Love or loathe them, there’s no escaping AI chatbots as Microsoft continues to integrate Copilot into everything it can. While the feature is free to use for all Windows 11 users, a premium tier, ‘Copilot Pro’, exists for those wanting more from their artificial assistant. For those tempted but unsure about the value of the offering, a free trial is now available to try at your leisure.
Before we dive into the nitty gritty of the trial, here’s a reminder of what Copilot Pro offers. The main difference between the tiers is native integration into Office365 applications. However, Pro also comes with more boosts for a greater amount of image generation per day, alongside priority access to GPT-4 Turbo during peak hours. This will all set you back $20/£19 a month.
To try out Copilot Pro for yourself, head on over to its official product page. The trial period lasts for one month, but you will need to enter/select a payment method associated with your Microsoft account. To avoid any charges born out of forgetfulness, though, our advice would be to turn off recurring billing as soon as you get access.
While there’s no harm in trying Copilot Pro, its long-term value does seem dubious to all but those regularly using Microsoft Office. Speaking as such a person, the only enhancements that speak to me relate to Excel. Even then, this at a push, as I’d sooner prefer to put my hands in the plentiful YouTube tutorials and explainer articles out there.
With Copilot+ PCs now hitting the market, perhaps the value of Copilot Pro will grow alongside the functionality of the free version. The botched rollout of Windows Recall doesn’t exactly instil confidence though. However, as ever, I’m game to be proven wrong.
To learn more about the processors powering future Copilot+ experiences, free and Pro, check out our AMD Ryzen AI 300 series explainer.