Someone in finance opens Word to draft a board note and watches the Copilot icon pop up next to every new paragraph. They want it gone. A quick search gives them the steps: File, Options, Copilot, clear the checkbox. The checkbox is not there.
Meanwhile the data protection officer asks IT to "just switch Copilot off" until the organisation has decided what it is for. The admin unpins Copilot Chat from Teams and Outlook. A week later a colleague is using it anyway, in a browser tab.
Both asked the same question and hit the same wall. Turning Copilot off works differently on a personal account than on a work account, and hiding it is not the same as switching it off.
#Who can turn Copilot off depends on how you sign in
Microsoft's own instructions are in Turn off Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps (checked 8 November 2026). The condition most guides leave out is right at the top: the settings only apply when you are signed in with a personal Microsoft account, such as an outlook.com address. On a work or school account they are not available.
That is why the checkbox was missing in finance. With a work account, whether Copilot appears in Word, Excel and PowerPoint depends on two things: the licence the organisation holds and what the admin has configured in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Individual staff get no switch of their own.
For an organisation that is a good thing. Copilot gets decided once, for everyone, rather than by each person on their own laptop.
#Turning off Copilot in Word, Excel and PowerPoint
On a personal account each app has its own Enable Copilot checkbox. It covers that app on that device and nothing else. To remove Copilot from Excel and PowerPoint as well, you repeat it there, and again on any other computer you use.
- Windows: File, Options, Copilot, clear Enable Copilot, select OK and restart the app.
- Mac: open the app menu, choose Preferences, then Authoring and Proofing Tools, then Copilot, clear the checkbox and restart.
Microsoft lists the checkbox on Windows from Word version 2412 and Excel and PowerPoint version 2501. With Copilot off, the ribbon icon is greyed out and Copilot no longer works in that app. Taking the icon off the ribbon is a different thing: Copilot is still on and can be opened from the shortcut menu.
The web and mobile versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint cannot switch Copilot off. Microsoft points to a workaround in your account privacy settings instead. In the Windows desktop app that is File, Account, Account Privacy, Manage Settings, where you clear Turn on experiences that analyze your content under Connected experiences. You only need to do it in one app. That removes Copilot, but it also removes suggested replies in Outlook, text predictions in Word, PowerPoint Designer and automatic alt text for images.
#Turning off Copilot in Outlook
Outlook uses a toggle rather than a checkbox, and the toggle follows your account to every device you sign in on.
- Outlook on the web and new Outlook for Windows: Settings, Copilot, then switch off Turn on Copilot.
- Outlook for Mac, iOS and Android: Quick Settings, Copilot. On a Mac you need at least version 16.95.3.
For classic Outlook on Windows, Microsoft gives no date for the toggle. For apps without their own setting, Microsoft points to the privacy workaround, with the same side effects.
Again, this is for personal accounts. At work, Copilot Chat in Outlook comes from the Copilot app, and the organisation manages that.
The Copilot icon in the top right of Edge opens Copilot Chat. Signed in with a work account, Microsoft's enterprise data protection applies. You can hide the button yourself under Settings, Appearance, Copilot and Sidebar, by switching off Show Copilot button on the toolbar. The same page lets you decide whether Copilot may use browser content.
Hiding the button does not turn Copilot off. Only an admin can do that, with Edge policies. These three come from Manage Copilot Chat (checked 8 November 2026):
- HubsSidebarEnabled disables Copilot Chat in Edge entirely, and with it every other sidebar app.
- EdgeEntraCopilotPageContext controls whether Copilot Chat may use the web page or PDF someone has open. That matters on intranet pages and web apps that show customer data.
- CopilotPageContext does the same for personal Copilot used inside the Edge work profile.
#On a work account, the admin makes the call
What someone with a work account gets from Copilot starts with the licence. Microsoft's overview of Microsoft Copilot (checked 8 November 2026) explains the three labels shown in the apps so people can tell which Copilot they have. Copilot Chat (Basic) means no Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Microsoft 365 Copilot (Basic) means you do get it, with standard access that depends on Microsoft's capacity. Premium means the paid licence.
Copilot Chat itself comes with eligible Microsoft 365 licences, without a paid Copilot licence. What it can and cannot see of your work is covered in Copilot Chat without a licence. To switch it off, admins have three levers, and they do not all do what their names suggest.
Unpinning. Copilot Chat is pinned by default to the navigation bar of the Microsoft 365 apps. Choose not to pin it and it leaves Teams and Outlook, but access stays. Users can still open Copilot Chat at m365.cloud.microsoft/chat, and Microsoft's pinning guidance (checked 8 November 2026) notes they can add it back from their app store.
Blocking through Integrated Apps. Block the Copilot app in the Microsoft 365 admin center and Copilot Chat is gone from the Copilot app, Teams, Outlook and the web. That includes staff who hold a paid licence. Anyone who opens Copilot Chat then sees that it was turned off for the organisation, and you can add a link to your own AI policy on that page.
Only for staff without a licence. Microsoft describes four steps: unpin, make the Copilot app available only to a licensed group, allow Copilot Chat in Teams only for that group, and restrict the Edge sidebar by policy.
Microsoft also asks you to allow the whole *.cloud.microsoft domain and not to block individual addresses within it. Stopping Copilot with a web filter is therefore not supported. Keeping personal Microsoft accounts out goes through tenant restrictions in Entra, not through blocking copilot.cloud.microsoft.
Steps verified on 8 November 2026 against Microsoft's documentation for the Microsoft 365 apps, Outlook, Edge and the Microsoft 365 admin center.
#What switching Copilot off leaves open
Removing Copilot from Word settles one question: do I want this assistant in this app? The data protection officer was asking something else. They want to know which AI tools people use for work, and with what data.
Someone who loses Copilot in Word and still wants a paragraph rewritten opens a browser tab. Perhaps Copilot on a personal account, perhaps ChatGPT. How that tends to play out is in blocking AI without an alternative. Under the GDPR the organisation is still the controller for whatever ends up in that prompt, including in a tool nobody chose. So it helps to treat Copilot as a decision rather than a switch. Which version is allowed, for whom, with which data, and what is the alternative when the answer is no? Copilot Chat on a work account can be exactly the alternative you name. How such a decision ends up in an AI register is set out in should ChatGPT or Copilot be in your AI register?, and the rules around Copilot itself in AI policy around Copilot.
In BeeSensible, Copilot sits alongside the other AI tools in use across the organisation, with Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot assessed separately and each given its own decision in the register, under Decide. When someone opens a tool the organisation decided differently about, the notice in the browser points to the alternative the organisation chose. When someone types a name or a passport number into Copilot, it is highlighted before the message goes; how that works is under Help. For security teams setting this up next to Microsoft's own controls, see AI governance for security.
