Microsoft has quietly turned the screws on what “free” AI can do on your PC: Copilot for Windows now exposes OpenAI’s GPT‑5 through a new Smart mode — and early tests suggest Microsoft’s free Copilot experience gives users more liberal access to GPT‑5’s “Thinking” (reasoning) path than ChatGPT’s free tier. (news.microsoft.com, windowslatest.com)
Background
Microsoft and OpenAI launched GPT‑5 in early August 2025, and Microsoft moved quickly to fold the new models into its Copilot ecosystem. The company says GPT‑5 is now available across Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio and consumer Copilot surfaces (web, Windows app, mobile). The official Microsoft messaging highlights a real‑time model router that automatically picks the appropriate GPT‑5 variant for a given task, so users don’t have to choose between speed and deep reasoning. (news.microsoft.com, techcommunity.microsoft.com)OpenAI documents the public usage limits for GPT‑5 in ChatGPT: free accounts can use the standard GPT‑5 model for a small number of messages within a time window and are limited to a single GPT‑5 “Thinking” message per day; paid tiers substantially raise those caps. Those published limits are the baseline for comparing what Copilot is delivering. (help.openai.com)
What Microsoft announced — and what’s rolling out
Microsoft’s official rollout
- Microsoft announced that it would make GPT‑5 available inside Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot (paid tiers), Azure AI Foundry and the consumer Microsoft Copilot experience. The company framed the integration as immediate and broad: GPT‑5 is being made available across its platforms and surfaced through Copilot’s Smart mode and Azure’s model routing infrastructure. (news.microsoft.com, techcommunity.microsoft.com)
- The consumer Copilot app and web interface use the same backend model routing, which means the app can pick up new models server‑side without needing a client update. That’s one reason Microsoft could flip GPT‑5 on across Copilot endpoints the same day OpenAI released it. (windowslatest.com, news.microsoft.com)
Smart mode: “think when necessary”
- Smart mode is Copilot’s new behavior that automatically decides whether to use GPT‑5’s faster/cheaper paths or the deeper GPT‑5 Thinking variant when a query needs reasoning, multi‑step planning, or more rigorous chaining of thought. Microsoft’s framing is that end users won’t have to pick models manually; the router will choose for the task. (theverge.com, news.microsoft.com)
How this differs from ChatGPT’s offering
OpenAI’s ChatGPT policy
OpenAI’s public guidance for GPT‑5 in ChatGPT describes a tiered access model:- ChatGPT Free: limited number of GPT‑5 messages (standard model) in a fixed time window and one GPT‑5 Thinking message per day.
- ChatGPT Plus and paid tiers: significantly higher caps, with Plus getting many more standard messages and a larger weekly cap for GPT‑5 Thinking. Team/Pro tiers can have effectively unlimited access subject to abuse guardrails. (help.openai.com)
Copilot’s apparent approach
Early reporting and hands‑on testing indicate that Microsoft Copilot’s free surface is providing GPT‑5 access with more relaxed rate limits than ChatGPT Free — at least in practice. WindowsLatest’s testing found Copilot invoking GPT‑5 Thinking multiple times in a day without the strict “one Thinking message per day” limit that OpenAI imposes on ChatGPT Free. Microsoft’s own announcements state that Copilot users will be able to try GPT‑5 (Smart mode) in consumer Copilot for free. (windowslatest.com, news.microsoft.com)Independent outlets confirm Microsoft’s integration of GPT‑5 into Copilot and note Microsoft’s strategy of surfacing advanced models to free users of Copilot, although few outlets provide exhaustive rate‑limit tests. The Verge and Redmond Magazine both reported the GPT‑5 rollout across Microsoft products and emphasized the built‑in model routing. (theverge.com, redmondmag.com)
What we can verify (and what remains anecdotal)
Verified facts
- GPT‑5 was announced and rolled into Microsoft’s Copilot offerings starting August 7, 2025. Microsoft’s product and partner posts, and multiple reputable outlets, document the rollout. (techcommunity.microsoft.com, theverge.com)
- OpenAI’s ChatGPT documented limits for GPT‑5: free accounts have constrained GPT‑5 standard message windows and one GPT‑5 Thinking message per day; paid tiers offer far higher caps. That guidance is available in OpenAI’s help documentation. (help.openai.com)
Anecdotal or currently unverifiable claims
- WindowsLatest’s empirical observation that Copilot allowed about five GPT‑5 Thinking triggers in a day and did not clearly expose a usage counter is a real user test result, but it is not a formal, documented Microsoft policy. Microsoft has not published a Copilot‑consumer usage table that mirrors OpenAI’s ChatGPT help page, so these specific Copilot limits remain unofficial observations. Treat them as provider testing rather than official policy. (windowslatest.com)
- Reports that Copilot routes regular non‑Thinking queries to the full GPT‑5 model (not GPT‑5‑mini) are based on quality impressions; Microsoft’s model router behavior is proprietary and adaptive, and the company has not published a full mapping of when it selects which GPT‑5 family variant for consumer queries. That routing logic is documented at a conceptual level but not exposed as a per‑user limit table. (news.microsoft.com, theverge.com)
Why Microsoft might offer looser limits in Copilot
- Microsoft controls the Azure infrastructure that hosts GPT‑5 for its Copilot surfaces. That vertical integration lets Microsoft optimize routing, cache results, and scale compute across enterprise customers in ways that differ from OpenAI’s direct ChatGPT offering. Azure’s scale and Microsoft’s enterprise margins can absorb or redistribute the compute costs, allowing more generous customer‑facing quotas in selected products. (news.microsoft.com)
- Strategic product positioning: Microsoft wants Copilot embedded in Windows and Microsoft 365 to feel indispensable. Lowering the friction to advanced features like GPT‑5 Thinking on consumer Copilot may accelerate adoption and integration, especially when Microsoft can monetize higher‑value enterprise workflows via Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio. (news.microsoft.com, windowscentral.com)
- Operational nuance: Copilot’s router may selectively route only certain parts of a multi‑turn conversation to the Thinking path, or use short bursts of GPT‑5 Thinking internally without counting them as full “Thinking” messages in usage‑tracking terms. That difference in measurement and metering can make Copilot appear more generous even if the backend compute budget is similar. This is partly speculative but consistent with how model routers typically work. (news.microsoft.com)
Practical implications for Windows users
Immediate benefits
- Better on‑device assistance: Copilot’s Smart mode can produce more thoughtful, reasoning‑backed help for tasks like debugging code, drafting complex emails, or synthesizing multi‑document summaries without requiring you to buy a separate ChatGPT Plus subscription. (news.microsoft.com, windowslatest.com)
- No app update needed: Because Copilot fetches models via server‑side routing, Windows users don’t need to wait for a Store update to get Smart mode — Microsoft can flip access on and off from the backend. That means faster availability and quicker fixes. (windowslatest.com)
Limitations and gotchas
- Opaque quotas: Copilot currently does not disclose a public per‑user counter for GPT‑5 Thinking usage the way OpenAI’s help page does for ChatGPT. That leaves users guessing when they’ll be throttled or switched to a “mini” fallback. WindowsLatest’s testers reported surprises in hitting an internal cap. Until Microsoft documents limits, users should expect variability. (windowslatest.com)
- Quality vs. cost tradeoffs: Even if Copilot appears more permissive today, heavy reasoning workloads will still consume significant compute. Microsoft can change limits dynamically if demand spikes or to protect enterprise SLAs. Users and enterprises should avoid assuming “unlimited” access. (news.microsoft.com)
- Privacy and enterprise data: Copilot’s integration with Microsoft 365 means it can reason over emails, documents and calendar data (where allowed). That capability improves productivity but raises policy questions for regulated organizations; administrators must confirm governance, data residency and compliance settings in Microsoft 365 Copilot before enabling broad access. (news.microsoft.com)
Security, safety and governance concerns
Safety testing and red‑teaming
Microsoft says its AI Red Team evaluated GPT‑5’s reasoning model using rigorous security protocols. The company claims the reasoning model shows robust defenses across tested attack vectors, like malware generation or fraud automation. Those are positive signals, but red‑team results are context‑dependent and not a substitute for ongoing monitoring and third‑party audit. (news.microsoft.com)Abuse, misinformation and hallucinations
- Even advanced reasoning models produce incorrect assertions. Increasing access to GPT‑5’s reasoning path raises the stakes because outputs are more authoritative in tone. Consumers often treat AI responses as factual; a wider‑available GPT‑5 means more high‑confidence but potentially wrong answers in circulation. Guardrails, rate limits and content filters remain critical. (news.microsoft.com)
- Rate limits act as a blunt guardrail against mass abuse. Relaxing those limits in Copilot increases the need for robust abuse monitoring and content filters at the product level. Microsoft’s enterprise posture gives it tools for this, but consumer experiences are harder to police at scale. (news.microsoft.com)
Regulatory and antitrust angles
- Giving advanced model capabilities away in an OS‑level assistant on billions of devices could attract regulatory scrutiny, particularly if it advantages Microsoft’s ecosystem over independent AI players. Antitrust and competition authorities pay attention to bundled services that favor a platform owner. This is a longer‑term risk to watch. (theverge.com)
Hands‑on: how to access GPT‑5 Smart in Copilot today
- Open copilot.microsoft.com in a browser (Edge recommended) or launch the Copilot app from the Microsoft Store on Windows 11/10. (windowslatest.com)
- Sign in with your Microsoft account. Smart mode should appear automatically for accounts in supported regions; there’s no client update required because model routing is server‑side. (windowslatest.com)
- Use the compose box as usual. Copilot’s router will decide if the query needs a Thinking invocation or a faster response. If you want to force deeper reasoning, phrase prompts to indicate it (for example, “Please think step‑by‑step” or “Show your chain of thought”). Note: forcing thinking may still count against internal usage meters. (help.openai.com, news.microsoft.com)
- If Smart mode doesn’t appear immediately, be patient — server‑side rollouts can be gradual. Clearing the app cache or reinstalling rarely helps because the toggle is at the backend. WindowsLatest testers reported waiting for a server flip rather than a local update. (windowslatest.com)
Recommendations for Windows users and IT admins
For everyday users
- Use Copilot Smart mode for complex drafting, code review, and synthesis tasks where deeper reasoning improves outcomes. Treat the assistant’s outputs as draft material — always verify critical facts and code snippets before relying on them. (news.microsoft.com)
- Monitor your experience for sudden switches to a lower‑powered model (answers that become shorter or less thorough). Those switches usually indicate you’ve hit a quota or routing decision has chosen a cheaper model. Save important sessions externally if you expect to hit limits. (windowslatest.com)
For IT administrators and security teams
- Review Microsoft 365 Copilot governance settings before enabling Copilot broadly. Confirm data sharing, retention, and compliance boundaries for organization‑level Copilot features. Document and communicate to staff how sensitive data is handled when Copilot “reads” emails, documents, or chats. (news.microsoft.com)
- Test worst‑case scenarios for automated data exfiltration and implement DLP policies that intercept Copilot‑driven exports or summarization of regulated data. Rate limits are not a substitute for proper data governance. (news.microsoft.com)
Business and ecosystem implications
For Microsoft
- Embedding GPT‑5 into Copilot and exposing more generous access at the OS level deepens Microsoft’s defensive moat: Windows becomes the natural venue for anyone who wants advanced generative assistance without switching apps or accounts. That strategy may raise adoption of Microsoft services and create cross‑sell paths to paid Microsoft 365 Copilot tiers. (news.microsoft.com, windowscentral.com)
For OpenAI
- OpenAI’s public ChatGPT limits reflect an attempt to ration compute while offering a practical free tier. Microsoft’s different surface and business model allow alternative metering strategies. The two companies’ differing policies will influence how users choose between direct ChatGPT usage and Microsoft Copilot. (help.openai.com, news.microsoft.com)
For third‑party developers
- Developers building applications that call OpenAI directly should expect fluctuating demand patterns as users offload certain kinds of reasoning tasks to Copilot. Where Copilot can perform a task for free in the OS, third‑party apps may need to differentiate on integration depth, privacy guarantees, or specialized domain knowledge. (news.microsoft.com)
What to watch next
- Official documentation from Microsoft clarifying Copilot quotas for GPT‑5 Smart and Thinking usage across consumer and enterprise tiers. Microsoft has published rollout posts but not a public per‑user usage table matching OpenAI’s clarity; that would reduce confusion. (news.microsoft.com, windowslatest.com)
- OpenAI and Microsoft telemetry reports: if either company publishes usage and abuse metrics, those will illuminate how well model routing reduces compute costs and whether relaxed quotas lead to measurable abuse or instability. (help.openai.com, news.microsoft.com)
- Regulatory attention: antitrust and privacy regulators will watch how deeply Microsoft integrates third‑party models into a dominant operating system and whether that integration materially disadvantages rival AI providers. (theverge.com)
Conclusion
The arrival of GPT‑5 inside Microsoft Copilot moves advanced reasoning from the walled garden of paid chat subscriptions into the fabric of everyday Windows computing. Microsoft’s Smart mode and Azure model routing make the integration seamless, and early hands‑on testing suggests Copilot’s consumer surface is more permissive than ChatGPT’s free tier when it comes to invoking the model’s reasoning path. That generosity is powerful for productivity but raises important questions: how limits are measured and communicated, how privacy and compliance are enforced, and how compute costs, abuse mitigation, and platform competition will be balanced as these models become core OS features.Until Microsoft publishes explicit, user‑facing quota tables for Copilot’s GPT‑5 usage, the community has to treat observed behaviors as indicative but not definitive. For now, Windows users gain practical access to arguably the most capable consumer reasoning model available — but prudence, verification and governance remain essential. (news.microsoft.com, help.openai.com, windowslatest.com)
Source: windowslatest.com Windows 11 Copilot gets free access to GPT-5 Thinking, reduced rate limits than ChatGPT Free
