Move past asking Copilot questions and into repeatable, tool-connected work. This tutorial sets up Microsoft 365 Copilot to act across your Outlook, Teams, and Office files, with connectors, agents, Notebooks, and a workflow you can run again. No coding background needed.
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Work through the steps in order, at your own pace
There are two products with the Copilot name, and the difference decides everything that follows. Free Copilot at copilot.microsoft.com is a general chatbot. It does not see your email, files, or meetings. Microsoft 365 Copilot is the paid version your company adds on top of your Microsoft 365 subscription, and it can work across your Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, and Office files. Every workflow in this tutorial needs the paid Microsoft 365 Copilot, so the first job is to confirm you have it.
| Question | Free Copilot | Microsoft 365 Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| Where you find it | copilot.microsoft.com | m365.cloud.microsoft and Office apps |
| Cost | Free | Paid add-on to Microsoft 365 |
| Reads your work email and files | No | Yes |
| Runs the workflows in this tutorial | No | Yes |
The paid Copilot that works across your Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, and Office files, separate from the free chatbot at copilot.microsoft.com.
The connection that lets Copilot reach your Microsoft 365 data automatically, limited to what you already have permission to see.
A link to an outside source like Salesforce or ServiceNow, usually set up by an admin, so Copilot can pull from it.
A focused helper with its own instructions, and optionally its own files and connections, for one kind of job.
A built-in catalog of prompts you can save, reuse, and share with your team, the closest Copilot has to a reusable instruction set.
A workspace that bundles one job's files, notes, and links so Copilot answers from just that material.
A mode that takes longer to reason through a harder problem before answering.
Specialized agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot for complex research and data analysis.
Microsoft's set of commitments that your work data stays in your organization's boundary and is not used to train its models.
A one-off Copilot chat that is not saved to your history or used for personalization.
Put the skills to work on real tasks
What to check when something does not work
| Problem | Solution |
|---|---|
| Copilot only chats and cannot see your work. | You are likely on free Copilot. Confirm with your admin that a Microsoft 365 Copilot license is assigned to you. |
| Copilot cannot find a file or email you expected. | Check that you have permission to open it yourself, since Copilot can only reach content you already have access to. |
| An outside tool like your CRM is not available. | Connectors are usually set up by an admin. Ask whether the connector for that tool can be enabled for you. |
| A workflow stops partway through. | Confirm the files and notes it needs are in the Notebook and any outside connection is on, as your error-handling instructions should report. |
| You cannot find Think Deeper, Researcher, or a feature named here. | Labels and availability change and can differ by license. Check your account's current options or ask your admin. |
| You are unsure whether your data is private. | For the paid commercial service, your data stays in your organization's boundary and is not used to train models. Review your memory and history settings, and any company policy. |