Comparison

Copilot vs ChatGPT vs Gemini

Copilot vs ChatGPT vs Gemini in 2026 — how Microsoft, OpenAI and Google's assistants compare on models, integration, pricing and privacy, and which to pick for your stack.

Updated July 2026

Quick answer: For most people the choice between Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT and Gemini comes down to the software you already pay for, not which model is smartest — because the models are close and two of the three run the same one. Copilot is the best pick if your work lives in Microsoft 365 and Windows: it embeds AI inside Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams, and its paid tier runs GPT-5.5, the same flagship as ChatGPT. Gemini is the best pick if you live in Google Workspace, Android or Chrome: it runs Gemini 3.1 Pro, is the cheapest on the API, handles the largest in-app context, and bundles 2TB of storage with its $19.99 plan. ChatGPT is the best standalone assistant — the broadest features and ecosystem, the newest consumer features first, and the most polished creative writing, tied to no office suite. All three cost roughly $20/month for an individual paid plan. Two things to know: ChatGPT shows ads on its Free and Go tiers in the US, and Copilot’s paid tiers each sit on top of a Microsoft 365 base licence, so its true cost is higher than the headline.

At a glance

The one decision that matters: your existing stack

The honest way to choose between these three is to ignore the leaderboard and look at the software you already use. On raw model intelligence the three are close, and Copilot and ChatGPT are effectively identical because both run GPT-5.5. What actually differs is where the AI lives and what it can see: your files, your email, your documents.

Everything below explains the exceptions and the detail — the models behind each, pricing, integration, features, and privacy — but this table is the decision for most people.

The models behind them

Two of these assistants run the same model. On its paid Microsoft 365 tier, Copilot runs GPT-5.5 (and GPT-5.5 Reasoning), the identical flagship that powers ChatGPT on Plus and above. So if you are comparing Copilot and ChatGPT purely on model quality, there is no gap to compare — it is the same engine, wrapped differently.

Where they diverge is choice. Copilot is the only one of the three that is multi-model. Alongside GPT-5.5, Microsoft 365 Copilot can run Anthropic’s Claude — Sonnet for general work and Opus for deep reasoning — where an admin enables it, and Microsoft’s own in-house MAI models handle voice and some text tasks. Claude is off by default for customers in the EU Data Boundary and the UK, because Anthropic processes data on non-Microsoft infrastructure. The free consumer Copilot is a step behind its paid sibling: it runs GPT-5.2 and MAI in its model picker, not GPT-5.5.

ChatGPT runs a single, deeply integrated model family: GPT-5.5 on paid tiers (launched 23 April 2026) and GPT-5.5 Instant on Free. OpenAI’s newer GPT-5.6 “Sol” entered a limited preview on 26 June 2026 but is not generally available, so GPT-5.5 is the model that matters today for both ChatGPT and Copilot.

Gemini runs Gemini 3.1 Pro (launched 19 February 2026) on its paid tiers and Gemini 3.5 Flash on Free. Google’s announced next flagship, Gemini 3.5 Pro, was unveiled at Google I/O on 19 May 2026 with a 2M-token context window and a Deep Think reasoning mode, but its release has slipped: as of 10 July 2026 it remains in limited preview, with general availability now targeted for later this month and no official benchmarks or pricing published (Tech Times). Until it ships widely, Gemini 3.1 Pro is the flagship that matters for this comparison.

Here is how the two distinct flagships compare on headline benchmarks. Because Copilot’s paid tier runs GPT-5.5, its model column is the same as ChatGPT’s:

The SWE-bench Verified figures are not strictly like-for-like — GPT-5.5’s 82.6% is an independent measurement (vals.ai) while Gemini 3.1 Pro’s 80.6% is Google-reported — but they put the two within two points on standard coding. A widely repeated “88.7%” SWE-bench Verified figure for GPT-5.5 is not from any independent evaluator and should not be relied on. For where every model ranks, see best AI models.

Pricing

For an individual, all three land near $20/month — but they get there differently, and Copilot’s true cost is the highest.

ChatGPT has the cheapest paid entry point — an $8 Go tier below its $20 Plus plan. For individuals wanting the flagship, ChatGPT Plus ($20), Google AI Pro ($19.99) and Microsoft 365 Premium ($19.99) are effectively level, but the two suite plans bundle extras: Microsoft 365 Premium adds the Office apps plus 1TB of OneDrive, and Google AI Pro adds 2TB of storage, Veo video and a 1M-token context window. If you would pay for cloud storage or Office anyway, those bundles are strong value.

Copilot’s business pricing carries a catch worth understanding. Microsoft 365 Copilot is an add-on that sits on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 base licence, so the real per-seat cost is often two to three times the headline add-on. Business is $18/user/month promotionally (through 31 December 2026, then $21) for organisations up to 300 users; Enterprise is $30/user/month billed annually; and the E7 Frontier Suite bundles Microsoft 365 E5, Copilot and Agent 365 at $99/user/month. Gemini is the opposite story for businesses: Google folded AI into standard Google Workspace plans in January 2025, so there is no separate Gemini fee — Business Standard at $14.40/user/month and Business Plus at $21.60/user/month include Gemini across Gmail, Docs, Sheets and Meet.

At the top of the consumer range, ChatGPT Pro is $200/month, Google AI Ultra is $99.99/month (cut from $249.99, bundling 30TB, YouTube Premium, Deep Think and early access to Gemini 3.5 Pro), and Copilot’s individual ceiling is Microsoft 365 Premium. On free tiers the divergence is ads: since February 2026, ChatGPT shows labelled “Sponsored” results on its Free and Go tiers (currently US-only), while the free Copilot and Gemini apps currently show none. Students get a clear edge from Gemini: Google AI Pro is free for a year for university students in the US, UK, Japan, Brazil and Indonesia.

Integration and ecosystem — the deciding dimension

This is where the three genuinely differ, and for most buyers it is the whole decision.

Copilot is the AI inside Microsoft 365 and Windows. No competitor matches its placement: it drafts in Word, builds formulas in Excel, generates slides in PowerPoint, triages Outlook, and summarises Teams meetings — all grounded in your organisation’s own files, emails and chats through the Microsoft Graph. It is built into Windows 11 (with a dedicated Copilot key and screen-aware Copilot Vision) and into Edge. For the billion-plus people whose work already lives in Office, the AI is one click away and can see the documents that matter. Its Researcher and Analyst agents handle deep research and Python data analysis, and Copilot Studio lets organisations build custom agents.

Gemini is the AI inside Google Workspace and Android. It is woven into Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Meet, into Chrome and Android, and into Google Search itself. If your day runs through Gmail and Docs rather than Outlook and Word, Gemini removes friction that neither ChatGPT nor Copilot can match on Google’s turf — and because AI is bundled into Workspace, there is no add-on to buy.

ChatGPT is the standalone all-rounder that belongs to no suite. Its advantage is breadth and independence: around 900 million weekly active users, the deepest third-party ecosystem, over three million custom GPTs, the most mature memory, an autonomous Agent Mode and the Codex coding agent. It connects to Gmail, Google Drive, Calendar and GitHub through connectors rather than living inside them, which makes it the natural pick if you want one powerful assistant that is not tied to Microsoft or Google — or if you mix both. ChatGPT also typically ships new consumer features earliest.

The short version: if your files live in Microsoft 365, Copilot sees them; if they live in Google Workspace, Gemini sees them; if you want one independent app across everything, ChatGPT is it. For a fuller platform view, see best AI for business.

Features and media

All three are capable multimodal assistants, but they are not equal on generation. ChatGPT and Gemini both generate images and video; Copilot generates images but not video. ChatGPT produces images natively and video through Sora; Gemini produces images through Imagen and Nano Banana and video through Veo, widely regarded as among the best video generators available. Copilot generates images (via MAI and GPT-based models) but has no native video generation.

On context, Gemini leads in the app — up to 1M tokens, versus roughly 400K on ChatGPT’s top tier — which makes it the strongest of the three for very long documents and whole-codebase work. Copilot’s in-app context varies by the underlying model it routes to. All three offer real-time voice (Copilot Voice, ChatGPT’s GPT-Live, and Gemini Live) and an autonomous agent capability (Copilot’s Researcher and Copilot Studio, ChatGPT’s Agent Mode and Codex, and Gemini’s Project Mariner).

Writing, reasoning and coding

Because Copilot and ChatGPT share GPT-5.5, their raw writing and reasoning quality is the same; the difference is that Copilot applies it to your Office documents while ChatGPT applies it in an open canvas. Against Gemini, the split is by task. For creative and editorial writing, ChatGPT (and by extension Copilot’s GPT-5.5) is generally rated the more natural writer in 2026, with smoother phrasing and fewer edits on the first draft. Gemini produces cleaner drafts for research and data-heavy documents, helped by tight grounding in real-time Google Search.

On reasoning, GPT-5.5 leads the hardest abstract tasks — 85.0% on ARC-AGI-2 versus Gemini 3.1 Pro’s 77.1% — while the two are effectively tied on graduate-level science, where Gemini’s 94.3% on GPQA Diamond narrowly beats GPT-5.5’s 93.6%. For coding, GPT-5.5 leads the harder SWE-bench Pro (58.6% versus 54.2%) and, paired with Codex, is the stronger setup for production code; Gemini’s 1M-token context makes it better for repo-scale analysis. Copilot inherits GPT-5.5’s coding strength inside its own tools, and can additionally route to Claude — the developer favourite for code quality. Full detail in best AI for coding.

Privacy and data

For consumer tiers, all three providers may use your conversations to improve their models by default, with an opt-out in settings — so anyone handling sensitive material should change those settings or move to a business tier. For business, enterprise, Workspace and API use, all three contractually exclude training by default and add admin controls.

Copilot’s enterprise data story is a genuine strength: Microsoft 365 work data is not used to train foundation models, stays within Microsoft’s compliance boundary, inherits your existing permissions and sensitivity labels, and is covered by the EU Data Boundary — a major draw for regulated industries. Gemini is unusually well credentialed too: Google was among the first to certify an AI product to ISO 42001 and carries SOC 1/2/3, ISO 27001, FedRAMP High, HIPAA and FERPA coverage. ChatGPT holds SOC 2 Type 2 and the ISO 27001 family, with Enterprise Key Management and data-residency options on Enterprise. The clearest consumer-privacy difference today is ads: ChatGPT shows them on its lower US tiers, while the Copilot and Gemini apps do not. For anything genuinely sensitive, use a business tier regardless of which you prefer.

Best for each need

• Best for Microsoft 365 and Office users: Copilot — it is the only one grounded inside Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams.
• Best for Google Workspace and Android users: Gemini — bundled into Gmail, Docs and Android at no extra cost.
• Best standalone assistant: ChatGPT — the broadest features and ecosystem, tied to no suite.
• Best value: Gemini — half the API price of GPT-5.5, plus 2TB of storage on the $19.99 plan.
• Cheapest paid entry: ChatGPT — the $8 Go tier.
• Best for long documents and large codebases: Gemini — up to 1M tokens in-app.
• Best for regulated enterprises: Copilot — Microsoft Graph grounding, EU Data Boundary and the deepest compliance stack.
• Best for model choice: Copilot — the only one that runs GPT, Claude and MAI under one roof.
• Best for students: Gemini — a free year of Google AI Pro in eligible countries.

Choose Copilot if…

• Your work lives in Microsoft 365 (Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams) or Windows and you want AI grounded in your own files.
• You are a regulated enterprise that needs Microsoft Graph permissions, the EU Data Boundary and mature compliance.
• You want model choice — GPT-5.5, Claude and Microsoft’s MAI models under one roof — or the option to route deep reasoning to Claude.

Choose ChatGPT if…

• You want one standalone assistant for everything, not tied to Microsoft or Google.
• You value the broadest ecosystem — custom GPTs, connectors, the most mature agents and memory — and the newest consumer features first.
• You want the cheapest paid entry point (the $8 Go tier), native Sora video, and the most polished creative writing.

Choose Gemini if…

• You live in Google Workspace, Android, Chrome or Search and want AI bundled into the apps you already use.
• You want the best value — half the API price, a $19.99 plan with 2TB of storage, and free AI in Workspace.
• You work across long documents or whole codebases (1M-token context in-app), feed in video and audio, or are a student eligible for a free year.

Frequently asked questions

Is Copilot, ChatGPT or Gemini the best?

It depends on the software you already use. Copilot is best if your work lives in Microsoft 365 and Windows; Gemini is best if you live in Google Workspace, Android or Chrome; and ChatGPT is the best standalone all-rounder, tied to no suite. On raw model quality the three are close — Copilot and ChatGPT both run GPT-5.5, and Gemini 3.1 Pro trades wins with it — so integration and price, not intelligence, should decide it.

Is Copilot just ChatGPT?

No, though they are closely related. Microsoft 365 Copilot runs the same GPT-5.5 model as ChatGPT, but wraps it in Microsoft 365 — grounding answers in your Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams data through the Microsoft Graph — and can also run Anthropic’s Claude and Microsoft’s own MAI models, which ChatGPT cannot. ChatGPT is a standalone assistant built by OpenAI; Copilot is Microsoft’s productivity layer built on top of OpenAI’s models (and others).

Which is cheapest — Copilot, ChatGPT or Gemini?

For an individual flagship plan they are almost level: ChatGPT Plus $20, Google AI Pro $19.99 and Microsoft 365 Premium $19.99. ChatGPT has the cheapest paid entry with its $8 Go tier. Gemini is the best overall value — it costs less than half as much on the API ($2/$12 versus $5/$30 per million tokens) and bundles 2TB of storage. Copilot’s business tiers look cheap ($18–30/user) but require a Microsoft 365 base licence, so the true cost is higher.

Which is best for Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook?

Copilot. It is the only one of the three embedded directly inside the Microsoft 365 apps, where it can draft in Word, build formulas in Excel, triage Outlook and summarise Teams meetings, grounded in your own files. ChatGPT and Gemini connect to files through uploads or connectors, but neither works inside the Office apps the way Copilot does.

Which is best for Gmail, Google Docs and Android?

Gemini. It is built into Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Chrome and Android, and AI is bundled into Google Workspace plans at no extra fee. If your work runs through Google’s apps, Gemini removes friction that Copilot and ChatGPT cannot match on Google’s turf.

Do Copilot, ChatGPT and Gemini use the same AI model?

Two of them do. Copilot and ChatGPT both run GPT-5.5 on their paid tiers, so their underlying intelligence is the same. Copilot can additionally run Anthropic’s Claude and Microsoft’s MAI models. Gemini runs Google’s own Gemini 3.1 Pro, a different model that performs within a couple of points of GPT-5.5 on most benchmarks.

Which one generates images and video?

All three generate images; only ChatGPT and Gemini generate video. ChatGPT makes images natively and video through Sora; Gemini makes images through Imagen and Nano Banana and video through Veo. Copilot generates images but has no native video generation. If in-app video matters, choose ChatGPT or Gemini.

Do any of them show ads?

Only ChatGPT, and only on its lower tiers. ChatGPT shows labelled “Sponsored” results on its Free and Go tiers in the US (since February 2026); its paid tiers are ad-free. The Copilot and Gemini apps currently show no ads on any tier, though Google has signalled ads may eventually reach Gemini’s free app, so that is a current state rather than a firm commitment.

Which is best for business?

It depends on your existing suite. Copilot is the natural choice for organisations standardised on Microsoft 365, with work-grounded AI and enterprise governance. Gemini is the natural choice for Google Workspace organisations, with AI bundled into existing plans. ChatGPT Business suits teams that want a suite-independent assistant with the broadest ecosystem. See best AI for business for the full breakdown.