot free for 12 months, then ~50% off (~$4.99/mo) - check their site

How students use it

• Draft and summarize with a free GPT-based chat
• Generate images from a prompt
• Get a confusing concept explained step by step