If you're choosing an AI for your work computer, this is the real fight. Both bolt onto productivity suites. Your choice should follow whichever suite your employer already pays for.
Follow your office suite. Google Workspace → Gemini AI Pro ($19.99/mo). Microsoft 365 → Copilot (free basic chat, or the full Office bundle via Microsoft 365 Premium at $16.67/mo, billed $199.99/year). Don't fight your employer's stack.
By Google. Full Gemini profile →
By Microsoft. Full Copilot profile →
Best for: Google ecosystem users, video generation, very long documents (1M tokens)
Weakness: Quality lags ChatGPT/Claude on hard reasoning; UI changes constantly
From $0 (free)/mo. Top tier: $199.99/mo.
Best for: Excel data, Word drafting, PowerPoint decks, Outlook triage
Weakness: Pro plan is half-useful without an M365 subscription on top
From $0 (free)/mo. Top tier: $16.67/mo.
Pick Gemini AI Pro if you live in Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and Drive. Better at long-form drafting, summarizing email threads, and Veo video generation.
Pick Microsoft 365 Premium if your team is on Microsoft 365. Excel formula generation, Outlook triage, and PowerPoint drafting are best-in-class, and it now bundles the Copilot AI features that used to require a separate Copilot Pro subscription (discontinued for new signups in 2026).
Don't fight your employer's stack. Use whichever AI is glued to the suite you already pay for.
Inside Microsoft Office, yes — Excel formula generation, Outlook triage, and PowerPoint drafting are best-in-class. Everywhere else Gemini is the stronger and more multimodal assistant. The deciding factor is which suite you already use.
The bundles change the math. Microsoft 365 Premium is $16.67/mo (billed $199.99/year) and includes premium Copilot plus full Office and 1 TB OneDrive — Microsoft's standalone Copilot Pro plan was discontinued for new subscribers in 2026, so this bundle is now the main paid path to Office-integrated Copilot. Gemini AI Pro is $19.99/mo, with a cheap $4.99 AI Plus tier below it.
Yes — basic Copilot chat is free in Windows, Edge, and the mobile apps. But new subscribers can no longer buy a standalone Copilot Pro plan; the Office-integrated Copilot features now come bundled into Microsoft 365 Premium.