Microsoft Copilot Super App Explained: Home, Code, Cowork, Agents and ChatGPT Comparison

Here's what holds up, what's still in preview, and how Copilot compares with ChatGPT now that OpenAI has its own agent features.

The short version​

• One app, many experiences. Copilot runs on the web, on Windows and Mac, and on iOS and Android. Your features depend on your account type and subscription.
• Two different Copilots. Microsoft separates the consumer Copilot (personal Microsoft account) from Microsoft 365 Copilot for work (Microsoft Entra account). The work version can reach company data, but only within your organisation's licences and permissions.
• The September redesign is mostly still in preview. Home, Code and Autopilot were announced September 25, 2026. None of them is generally available to everyone yet.
• ChatGPT isn't "just a chatbot" anymore. OpenAI's ChatGPT Work also runs multi-step tasks across connected apps, so the real difference is ecosystem and governance, not chat versus agents.

What the "super app" actually contains​

Analytics Insight lists the areas in the latest Copilot experience as Chat, Search, Agents, Notebooks, Create and Cowork. Microsoft's own Support documentation is more cautious. It says the left-hand navigation pane "may include" Chat, Library, Agents, Search and Cowork, and that feature availability varies by subscription. You can also pin agents, apps or chat conversations you use often.

So treat any list of tabs as "possible," not "guaranteed." If your pane looks thinner than a colleague's, your account type is the first thing to check.

According to Microsoft Support, here's what each kind of account gets:

To see which one you're in, look for the Work or Personal label next to your profile in the navigation pane. Microsoft also says signing in unlocks chat history, more image creation, longer conversations and longer voice sessions.

Some housekeeping for Windows users: the old "Microsoft 365 Copilot app" is now just the "Microsoft Copilot app." On Windows you get it from the Microsoft Store. To remove it on Windows 11, go to Settings > Apps > Installed apps, find Copilot, open the More options (…) menu and choose Uninstall. On Windows 10, it's Settings > Apps, then Copilot, then Uninstall.

Summary: The "super app" is one app whose contents change with your sign-in. Check your Work/Personal label before you assume a feature is missing.

Home, Code and Autopilot: announced, not yet everywhere​

The September 2026 redesign Analytics Insight mentions is Microsoft's Home, Code and Autopilot announcement. "Home" brings Chat and Cowork together in one central location. While Chat supports day-to-day work, Cowork enables users to delegate entire tasks. In Microsoft's blog post, Home also includes Office in Copilot. You can ask Copilot to draft a brief, model a budget or build a deck, and it produces a real, editable Word, Excel or PowerPoint file that your team can work on live.

Code is for building things. Code lets users create apps, dashboards, trackers and workflows using natural language. Microsoft says Code uses the same underlying technology as GitHub Copilot, runs in a sandbox and can be hosted inside your tenant. Professional developers are expected to keep using GitHub Copilot.

Autopilot used to be called Scout. Microsoft describes it as a persistent agent with its own identity, memory, computer and workspace in your tenant. It shows up in Teams, Outlook, chats, channels and documents, and you @mention it like a colleague.

The rollout details matter most. Home and Code will be rolled out gradually to the Microsoft Frontier program over the coming weeks. Autopilot will expand to Private Preview at the end of the month. TechRepublic's take: "most of Microsoft's headline features are still rolling out." Microsoft also says that "coming soon," Copilot will pick Chat, Cowork or Code for you based on your request. That's a promise, not a shipping feature.

On the consumer side, Microsoft says Code will reach Microsoft 365 Premium and Pro subscribers as a preview later this year.

Summary: Home, Code and Autopilot are real, but they're in Frontier or private preview. If you haven't seen them, nothing is broken.

Agents: what they are and how to open one​

Analytics Insight describes agents as tools that complete defined tasks rather than just answering prompts. It names Researcher, Analyst, People Agent, Workflows Agent and Learning Agent, plus custom agents built with Agent Builder and Copilot Studio. Microsoft's June Cowork announcement confirms that the Microsoft 365 Copilot user licence includes prebuilt agents like Researcher and Analyst, and custom agents built with Agent Builder.

Microsoft Support adds a key caveat: agent capabilities and availability vary by account type, subscription and organisation settings. With a work or school account, agents can also connect to your organisation's knowledge and data sources.

To try an agent (steps from Microsoft Support):

1. Open the Microsoft Copilot app.
2. In the navigation pane, find Agents and expand the chevron to see pre-installed agents, or select All agents to browse the Agent Store.
3. Select an agent. If you're in the Agent Store, choose Add or Open.
4. Pick a suggested prompt or type a request in the Message Copilot box.

To share an agent: hover over it in the left pane (or find it under All agents), select More (…), then Share. A link is copied for you to send.

If you can't find Agents or a specific agent, check three things first: your account type, your licence, and whether your admin has enabled it. Microsoft lists those as the reasons availability varies.

Notebooks: a scoped workspace, not a search of everything​

Notebooks get the least attention but are among the most practical features. Microsoft Support describes a notebook as a scoped workspace. You add specific references (Word, PowerPoint and Excel files, PDFs, Copilot pages, Loop files, OneNote content and web URLs), and Copilot answers using only those. Microsoft says notebooks don't look at your whole OneDrive, email, Teams chats or the web.

Limits worth knowing:

• 300-file grounding cap. If you add a SharePoint folder or site, Copilot picks up to 300 relevant files you can access. To make sure a particular file is used, add it directly.
• No charts or images inside a notebook.
• Deleting is permanent for now. A recycle bin for notebooks is still in development.
• Licensing. Work accounts need a SharePoint or OneDrive service plan to create notebooks. Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, Premium and Pro subscribers also get them.

Cowork: delegation, with a bill attached​

Cowork is where the "agentic" talk becomes concrete. Microsoft Support says Cowork can create and edit Office files and PDFs, draft and send email, manage your calendar, manage OneDrive files, research across sources and run prompts on a schedule. Sensitive actions need your approval. For tasks in a browser, you can watch the task run, stop it at any time, or take over.

Status depends on your account:

• Work or school: generally available. You need a Microsoft Copilot licence, Cowork enabled in your environment, and usage-based billing turned on.
• Personal: in preview. You need an eligible Microsoft 365 subscription. Microsoft says existing Copilot Tasks on personal accounts will move to Cowork automatically.

For IT, cost is the big issue. A user subscription license covers Copilot in Chat, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams, while usage-based billing applies to Cowork, Code, Autopilot and long-running agentic capabilities. Microsoft's June post says each Cowork task is priced in Copilot Credits based on model use, context retrieval, tool calls and runtime. Pay-as-you-go costs $0.01 per credit. Cowork is off by default, and admins can set spending limits for the whole tenant, for groups and for individual users.

Microsoft also claims Copilot Cowork was on average 30–40% cheaper per prompt than Claude Cowork using its Microsoft 365 connector. Keep in mind that this came from Microsoft's own testing: 125 runs across 12 prompts. It is not an independent benchmark.

Microsoft says Cowork content stays under existing Microsoft 365 controls: sensitivity labels, audit logs, eDiscovery and Insider Risk Management. In that June announcement, Data Loss Prevention was still listed as "coming soon."

Summary: Cowork is ready for work tenants but costs extra per use. Set budgets before rollout, not after the first invoice.

Copilot vs. ChatGPT: a fair comparison​

Analytics Insight says the difference is "largely about ecosystem and workflow." That's the right framing. The tired version, where Copilot does real work and ChatGPT only chats, no longer holds.

OpenAI's ChatGPT Work announcement describes an agent that can work across your apps and files for hours. It can produce documents, spreadsheets, slides and web apps (Sites), and run Scheduled Tasks while you're away. Its plugins cover Slack, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Google Drive, email, calendars and CRMs. Yes, ChatGPT can read your SharePoint content too. The desktop app combines Chat, Work and Codex on every plan, including Free. On web and mobile, Work rolled out first to Pro, Enterprise and Edu, then to Plus and Business.

Which one should you choose? If your company already runs on Entra, SharePoint and Teams, and your compliance team relies on Purview, Copilot's main advantage is that it sits inside the security boundary you already manage. If your team splits time between Google Workspace, Slack and Microsoft 365, ChatGPT's cross-platform reach is a fair argument. Either way, compare a specific plan, account type, region and rollout stage. "Copilot vs. ChatGPT" in general doesn't tell you much.

The bottom line​

Calling Copilot a "super app" makes sense if you read it as "one front door with many rooms, several still being built." For Windows users and admins, the useful facts are concrete:

• Your account type decides what you see.
• Notebooks only use the files you add (up to 300).
• Cowork costs money every time someone uses it.
• Home, Code and Autopilot are preview features as of this writing.

Plan your rollout around what's actually shipped, and treat "coming soon" as a roadmap item.