Microsoft Adds Subscription Tier That Combines AI and Productivity Tools

A new Microsoft 365 subscription tier for individuals brings together Microsoft’s artificial intelligence (AI) and productivity tools.

The Microsoft 365 Premium tier combines everything that is included in the Microsoft 365 Family and Copilot Pro subscriptions, together with the highest usage limits offered by the company, for $19.99 per month, according to a Wednesday (Oct. 1) blog post.

The offerings include the Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook desktop apps with Copilot built in; access to the reasoning agents Researcher and Analyst; and the highest usage limits for select features like 4o image generation, the post said.

In addition, Microsoft will no longer sell Copilot Pro and recommends that subscribers to that service switch to Microsoft 365 Premium, per the post.

Customers had asked for the convenience of a single subscription that includes AI and productivity tools, Yusuf Mehdi, executive vice president and consumer chief marketing officer at Microsoft, said in the post.

“This new subscription was built specifically for any individual looking to tackle the most demanding productivity tasks, from conducting deep research into a new business idea to nailing an important presentation at work,” Mehdi said of Microsoft 365 Premium.

Mehdi also said in the post that Microsoft is bringing Copilot Chat into Microsoft 365 apps for individual subscribers, making it easier for individuals to take Microsoft 365 Copilot to work in a secure way, and bringing its Frontier program to individual subscribers so they can access experimental Copilot features in Microsoft 365 apps.

Bloomberg reported Wednesday that by combining the AI and productivity subscriptions, Microsoft is positioning that package to better compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

While the two companies are partners, they are increasingly in competition, with Microsoft pushing its personal Copilot app and OpenAI targeting the business market, according to the report.

Citing an interview with Mehdi, Bloomberg reported that Microsoft 365 has almost 90 million individual subscribers.

Microsoft and OpenAI said on Sept. 11, in a joint statement, that they are getting close to an agreement on the future of their partnership.

On Sept. 24, it was reported that Microsoft has begun using more AI technology from OpenAI competitor Anthropic.