Introduction, Subscriptions, and Copilot Versions

00:00 Copilot with Microsoft 365 can help you get detailed answers to questions. It can help with complex research projects. It can analyze your documents or create documents, pictures, and more. And you can use the Copilot assistant inside of productivity applications like Word, Excel, and Outlook. Hi, I'm Nick. I'm working with Kevin to bring you videos and tutorials that will

00:23 help you be more productive. This is my complete tutorial all about Copilot for people with their own personal Microsoft 365 account. It's a longer video, but it's broken up into sections. You can use the YouTube chapter markers to skip right to the section you need. Microsoft subscriptions and the different versions of Copilot can be confusing. So, let's run through a few

00:46 details just to make sure you're watching the right tutorial. There is a free version of Copilot, which is great, but has some limitations. Then there are upgraded versions that are included with Microsoft 365. You can buy Microsoft 365 subscription yourself as an individual, or some people have a subscription that is managed by their company or similar organization.

01:08 This tutorial is for people with that individual subscription. If you want to learn the free version or if you have a subscription from your company, I do have separate tutorial videos on this channel that cover those. But this video covers the features that you have if you purchase your own individual Microsoft 365 subscription. Now, even with individual plans, there are different subscription tiers.

01:33 Microsoft 365 Personal is the starting tier, and it is a full subscription, which includes Office applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, several online services like OneDrive, and of course Copilot features. This subscription includes most of the Copilot features we'll be covering in this video. If you purchase a family subscription, only the primary account holder for the

01:56 family will have the Copilot features. And there is a higher tier called Microsoft 365 Premium, which includes a few upgraded Copilot features, including access to pre-made agents. We will see how those work in this video, but most of the Copilot features you'll use and most of the features covered in this tutorial are included in the baseline personal account. So, if you don't have a subscription yet, that

02:20 may be the best place to start. You can always upgrade later. Now, once you have your subscription, where do you go to access the Copilot tools? Well, we have another layer here that can be a bit confusing, because your Microsoft 365 subscription allows you to work with two different versions of Copilot. Some features work the same in both versions, but there are some things that work in one, but not in the

02:42 other. You may find that you use both versions depending on what you need at any given time, or you may just settle on one and stick with it. In this tutorial, we will work with both versions. One option is to go to copilot.microsoft.com. This is actually where you would go to access the completely free version of Copilot. And the official name of this version is simply Microsoft Copilot.

03:06 But, you can also sign in with your Microsoft 365 personal account. Click the sign in button on the left, choose continue with Microsoft, and sign in. This site is a great way to work with the Copilot chat, and it offers a very friendly, easy-to-use interface. We're mostly seeing the same features that you would see if you sign in with a free account, but your Microsoft 365 subscription does remove some usage

03:30 limits, and it enables a few extra features. Now, let's look at the other version. To access most of the additional features that you're paying for, you may want to go to the Microsoft 365 website instead, and make sure you sign in to your account. You can access your Microsoft 365 apps and services here, but it's also your main portal for Copilot. If you select

03:53 chat on the left, you will see the Copilot chat interface. The official name for this Copilot version is Microsoft 365 Copilot. This site is more focused on features that may relate to your work or job. So, one is Microsoft Copilot and the other is Microsoft 365 Copilot. And I think the most confusing thing about this is that there are very useful features that work on one site

04:17 but don't work on the other. But with your Microsoft 365 subscription, you can work on either site whenever you want. And of course, there are other places to work with Copilot, including the Copilot tools inside of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, which we certainly will cover as well. But when we do get to those apps, there is another detail that you may need to consider. Starting from the Microsoft 365 site,

04:40 click your account button in the bottom left and go to view account. From this page, go to the subscriptions category. Then in the section for your Microsoft 365 subscription, click manage. Each Microsoft 365 subscription comes with a certain amount of AI credits that you can use each month. Now, these credits are not required for every Copilot task. They're used

05:04 whenever you make a Copilot request inside of apps like Word, Excel, and Outlook. These credits reset every month and how many credits you have depends on which subscription you have. One reason people upgrade to the premium subscription is because they need lots of Copilot credits each month. So, my recommendation for most people is to start with the Microsoft 365 personal

05:27 subscription. Most people will never hit that limit and if you do, Copilot will tell you. And if that happens, then you may consider upgrading to Microsoft 365 premium. And as we get started, I do want to stress that things will change in Copilot. Microsoft is constantly making changes. So, as you go through this tutorial, keep an eye out for small

05:49 interface changes or new features. And with that in mind, the core features that you'll learn here should help you for quite a while. So, let's start by learning the core features of the Copilot chat assistant. You can ask questions and Copilot will answer, but there's so much more you can do. So, let's start simple and build up until you're using the Copilot chat like a pro.