Policy 'Allow web search in Copilot' not working in Microsoft 365 Copilot

Question

Policy 'Allow web search in Copilot' not working in Microsoft 365 Copilot

MarcVanderhaegen 286

Hello,

In the M365 Apps Admin Center I have deployed a policy with the setting 'Allow web search in Copilot' set on Enabled with the additional setting 'Disabled in Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat' but unfortunately it doesn't work as expected.
The problem is that web content search is well disabled in Outlook / Excel / Word / Powerpoint... but not in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app.

I have the same problem if I set the policy on 'Disabled in Microsoft 365 Copilot Work mode. Enabled in Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat'.
With that policy M365 Copilot Chat is available in the M365 Apps but it doesn't get disabled in the app Microsoft 365 Copilot Work tab.

We have the latest version of the app : 19.2505.37051.0

Are we missing something ?

Thanks for your help.
Marc

Teemu Lehtola 0 Reputation points

2025-10-17T12:53:57.8033333+00:00

I have the same issue.

At config.office.com > Policy > Copilot web search

is ENABLED but disabled at WORK mode.

I added Copilot premium license to my test user at the organization and after some time and relogin to Office apps like Excel the Copilot feature appeared integrated/inside the Excel and was working and the setting of "web search" was Disabled at WORK mode and did not perform results from the web.

I reported users to test. Policy is scoped to "all users".
Many reported very soon that "yeah, web search is now Disabled at work mode" inside Office software like Excel. with picture evidence.
But also soon after one user reported that at his Excel at work mode it is still Enabled.
And i got couple of more results indicating it is again "enabled" at work mode.

I Retested using my testuser and for it, on every Office software Teams, Excel... and using https://copilot.cloud.microsoft.com at work mode web search is still Disabled.

I did not find any other GPO:s, Intune policies or policies at config.office.com for this behavior.
Why some users find the web search setting against policy?
Waiting few days did not change anything. At my test user "web search" is still set as expected and those users that is not it is still Enabled. Or appear enabled.

1 answer

Your answer

Teemu Lehtola 0 Reputation points

2025-10-17T12:53:57.8033333+00:00

I have the same issue.

At config.office.com > Policy > Copilot web search

is ENABLED but disabled at WORK mode.

I added Copilot premium license to my test user at the organization and after some time and relogin to Office apps like Excel the Copilot feature appeared integrated/inside the Excel and was working and the setting of "web search" was Disabled at WORK mode and did not perform results from the web.

I reported users to test. Policy is scoped to "all users".
Many reported very soon that "yeah, web search is now Disabled at work mode" inside Office software like Excel. with picture evidence.
But also soon after one user reported that at his Excel at work mode it is still Enabled.
And i got couple of more results indicating it is again "enabled" at work mode.

I Retested using my testuser and for it, on every Office software Teams, Excel... and using https://copilot.cloud.microsoft.com at work mode web search is still Disabled.

I did not find any other GPO:s, Intune policies or policies at config.office.com for this behavior.
Why some users find the web search setting against policy?
Waiting few days did not change anything. At my test user "web search" is still set as expected and those users that is not it is still Enabled. Or appear enabled.

Answer 1

Smit Agrawal 105 Microsoft External Staff

Hi MarcVanderhaegen,
Thanks for your query,
The policy “Allow web search in Copilot” is managed through the Cloud Policy service for Microsoft 365, and it applies to:

Microsoft 365 Copilot (Work and Web modes)
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat

However, the Work mode in the standalone Microsoft 365 Copilot app may not yet fully respect this policy in all deployment scenarios. This is especially true if the app was pinned via the Windows 9D update, which made the M365 app the default Copilot experience for commercial users

Hope this answer helps,
Thanks,

Smit Agrawal

If the response is helpful, please click on "upvote" button. You can share your feedback via Microsoft Copilot Developer Feedback link. Click here to escalate.

Smit Agrawal 105 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-05-23T10:36:59.0866667+00:00

I hope the query is resolved!
Thanks.
Neil Mitchell 0 Reputation points

2026-02-26T12:24:42.53+00:00

After resetting my machine at work, I have just experienced the same issue. It looks as if your answer has acknowledged the problem but provided no solution.

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Policy 'Allow web search in Copilot' not working in Microsoft 365 Copilot

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