Microsoft's Copilot has quietly received one of the most consequential behind-the-scenes upgrades since its rollout: the free tier now runs on OpenAI's GPT-4 Turbo, bringing a much larger context window, a fresher knowledge base, and a set of performance fixes that address earlier complaints about the model being "lazy." This change is significant because it extends capabilities once reserved for paying users to the broad base of Copilot users embedded across Windows, Microsoft 365, Edge, and mobile apps — and it reshapes what everyday users can ask of a built-in AI assistant without opening a wallet. (windowscentral.com, help.openai.com)
OpenAI introduced GPT-4 Turbo during its November DevDay rollout as a faster, cheaper, and more capable variant of GPT-4, with two headline technical improvements: a much larger context window and a more recent knowledge cutoff. Microsoft announced — via a post from Mikhail Parakhin, head of Advertising and Web Services — that Copilot's free tier has been switched to GPT-4 Turbo, while Copilot Pro subscribers can still toggle back to the older GPT-4 model if they prefer. (techrepublic.com, windowscentral.com)
The practical takeaway for users is immediate:
Important nuance: some third-party reports have suggested later, undocumented updates to GPT-4 Turbo (claims of December 2023 in certain write-ups). These reports rely on observed behavior or ephemeral documentation, but the official OpenAI help documentation and public DevDay materials list April 2023 as the formal cutoff. Where third-party claims conflict with official pages, treat the later dates as unverified unless OpenAI provides confirmation. (help.openai.com, cointelegraph.com)
If you want to check or switch models in Copilot, the general steps look like this:
At the same time, the upgrade does not remove long-standing model caveats: knowledge cutoffs still limit internal training knowledge past April 2023, hallucination risk persists, and organizational concerns around privacy and governance remain real. Rumors about next-generation Turbo models or hidden cutoff updates should be treated with caution until confirmed by OpenAI or Microsoft. For power users and enterprises, the upgrade expands possibilities while heightening the need for structured verification, governance, and clear operational policies.
For anyone who uses Copilot regularly: update your Copilot client, experiment with Creative and Precise modes, and adapt prompts to take advantage of the much larger context window — but don’t stop validating. The upgrade is a watershed moment for practical AI assistance on the desktop, but human checks and governance will still define whether the benefits are safe, accurate, and sustainable. (help.openai.com, theverge.com)
Source: Mashable Copilot gets free GPT-4 Turbo upgrade: 3 new features coming to the AI assistant
OpenAI introduced GPT-4 Turbo during its November DevDay rollout as a faster, cheaper, and more capable variant of GPT-4, with two headline technical improvements: a much larger context window and a more recent knowledge cutoff. Microsoft announced — via a post from Mikhail Parakhin, head of Advertising and Web Services — that Copilot's free tier has been switched to GPT-4 Turbo, while Copilot Pro subscribers can still toggle back to the older GPT-4 model if they prefer. (techrepublic.com, windowscentral.com)The practical takeaway for users is immediate:
- More up-to-date answers: GPT-4 Turbo carries a knowledge cutoff that is notably newer than GPT-4’s September 2021 horizon, bringing internal model training data up to April 2023. That expands the range of provably internalized facts the model can use without relying on web browsing or retrieval augmentation. (help.openai.com, wired.com)
- Huge context: GPT-4 Turbo supports a 128K-token context window (commonly expressed as roughly 300 pages of text), letting Copilot accept and reason over very long documents, multi-file codebases, and extended chats in a single prompt. That shifts Copilot use cases from quick Q&A and short snippets to full-document summarization, deep code review, and multi-step workflows. (help.openai.com, techrepublic.com)
- Performance updates: OpenAI and press reports indicate the Turbo variant has been updated to reduce instances of incomplete or lethargic responses — the so-called "laziness" problem that users reported late in the model's preview cycle. Microsoft’s rollout of GPT-4 Turbo to Copilot benefits from those OpenAI fixes. (arstechnica.com, theverge.com)
Overview: the technical specifics unpacked
Knowledge cutoff: what “April 2023” actually means
GPT models are trained on snapshots of data; the cutoff is the most recent date the training data includes. GPT-4's internal training ended in September 2021, while OpenAI's published materials and API documentation identify GPT-4 Turbo's knowledge cutoff as April 2023. That means the model can answer questions based on information and events up to that date from its internal knowledge without external searching. (help.openai.com, wired.com)Important nuance: some third-party reports have suggested later, undocumented updates to GPT-4 Turbo (claims of December 2023 in certain write-ups). These reports rely on observed behavior or ephemeral documentation, but the official OpenAI help documentation and public DevDay materials list April 2023 as the formal cutoff. Where third-party claims conflict with official pages, treat the later dates as unverified unless OpenAI provides confirmation. (help.openai.com, cointelegraph.com)
Context window: 128K tokens — what users can do with it
Tokens are the low-level units models use to represent text; 128,000 tokens is an order-of-magnitude jump over earlier consumer models. OpenAI and multiple technical reports equate that to roughly 300 pages of text, meaning Copilot can now:- Summarize or rewrite entire long-form documents in a single request
- Ingest multiple files (books, manuals, long transcripts) for analysis without stitching prompts together
- Perform extended codebase analysis or complex refactors in one context window
Behavior and “laziness” fixes
During GPT-4 Turbo’s initial preview, users noticed occasional truncated, evasive, or incomplete outputs — a pattern colloquially labeled as "laziness." OpenAI later updated preview models to reduce these failures and improve task completion (notably for code generation), and media coverage tracked those fixes. Microsoft’s adoption of GPT-4 Turbo in Copilot benefits from those improvements, but behavior still depends on prompt quality, system instructions, and model tuning — meaning not every instance will be flawless. (arstechnica.com, theverge.com)Pricing and power for developers
OpenAI designed GPT-4 Turbo to be significantly cheaper to run than vanilla GPT-4 for API customers, which helped the model proliferate across commercial products. For Microsoft, this helps justify wider distribution across free tiers while reserving newer or experimental model builds for premium subscribers when appropriate. The price differences are most relevant for organizations building on the OpenAI API rather than for end users of Copilot, but they explain why companies can afford to expand access. (help.openai.com, arstechnica.com)How Microsoft rolled it out (and how to find it in Copilot)
Microsoft’s Mikhail Parakhin announced on social channels that GPT-4 Turbo had replaced GPT-4 in the Copilot free tier, and Microsoft confirmed that free users in at least Creative mode are now served by GPT-4 Turbo; Copilot Pro customers retain a toggle to revert to the legacy GPT-4 in Creative mode. The rollout covered Copilot across platforms, including the Windows-integrated assistant, Edge, Bing-based experiences, and mobile apps over the following weeks. (windowscentral.com, gadgets360.com)If you want to check or switch models in Copilot, the general steps look like this:
- Open Copilot (Windows taskbar, Edge sidebar, or the Copilot mobile app).
- Select a conversation or create a new one.
- Choose a conversation style: Creative, Balanced, or Precise. Creative and Precise modes are the ones Microsoft cited as "almost fully" running GPT-4 Turbo; Balanced may use it in parts. (seroundtable.com, virtualizationreview.com)
- Copilot Pro users will see a model toggle (in Creative mode) to switch between GPT-4 Turbo and the older GPT-4 if they prefer the behavior of the legacy model. Free users will default to GPT-4 Turbo where available. (windowscentral.com, gadgets360.com)
What this means for typical use cases
For everyday Windows users
- Better summaries and longer-document handling: Copilot can now summarize long threads, manuals, or emails in a single prompt.
- More current responses: Questions about software releases, events, or technologies through April 2023 are more reliably handled without browsing.
- Improved creative assistance: Brainstorming, drafting, and rewriting benefit from the expanded creative context.
For developers and power users
- Code tasks scale up: Copilot can ingest multi-file projects for refactor suggestions, cross-file analysis, or architecture reviews inside a single conversation.
- Reduced friction for complex prompts: No need to manually maintain context across multiple prompts or sessions.
- Toggle control: Pro subscribers who prefer the older GPT-4 tone or pacing can still select it, preserving continuity for established workflows. (windowscentral.com, virtualizationreview.com)
For enterprises and knowledge workers
- Document workflows are simpler: Legal, compliance, and research teams can pass whole reports and datasets to Copilot for annotation, indexing, or summarization.
- Retrieval augmentation remains complementary: Even with a larger cutoff, organizations should still use secure retrieval systems (RAG) for proprietary or time-sensitive data beyond the model’s training horizon.
- Governance and auditing: Enterprises must ensure that Copilot's outputs are verified and traceable, particularly for regulated or high-stakes outputs.
Strengths: why this upgrade is strategically smart
- Democratizes advanced AI: Putting GPT-4 Turbo on the free tier widens user access to higher-quality assistance, lowering the barrier for discovery and adoption.
- Better value for Microsoft’s ecosystem: Improved Copilot performance can drive stickiness for Windows, Edge, and Microsoft 365 users, funneling power users to paid tiers for deeper integrations.
- Enables new workflows: The 128K context unlocks novel tasks (one-shot book summarization, full-codebase analysis) that previously demanded complex engineering workarounds.
- Performance and cost efficiency: For Microsoft, the cheaper-per-token profile of GPT-4 Turbo makes broad availability economically feasible while still offering superior capability to GPT-3.x-era models. (help.openai.com, arstechnica.com)
Risks and limitations: what the upgrade does not fix
- Knowledge cutoff still exists: GPT-4 Turbo’s April 2023 cutoff means the model can’t internally know about events after that date. For up-to-the-minute news or post-2023 legal or technical changes, Copilot may rely on web retrieval or be blind — treat outputs as potentially outdated for late-2023 and later events unless the assistant explicitly cites live sources. Official documentation lists April 2023 as the cutoff, and claims of later internal updates should be treated cautiously unless confirmed. (help.openai.com, cointelegraph.com)
- Hallucination risk remains: Larger context helps but does not eliminate hallucinations. When Copilot synthesizes across long documents it can still infer inaccurate facts or invent citations. Always validate important outputs, especially in legal, financial, or clinical contexts.
- Privacy and data exposure concerns: Feeding large, sensitive documents into a cloud LLM raises questions about telemetry, retention, and compliance. Organizations should use enterprise-grade connectors and on-prem controls where possible, and verify Microsoft’s data handling terms if they plan to process regulated data.
- Uneven UX across modes: Microsoft’s Mix of Creative/Balanced/Precise modes can produce different model behaviors; Balanced may still fall back to other model components in parts, producing inconsistent results unless users understand the mode mechanics. (seroundtable.com)
- Vendor lock and model availability: Microsoft’s generosity today doesn’t guarantee the same model availability forever. There is industry precedent for reserving newer models or features for paying tiers, and rumors about newer "Turbo" iterations (e.g., GPT-4.5 Turbo) being held for paid access have circulated; those claims remain speculative until vendors confirm them. Flag such rumors as unverified. (businesstoday.in, cointelegraph.com)
Practical tips: getting the best results from Copilot on GPT-4 Turbo
- Use mode selection deliberately: Choose Creative when you need ideation, Precise for technical accuracy, and Balanced for routine questions — but test the same prompt across modes to learn their behaviors. (virtualizationreview.com)
- Provide explicit system instructions: When pasting long documents, begin with a brief system note that states your objective, desired output format, and failure modes to avoid (e.g., “Do not invent citations; list only facts found in the document”).
- Validate and cite: For important outputs, ask Copilot to show the specific paragraph or sentence in the source document that supports a claim. That reduces hallucination risk and makes verification faster.
- Chunk thoughtfully even with a 128K window: While Copilot can take 300 pages, extremely long combined datasets can still confuse models. Break very large collections into logically coherent chunks (by topic, file, or time) and run targeted analyses per chunk.
- Use enterprise connectors for sensitive data: Organizations should route corporate documents through Microsoft’s enterprise interfaces and confirm retention and telemetry policies before using Copilot on regulated work.
Strategic implications for Microsoft, OpenAI, and the market
- Short-term competitive advantage: Giving free users access to deeper capabilities strengthens Microsoft’s position vs. other consumer-facing chat assistants and pushes more heavy usage into Copilot, potentially converting power users to paid tiers later. (windowscentral.com)
- Narrowing the “ChatGPT advantage”: OpenAI’s models remain the foundation, but Microsoft’s integration across OS, browser, and productivity suites creates synergies that a standalone ChatGPT web app cannot match — particularly for users who work primarily inside the Windows ecosystem.
- Product segmentation risk: Microsoft must balance broad access with incentives for Copilot Pro buyers; offering GPT-4 Turbo for free raises the bar for what Pro must deliver next — faster priority access, exclusive models, or deeper integrations.
- Developer and enterprise adoption: The larger context and lower API cost of GPT-4 Turbo encourage third-party tools and enterprise apps to adopt the model, which could accelerate whole-class upgrades in tooling (code assistants, document search, automated reporting). (help.openai.com, arstechnica.com)
What to watch next
- Model lineage and naming: OpenAI and partners have experimented with many labeled builds (GPT-4 Turbo previews, updates, and internal snapshots). Watch for official guidance from OpenAI and Microsoft about model dates and capabilities; treat unofficial claims about later knowledge cutoffs or hidden updates as provisional until confirmed. (help.openai.com, cointelegraph.com)
- UI changes and toggles: Microsoft may evolve how it surfaces model choice in Copilot, including the possibility of dynamic routing between models during high-load periods. Users who depend on a specific style or output fidelity should monitor UI updates and test their workflows when Microsoft pushes updates.
- Enterprise governance features: Expect Microsoft to release more enterprise controls around Copilot usage, retention policies, and on-prem or private model hosting options to address compliance and data residency requirements.
Final assessment
The move to put GPT-4 Turbo under the hood of Copilot’s free tier is a pragmatic and strategically bold decision. It delivers meaningful capability enhancements — fresher internal knowledge, a transformative 128K-token context window, and behavioral fixes — that materially improve the usefulness of an always-available AI assistant on Windows and across Microsoft’s consumer products. For users, the benefits are tangible: longer documents can be processed in one pass, coding tasks scale far better, and many previously paywalled capabilities are now broadly accessible. (help.openai.com, windowscentral.com)At the same time, the upgrade does not remove long-standing model caveats: knowledge cutoffs still limit internal training knowledge past April 2023, hallucination risk persists, and organizational concerns around privacy and governance remain real. Rumors about next-generation Turbo models or hidden cutoff updates should be treated with caution until confirmed by OpenAI or Microsoft. For power users and enterprises, the upgrade expands possibilities while heightening the need for structured verification, governance, and clear operational policies.
For anyone who uses Copilot regularly: update your Copilot client, experiment with Creative and Precise modes, and adapt prompts to take advantage of the much larger context window — but don’t stop validating. The upgrade is a watershed moment for practical AI assistance on the desktop, but human checks and governance will still define whether the benefits are safe, accurate, and sustainable. (help.openai.com, theverge.com)
Source: Mashable Copilot gets free GPT-4 Turbo upgrade: 3 new features coming to the AI assistant