ChatGPT vs Microsoft Copilot (2026): Which Is Better?

The two share history, since Microsoft has built Copilot on OpenAI models, but they are sold in different ways. OpenAI sells ChatGPT as the product. Microsoft sells Microsoft 365, and Copilot is what you get inside it. That difference decides which one is worth your money in India.

The free plans

Both are free to start. OpenAI's free tier FAQ says free users "have unlimited everyday text chats", with separate limits on file uploads, images, voice and data analysis. Microsoft's Copilot app needs no sign-in for basic chat; signing in with a personal Microsoft account adds chat history, image creation, longer conversations and voice. Microsoft doesn't publish the free limits as numbers. Its Edge FAQ says that when you hit one, you can upgrade or come back later, and that people using Copilot in Edge or the Windows app "may benefit from a higher free usage allowance."

For a student or a casual user who mostly types questions, either free plan works. ChatGPT's is easier to judge because OpenAI says what's unlimited and what isn't.

What paying costs in India

Plan	Price in India	What it adds
ChatGPT Go	₹399 a month	More images, uploads and memory; 3 hours of voice a day
ChatGPT Plus	₹1,999 a month	Advanced reasoning, deep research, priority access, no ads
Microsoft 365 Personal	₹689 a month or ₹6,899 a year	Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote; more chat and images than free
Microsoft 365 Family	₹819 a month or ₹8,199 a year	Same, for up to 6 people, but the AI features are for the owner only
Microsoft 365 Premium	₹1,999 a month or ₹19,999 a year	Extensive Copilot use, plus research and analysis agents

Sources: Microsoft's India store, prices including GST, read 2 November 2026; ChatGPT's pricing page as seen from India on 24 October 2026. Our ChatGPT Go vs Plus guide breaks down the two OpenAI plans.

Two details change the maths. Microsoft sells yearly plans that cost about 17% less than twelve monthly payments, while ChatGPT bills monthly only. And Microsoft 365 Family covers six people for the apps and storage, but Microsoft says its "AI benefits are only available to the subscription owner and cannot be shared with others."

If your day runs in Word, Excel and Outlook

This is where Copilot earns its price. Microsoft says owners of Personal, Family and Premium get Copilot inside the desktop apps: drafting in Word, working through a spreadsheet in Excel, building slides in PowerPoint and summarising email threads in Outlook. ChatGPT can do the writing too, but you copy text in and out of its own window.

The research and analysis agents, which Microsoft calls Researcher and Analyst, are listed as "Not available" on Personal and Family. They start at Premium, which costs the same ₹1,999 a month as ChatGPT Plus, or ₹19,999 a year. Microsoft also offers one month of Premium free, so you can test it on your real documents before paying.

If you want the best assistant on its own

ChatGPT is the stronger product as a chatbot, and we rate it 4.7 against Copilot's 4.0. Go at ₹399 a month is the cheapest paid AI plan here, and OpenAI lists UPI as a payment method for Go and Plus. The catch is ads: OpenAI says they may appear on Free and Go, and only Plus and higher are ad-free.

If you're still on the free Go year from 2025, our guide to what happens when the ChatGPT Go free offer ends explains the renewal.

Neither works on WhatsApp in India now

Both assistants left WhatsApp on 15 January 2026. Microsoft said the change was "due to recent updates to WhatsApp's platform policies prohibiting all LLM chatbots", and that Copilot could not move WhatsApp chat history to its other apps. OpenAI brought ChatGPT back to WhatsApp in the European Economic Area in July 2026, where Meta is legally required to allow it, but India isn't on Meta's list of exceptions. OpenAI says access depends on the country code of your WhatsApp number, so it won't work with an Indian +91 number, whatever number gets shared in groups.

Which model is behind Copilot?

Microsoft doesn't say for the free app. It announced GPT-5 in Copilot in August 2025, and its AI team has since said it will "use the very best models from our team, our partners, and the latest innovations from the open-source community". So treat Copilot as its own product rather than ChatGPT under another name, and judge it on what it does in your apps. For more options, our ChatGPT alternatives page covers the rest of the field.