Microsoft Copilot vs Perplexity AI

Pricing, features, platforms and who each one suits — side by side.

Microsoft Copilot

AI assistant for chat, web search, writing and images at work and home

Free · from $18/moVisit site

Perplexity AI

AI answer engine and search APIs for people and developers

PaidVisit site

Choose Microsoft Copilot if…

you want a free plan to start with
you work on Windows, macOS, iOS
you're in its core audience: individuals, students

Choose Perplexity AI if…

you need an API to build on
you're in its core audience: researchers, knowledge workers

Side by side

FeatureM

Microsoft CopilotP

Perplexity AI

Pricing modelFreemiumPaid

Starting price$18/mo—

Free plan

Free trial

API

Open source

Web search—

Image generation—

PlatformsWeb, Windows, macOS, iOS, AndroidWeb, API

CategoryAI ChatbotsAI Search

CompanyMicrosoftPerplexity

Based in——

Founded—2022

Part of——

Key features

M Microsoft Copilot

Chat for brainstorming, summarizing and planning
Web-grounded answers for research
Content drafting and image generation
Researcher for in-depth research
Guided Learning study mode
Notebook for organizing projects
Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams on business plans
Pre-built agents for research and data analysis

P Perplexity AI

Answers questions using live web search
Search API with Standard and Fast Search modes
Agent API running OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and other models
Built-in tools: web, image, people and finance search
Code sandbox sessions for agents
pplx-embed embedding models
Orchestrator API with per-token billing
Decisions API that charges for input tokens only

Plans and prices

From each vendor's site. Prices change — confirm before buying.

Microsoft Copilot

FreeFree

Microsoft 365 Copilot Business (add-on)$18/user/mo billed yearly (first-year promotional price); $25.20/user/mo monthly

Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot$23.50/user/mo billed yearly; $28.20/user/mo monthly

Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot$32/user/mo billed yearly; $38.40/user/mo monthly

Perplexity AI

Search API$5.00 per 1K requests (Standard); $1.00 per 1K (Fast Search)

Agent API toolsFrom $0.50 per 1K calls

Embeddings API$0.004–$0.05 per 1M tokens

Decisions API$0.01–$0.02 per 1M input tokens

Strengths and limitations

Microsoft Copilot

Free tier available with a Microsoft account
Apps for web, Windows, Mac, iOS and Android, plus Microsoft Edge
Works inside Microsoft 365 apps on business plans

Free tier has usage limits on some capabilities
Advanced business features such as Cowork and Autopilot are billed by usage on top of the license
The $18 add-on price is a first-year promotion and requires an eligible Microsoft 365 Business plan

Perplexity AI

Published per-request and per-token API pricing
Requests rejected with a 429 error are not billed on the Orchestrator API
Access to models from several vendors through one Agent API
Decisions API output tokens are free

Search API bills successful requests even when they return no results
Per-token model rates are on separate pages rather than in the main pricing overview