ChatGPT vs. Copilot: Which AI Should You Use?

Professionals around the world need efficient ways to connect with clients and automate mundane tasks. Several generative AI tools, powered by machine learning (ML) technology, have separated themselves from the rest of the market for their ease of use and ability to increase work quality and productivity while saving time. 

Strategically implementing artificial intelligence (AI) into your workflow can increase output and help improve efficiencies. What still needs to be answered, however, is which are the best AI platforms to choose in a market that's still seeing explosive growth.

In this article, we'll examine two of the most popular generative AI platforms, ChatGPT vs. Copilot (not to be confused with GitHub Copilot), to help you make an informed decision.

What is ChatGPT?

Launched in 2022, ChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot specifically built for natural language applications. Unlike rules-based chatbots that generate rigid and scripted responses, ChatGPT can generate unique responses that are relevant to a series of user queries. Developed by OpenAI, the system is built from a large language model trained on a vast dataset, allowing for sophisticated interactions.

ChatGPT could be useful to many independent professionals, as well as companies of every size, that are looking for ways to increase productivity and streamline workflows. Its ability to have conversational interactions through natural language inputs means it's easy to learn to use. And the quantity of data it was trained on means it's useful in many industries.

Freelancers and businesses alike can use ChatGPT to automate repetitive or mundane tasks, such as creating email templates or generating basic code. ChatGPT can also be used to kickstart brainstorming sessions, create rough outlines for new articles, and much more.

The technology continues to improve, and OpenAI has developed language-learning models (LLMs) that can be used to create advanced chatbots and language interaction systems. The company has also introduced different versions of ChatGPT. Its subscription plan, ChatGPT Plus, provides access to the latest ChatGPT-4o model and Deep Research functionality, which can offer significant advantages over the free version of ChatGPT.

However, with the recent rollout of GPT-4o, many of the advantages previously only available to paid ChatGPT Plus subscribers are now available to free users, including access to custom GPT bots and advanced data analysis tools.

Depending on your needs, a subscription may still be worth the cost. ChatGPT Plus users benefit from a higher usage limit, early access to new features, and the ability to create images (using OpenAI's DALL-E image generator), interactive charts, and tables.

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What is Microsoft Copilot?

Launched in 2023, Microsoft Copilot provides users with interactive and conversational experiences while integrating seamlessly with Microsoft's suite of services. Copilot isn't a standalone large language model, but was built on the foundation of OpenAI's ChatGPT-4, fine-tuned by Microsoft for specific functionalities, and named Prometheus.

The platform enables Microsoft's Bot Framework, a suite of libraries and AI tools for building, testing, and deploying software. This framework also ensures developers can integrate Copilot with many of Microsoft's services, including Microsoft Teams, Azure, and Power Virtual Agents.

Copilot harnesses Microsoft's vast knowledge base and search engine capabilities to offer users comprehensive, relatively accurate information. It uses advanced natural language processing (NLP) to analyze and process user queries before providing relevant responses.

Like ChatGPT, Copilot is available in free and paid versions. While both versions offer access to a powerful AI assistant, their individual features cater to different user needs.

The three AI tools under the Copilot umbrella are:

• Copilot. This standalone AI chatbot is similar to ChatGPT, offering text generation and web information retrieval with Bing integration.
• Copilot Pro. This paid subscription offers a standalone version with enhanced capabilities compared to the free tier, including increased access to GPT-4 (OpenAI's large language model) and additional features like custom instructions and advanced data analysis.
• Microsoft 365 Copilot. This paid subscription service integrates directly with the Microsoft 365 suite of applications (Word, Excel, OneNote, etc.). By leveraging user data from Microsoft Graph (emails, documents, etc.), Copilot 365 personalizes the experience and offers features like context-relevant suggestions, automated tasks, and data analysis. It even generates images and handles voice searches, making it a versatile business tool within the Microsoft ecosystem.

The free version (Copilot) is a good option for casual users who don't need Microsoft 365 integration and have modest image generation needs (this functionality can vary with the free version). The paid version ($20 per user per month) is ideal for those who heavily rely on Microsoft 365, need to generate a lot of images, or want to create custom chatbots.

Copilot Vision and real-time insights

Copilot now includes Vision, a feature that analyzes live camera feeds or screenshots on Edge, desktop, and mobile. Whether you're facing a complex diagram, handwritten notes, or screenshots, Copilot Vision offers immediate assistance, making it ideal for on-the-fly problem-solving.

A Word of Caution

Users should also be aware of AI hallucinations—instances in which AI models, including ChatGPT and Copilot, generate fabricated information that appears factual and authoritative. This phenomenon raises concerns about the potential for AI systems to disseminate misinformation or deceive users by presenting fabricated information as if it were true.

Both ChatGPT and Copilot are powerful tools with a wide range of practical applications. Once you understand their strengths, you can start using them to save time and boost productivity.

What can you do with ChatGPT and Copilot?

As AI chatbots, ChatGPT and Copilot support a wide range of functionalities. They can help users with tasks like answering research questions, providing recommendations, offering customer support, and facilitating transactions.

Their chatbot functions maintain a user-friendly and personalized experience by processing context, user preferences, and historical interactions. They're also great for creating summaries and simplifying complex topics, which can streamline how you learn. Just be sure not to use them as a single source of truth; they are aids to learning, but their propensity for hallucinating means they should be treated only as supplements.

Both tools also make great coding assistants. Programmers can use Copilot's and ChatGPT's APIs to perform a number of coding tasks using a variety of programming languages, such as Python, and integrate advanced AI capabilities into their applications.

In the following sections, we discuss some ways users have successfully implemented ChatGPT and Copilot into their workflows.

Customer support

Integrating ChatGPT or Copilot into your customer support systems can help you provide support information, troubleshoot common problems, and offer guidance in a conversational manner. Based on how you set up your systems, they can escalate complex issues to human agents when necessary.‍

Information retrieval

ChatGPT excels at generating conversational responses, and the fact that it can now access the web means it can provide more detailed explanations, help answer factual questions, and provide insights on a wide range of topics. Similarly, Copilot can be helpful when researching topics to find essential resources from various web pages, which often requires less time than traditional search.‍

That being said, the summaries of research that both ChatGPT and Copilot give can be factually inaccurate. An efficient way to use AI for research is to ask the AI for sources, and then to click the link to the source to verify the information. It's more efficient than clicking through results pages from traditional search engines, but is less than perfect.

Excel and data analysis enhancements

Both ChatGPT and Copilot now support deep integration with Microsoft Excel, helping users generate formulas, summarize datasets, and visualize trends. Copilot for Microsoft 365 can directly connect to your spreadsheet, auto-suggest pivot tables, and create charts. Meanwhile, ChatGPT can craft Excel-compatible scripts or SQL queries via prompt.

Marketing and sales

Both ChatGPT and Copilot are useful for creating rough drafts of emails, sales pitches, marketing copy, and conversational scripts. These tools can also generate images, which means marketing teams can use them to get inspiration for their product and marketing designs.

Language translation

As chatbots, Copilot and ChatGPT were both trained using data that included a number of languages, allowing them to help with language translation. Users can input text in one language and receive a translated version in real time.

Key differences: ChatGPT vs. Copilot

The following section provides an in-depth overview of the key differences between ChatGPT and its alternative, Copilot.

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Real‑world ROI and productivity gains

A recent UK study highlighted by Barron's found Microsoft 365 Copilot users saved on average 26 minutes per day by automating repetitive tasks like drafting emails, summarizing information, and researching content. At scale, this improvement translates to over 100 hours saved annually per user, potentially yielding tens of thousands of dollars in productivity gains for businesses. Embedding these tools into everyday workflows is more than just convenient; it's quantifiably efficient.

Use cases: ChatGPT vs. Copilot

While both ChatGPT and Copilot are popular, which you use should depend on the specific features you want (especially when building your online customer service operations).

Let's take a look at the performance, user experience, security features, and task specificity of each chatbot to help you decide which would best fit your organization.

Performance and accuracy

If you value the most advanced features, free (limited) access to a powerful model (GPT-4o), and widespread popularity, then ChatGPT might be the better option. However, its free version has limitations.

Copilot offers a completely free way to access GPT-4 but with limitations on responses and prompts. It shines in visual features and information retrieval from the web. However, its user interface is less sleek, and it might stall or miss prompts compared to ChatGPT.

Overall, for the most advanced capabilities and a user-friendly interface, especially if you're willing to pay for a Plus subscription, ChatGPT seems to have the edge in overall performance. However, if you prioritize completely free access to GPT-4 and don't mind limitations or a less polished interface, Copilot could be a viable choice.

Regarding information accuracy, both platforms can access the web and can often give sources for statements and claims made in their output. However, the accuracy of the information ultimately depends on the quality of the search results retrieved, the quality of the prompt used to generate the output, and whether or not the AI has fallen into an AI hallucination.

AI hallucinations are instances in which the algorithm generates an output that is fabricated, but stated authoritatively, and might even include plausible, but fictitious, citations. These hallucinations partly result from the fact that these models are trained to give the output that their algorithms predict is most likely to be accepted by the user. Sometimes, the algorithm weights a fiction over reality.

If accuracy and factuality are needed, users should ask the AI for sources, read them well enough to verify the accuracy of the AI's output, and adjust the chatbot's output as needed.

User experience and conversational abilities

Both Microsoft's Copilot and OpenAI's ChatGPT provide an excellent user experience, as they are both easy to use. Because of its integration with other highly popular Microsoft applications, Copilot may provide a better user experience than ChatGPT for some users, but you may need the paid version for these results.

Compliance and security

Both ChatGPT and Copilot offer features designed to protect user data, but no system is entirely foolproof. Data breaches and unauthorized access are potential risks associated with storing any information electronically, including within AI platforms. Users should exercise caution when sharing personal or proprietary information with any AI tool or chatbot.

Task needs

Choosing between ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot depends largely on the specific tasks you need to accomplish.

ChatGPT

• Customer engagement. ChatGPT is ideal if your focus is to build long-term relationships with customers through excellent customer support service. It's designed for ongoing conversations and deep customer engagement.
• Creative content. ChatGPT's versatility in content creation and language generation makes it a strong choice if your tasks involve generating creative content, such as marketing materials, social media posts, or detailed responses.
• Customization. For developers needing a highly customizable AI assistant that can be fine-tuned for specific applications, ChatGPT's API and open-source platform provide significant flexibility.

Microsoft Copilot

• Free version: Strong for quick research. Copilot's free tier provides solid performance for fact-based tasks, such as summarizing articles, answering straightforward questions, and linking to sources, often with a greater emphasis on accuracy than creativity.
• Paid subscription: Best for Microsoft 365 users. If you're already working within the Microsoft ecosystem, Copilot for Microsoft 365 offers deep integration with apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. This enables time-saving automation for tasks like email drafting, report writing, and data analysis, though it requires a paid subscription.

To summarize, ChatGPT is the better choice for tasks requiring conversational experiences, creativity, and customization. Microsoft Copilot is ideal for task-specific needs within the Microsoft ecosystem, focusing on productivity and efficient information handling. However, these features that set Copilot apart from ChatGPT may require one of their paid subscription tiers, whereas ChatGPT offers many features for free.

Beyond ChatGPT and Copilot: More AI competitors

While ChatGPT and Copilot lead the market, the AI assistant ecosystem has grown vibrant and diverse:

• Gemini (Google). Offers multimodal queries and tight integration across Google Workspace.
• Perplexity AI. Specializes in fact-based Q&A with transparent source citations, great for research.
• Anthropic's Claude. Focuses on safe and ethical AI with strong language understanding.
• LLaMA-based custom agents. Open-source friendliness allows developers to fine-tune and deploy tailored bots.

These options offer unique value propositions for anyone building an AI-powered workflow.

What's Next for AI Tools Like ChatGPT and Copilot?

We're seeing early signs of a shift toward hybrid workflows, where tools like ChatGPT and Copilot don't compete but complement one another. 

For example, you might use Copilot to gather live insights from your Microsoft 365 environment, then pass that structured data to a custom GPT bot to generate summaries, visualizations, or next-step recommendations. This kind of interoperability will likely become more common as platforms continue opening up their ecosystems.

We're also seeing a broader industry move toward usage-based pricing models. Both OpenAI and Microsoft are beginning to treat AI as core infrastructure, offering credit-based and tiered plans that reflect enterprise-level expectations. These models help businesses scale more intelligently, paying only for what they use, and making it easier to calculate ROI from AI adoption.

Take advantage of AI with Upwork

AI is here to stay. Considering its ability to produce quality output, reduce operational time, and automate rote tasks, businesses have increasingly adopted AI solutions in their product and content production cycle.

ChatGPT and Copilot are revolutionizing how we interact with computers and are creating exciting new opportunities for businesses to automate tasks, generate content, analyze data, support customers, and accelerate decision-making across teams.

If you're looking to integrate an AI tool into your business workflows, visit Upwork to hire an AI engineer. 

And if you're an AI professional, Upwork can help you connect with businesses offering freelance AI positions.

FAQs

Understanding these AI tools also means addressing important security and privacy concerns. In the following sections, we answer some common questions and give expert-backed answers.

What data do these AI tools retain?

Both ChatGPT and Copilot may log interactions to improve models, but both OpenAI and Microsoft provide increased privacy for enterprise plans. Under these plans, sensitive client data isn't used to retrain public models unless explicitly opted in by organizations. Always check your enterprise contract's data handling terms.

Is my confidential information secure?

Both services support encryption in transit and at rest. Microsoft 365 Copilot inherits your organization's compliance controls like DLP and eDiscovery. For ChatGPT, enterprise tiers offer advanced security settings, including VPC deployments and restricted training data usage.

Can AI tools expose client or proprietary info?

Risks are minimized when using enterprise-grade plans. Copilot does not share usage data across tenants. ChatGPT's higher tiers offer data segregation and Off‑the‑Record modes to prevent usage in model training. In other plans, information you give the AI may be used for training purposes, and could potentially be exposed to the public.

How do I control AI assistant outputs?

Both platforms allow prompt refinement, custom instructions, and fine-tuned guardrails. Copilot for Microsoft 365 includes admin-level controls such as prompt auditing. Custom GPT developers can include filters or log inspections before deploying externally.

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Upwork is not affiliated with and does not sponsor or endorse any of the tools or services discussed in this article. These tools and services are provided only as potential options, and each reader and company should take the time needed to adequately analyze and determine the tools or services that would best fit their specific needs and situation. 

Prices are current at the time of writing and may change over time based on each service's offerings.