Copilot Chat without a licence: Search, Notebooks and Create

Every Microsoft 365 user in an organisation has Copilot Chat, but the Basic label shown under their name hides concrete gaps: no extended Work IQ, no Researcher or Analyst, and no Copilot Chat in Word, Excel, PowerPoint or OneNote. This article maps what Chat, Search, Notebooks and Create cover without an additional licence. It also provides a Microsoft Graph PowerShell script to find out who in your tenant falls into which tier.

What Copilot Chat covers without a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence

Without an additional licence, the user gets Copilot Chat with standard model access, but without broad grounding on work data. According to Microsoft's support page on Copilot Chat with and without a licence, reasoning over work data (Work IQ) is limited to uploaded files. Advanced agents (Researcher, Analyst, custom agents) remain reserved for licensed users.

To place these experiences within the full product range, see our Copilot, Co-work, Scout, MCP guide.

All of this is found in the standalone Copilot app, which gives access to Chat, Search, Agents (if enabled), Notebooks and Create. An unlicensed user can pin or unpin Copilot Chat, only with a Microsoft Entra account.

Chat and Search: limited grounding, useful agents, classic search

Grounding a conversation on your content

The Add content button in the input box is the right starting point. It lets you ground the conversation on files, Copilot pages or Loop pages the user has access to. A test on a SharePoint list tracking incidents worked without a licence; this behaviour is not documented in the pages consulted, so validate it in your own environment before promising it.

Teams meetings are not directly accessible. Workaround: a licensed colleague enables the Facilitator agent during the meeting, and the notes produced land in a Loop page that the unlicensed participant can then add to their conversation.

In Outlook (new Outlook and Outlook on the web), the situation is richer than a simple free usage. The Copilot Chat overview on Microsoft Learn states that Copilot Chat gives eligible unlicensed users additional organisational grounding: emails, calendar, meetings, chats and a bounded set of files. Outside Outlook, broad grounding via Work IQ does not exist without a licence. For the future of Outlook, see our article on Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 3 and agentic experiences in Outlook.

Prompt Coach: better prompts without a licence

The Prompt Coach agent is available in the section of agents built by Microsoft, alongside Career Coach, Idea Coach and Writing Coach. It applies prompt-writing best practices on your behalf. Here is a pattern that works well:

Images: design options and editing

Rather than describing an image in free text, the generation panel offers design options:

• the type of visual (icon, image series, infographic);
• the format and orientation;
• a style (cyberpunk, pixel art…);
• a brand kit, absent from the unlicensed account tested.

Editing lets you select an object or a person and remove it; the background is rebuilt using Microsoft Designer tools. The result can remain inconsistent, and the same prompt produces a different image each time it runs.

Search: keywords, preview and starter prompts

Without a licence, Search remains a keyword search: no natural-language prompt and no written answer mixed in with the results. But the star icon on a result opens an extended preview: creator, last modifier, total views, weekly views, file preview and starter prompts. Clicking a prompt opens Copilot Chat, limited to that file.

This preview helps pick the right copy when data exists in several versions, which is hard to see from Chat. The library now groups AI-generated files, in addition to images and Copilot pages.

Notebooks for Copilot Chat: what is open, what is not

Since June 2026, Copilot Notebooks is rolling out to Copilot Chat users (business and education), according to the announcement What's New in Notebooks | June 2026. Until then, the feature was reserved for Microsoft 365 Copilot users. These new users have a limited number of sources per notebook, standard sources only and standard chat access. For commercial Copilot Chat (Basic) customers, only Notebooks in OneNote on the web are available for now.

The prerequisites, according to the Notebooks support FAQ:

• the account must have a SharePoint or OneDrive service plan;
• Loop is not required;
• in a mixed-licence team, everyone collaborates in the same notebook;
• only Microsoft 365 Copilot users add premium sources.

With an unlicensed account, typical sources are SharePoint and OneDrive documents, emails via Outlook and personal chats. A web page can also be added by link. Teams meetings are missing, for lack of full Work IQ. Outputs (infographic, mind map) are generated only from the notebook's sources.

Two operational pitfalls. First, a mind map or infographic is a snapshot: after adding sources, regenerate it, as the update is not automatic. Second, in the OneNote experience, an unlicensed account does not see the options to create Word, PowerPoint or Excel files, and no audio overview appeared during testing. The Notebooks interface changes often (for example, recommended references have been moved): check the screenshots in your materials.

Create: files, images and video without Office agents

On an unlicensed account, Create produces documents by generating Python code: the file (Office or PDF, or even a code file) is downloaded and placed in OneDrive. The formatting stays plain, with no brand identity; this is not the more polished agentic experience of the Word, PowerPoint and Excel agents, which is reserved for licensed users.

The worthwhile use cases start from existing content:

• turning notes into a structured document;
• translating a set of notes;
• converting a Word brief into a starter PowerPoint presentation.

Create also offers posters, banners, forms, Copilot page drafts and Office templates. Video generation with Sora 2 has been removed: video creation now relies on stock images with AI voice-over, and takes time. Brand kits also did not appear for the unlicensed account observed; test with a pilot account.

A governance point: the Copilot app lets you switch between work and personal accounts. Always work with the work account whenever work data is involved, so that enterprise data protection applies.

Implementation: finding who has no Copilot licence

Before communicating about Notebooks or Create, you need to know how many users fall into the Basic tier. This read-only script exports, for each enabled member account, the presence or absence of the chosen Copilot SKU. It changes nothing, so no simulation mode is needed.

• Modules: Microsoft.Graph.Users and Microsoft.Graph.Identity.DirectoryManagement.
• Minimum delegated permissions: User.Read.All and Organization.Read.All. A read role such as Global Reader is generally sufficient.
• Output: a CSV file and a summary by tier in the console.

1Install-Module -Name Microsoft.Graph.Users -Scope CurrentUser -Repository PSGallery
2Install-Module -Name Microsoft.Graph.Identity.DirectoryManagement -Scope CurrentUser -Repository PSGallery

Save the script as Get-CopilotLicenceAudit.ps1.

1#Requires -Modules Microsoft.Graph.Users, Microsoft.Graph.Identity.DirectoryManagement
2[CmdletBinding()]
3param(
4    # Technical name of the tenant's Copilot SKU (discover it by running the script without parameters)
5    [string]$SkuPartNumber,
6    [string]$OutputPath = '.\audit-licences-copilot.csv'
7)
8 
9# Connect with read-only permissions
10Connect-MgGraph -Scopes 'User.Read.All', 'Organization.Read.All' -NoWelcome
11 
12# Inventory of SKUs whose technical name contains Copilot
13$copilotSkus = Get-MgSubscribedSku | Where-Object { $_.SkuPartNumber -like '*Copilot*' }
14 
15if (-not $SkuPartNumber) {
16    $copilotSkus |
17        Select-Object SkuPartNumber, SkuId, ConsumedUnits, @{ Name = 'Achetees'; Expression = { $_.PrepaidUnits.Enabled } } |
18        Format-Table -AutoSize
19    Write-Host 'Relancez le script avec -SkuPartNumber suivi de la valeur choisie.'
20    Disconnect-MgGraph | Out-Null
21    return
22}
23 
24$sku = $copilotSkus | Where-Object { $_.SkuPartNumber -eq $SkuPartNumber }
25if (-not $sku) { throw ('SKU introuvable : {0}' -f $SkuPartNumber) }
26 
27# Read accounts with their assigned licences
28$users = Get-MgUser -All -Property 'id,displayName,userPrincipalName,accountEnabled,userType,assignedLicenses'
29 
30# Filter on enabled members, then test for the SKU
31$report = $users |
32    Where-Object { $_.AccountEnabled -and $_.UserType -eq 'Member' } |
33    ForEach-Object {
34        $hasCopilot = @($_.AssignedLicenses.SkuId) -contains $sku.SkuId
35        [pscustomobject]@{
36            UserPrincipalName = $_.UserPrincipalName
37            DisplayName       = $_.DisplayName
38            NiveauCopilot     = if ($hasCopilot) { 'Licence Microsoft 365 Copilot' } else { 'Sans licence Copilot' }
39        }
40    }
41 
42# Export and summary
43$report | Export-Csv -Path $OutputPath -NoTypeInformation -Encoding UTF8
44$report | Group-Object NiveauCopilot | Select-Object Name, Count | Format-Table -AutoSize
45Write-Host ('Export écrit dans {0}' -f $OutputPath)
46Disconnect-MgGraph | Out-Null

Run it first without parameters to list the SKUs, then with the chosen technical name:

1.\Get-CopilotLicenceAudit.ps1
2.\Get-CopilotLicenceAudit.ps1 -SkuPartNumber 'VALEUR_AFFICHEE_A_LETAPE_1'

To check the result, cross-check the CSV against the interface:

Troubleshooting: common symptoms on the Basic side

Where to start: three decisions to make

Conditional recommendation: if your users write, summarise and prepare materials from files they control, Basic access already covers most of the need. However, if their work depends on Teams meetings, Researcher, Analyst or the Word, PowerPoint and Excel agents, it is the licence that justifies the cost, not the interface.

Frequently asked questions

Can Copilot Chat without a licence read my emails?

Yes, in Outlook, for eligible users. Copilot Chat provides grounding there on emails, calendar, meetings, chats and a bounded set of files. Outside Outlook, broad grounding via Work IQ does not exist without a licence.

Do unlicensed users have access to Copilot Notebooks?

The rollout for Copilot Chat users has been under way since June 2026. Commercial Copilot Chat (Basic) customers currently only have Notebooks in OneNote on the web. The account must also have a SharePoint or OneDrive service plan.

Can a notebook be shared between licensed and unlicensed users?

Yes, everyone can collaborate in the same notebook within a mixed-licence team. However, only Microsoft 365 Copilot users can add premium sources to it.

Does the Work IQ API require a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence?

No. According to the Work IQ overview on Microsoft Learn, the API is licence-independent and billed on usage. Unlicensed users are billed on consumption, licensed users for custom or third-party agents, and the cost is managed in the Microsoft 365 admin centre.

Further reading

• How Copilot Chat works with and without a Microsoft Copilot license: the comparison table of features with and without a licence (models, Work IQ, agents).
• Overview of Microsoft Copilot Chat: Copilot Chat grounding, the Outlook case and licence labels.
• What's New in Notebooks | June 2026: the opening of Notebooks to Copilot Chat users and its limits.
• Work IQ overview: Work IQ, its APIs (A2A, MCP, REST) and usage-based billing.