What It Means That Microsoft Is Merging Copilot, Agents and Office Into One App to Compete With Anthropic — September 25, 2026
· CompaniesAutomation
Edición flash del Radar: Microsoft junta chat, agentes, programación y Office en una nueva app de Copilot para competir con Anthropic, y los agentes pasan a pago por uso. Qué cambia en tu factura.
Flash Edition. Microsoft today unveiled a new Copilot app that brings together chat, agents, programming, and Office in one place to regain ground against Anthropic. For the rest of the day, see today's Radar.
What happened
The app has three parts, according to the official Microsoft blog. Home combines chat with Cowork, its agent for long-running tasks, and embeds full versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Code builds applications, dashboards, and automations from a description and hosts them within the company's Microsoft 365 environment. Autopilot is a persistent agent that keeps working when you're away: monitoring channels and chasing answers.
The underlying change is in the billing. Chat and Copilot within Office remain under a per-user license ($30 per month in Microsoft 365 Copilot); Cowork, Code, Autopilot, and flagship models—OpenAI's Astra and Anthropic's Fable—are moving to pay-per-use, with no published rates for Code or Autopilot (VentureBeat). Home and Code will arrive in the coming weeks for the Frontier early access program, and Autopilot enters private preview at the end of the month; there is no general availability date (Fortune).
Why it matters
As of July, Microsoft had 30 million paid Copilot licenses, about 7% of its 450 million commercial seats (GeekWire). Anthropic merged its chat with Cowork on September 16. The paradox: Microsoft is competing with Anthropic while reselling its models. The battle is no longer the model; it's where work happens and how it's charged. Jared Spataro, its head of AI marketing, sums it up: there are "two kinds of AI at work" and they "call for two very different ways of paying". And Jacob Andreou, who leads Copilot, admits that the autonomy that makes an agent great is "the same thing that makes them absolutely terrifying to an IT admin".
For your company
If you work on Microsoft 365, the part that does the actual work will be the one without a fixed price. Before activating it:
- Set caps before the pilot. Agent 365 allows you to set spending policies and define which model families each group uses. Configure this on day one, not after the first invoice.
- Measure the cost per task. Pick a process, run a two-week pilot, and compare the credits consumed with what it costs to do it manually. Without that number, pay-per-use is a blank check.
- Decide who publishes apps. Code turns anyone into a developer within your Microsoft 365. Define who can share what they build and who is responsible for its data.
On the AI First ladder, Autopilot is the unattended rung: you only climb it with the budget and permissions written in advance.
FAQ
How much will the new Copilot app cost?
The license remains at $30 per user per month; agents are charged in Copilot credits, with no published rates for Code or Autopilot.
When will it arrive at my company?
First to the Frontier program in the coming weeks; Autopilot is in private preview. Code will reach Microsoft 365 Premium and Pro subscribers before the end of the year.
Do I have to choose between Copilot and Claude?
Not necessarily: Copilot already offers Anthropic and OpenAI models within the app. The decision is where your files live and who controls the spending.
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