In my Microsoft 365 Premium Edition, my Co-Pilot has stopped working.

Question

I love using Co-Pilot which is the reason I upgraded from Home 365 to the Home Microsoft 365 Premium edition. Co-Pilot was working great until a few days ago it stopped working. I called support and they could not find a problem with my current program. In fact they checked it out and could see that Co-Pilot was working on my Excel and PowerPoint but it was not working on Word. Do you have an explanation for this and is there anything you can do to help me to get it back working again?

Answer 1

Since Copilot still works in Excel and PowerPoint, the subscription itself is likely active. A common cause is that Word has not refreshed its license or Word-specific app settings are preventing Copilot from appearing.

Try this in order:

1. Confirm the signed-in account in Word
   • Open Word.
   • Make sure the account shown in the app is the same Microsoft account that has the Microsoft 365 Premium subscription.
   • For new or unsaved files, the primary account shown at the top of the Microsoft 365 window must be the licensed account.
2. Refresh the Microsoft 365 license
   • In Word, go to File > Account.
   • Select Update License.
   • Close Word and restart all Microsoft 365 apps.
3. Update Office to the latest build
   • In Word, go to File > Account and check for Office updates.
   • Copilot availability depends on being on the latest build.
4. Check Word privacy settings
   • In Word, go to File > Account.
   • Under Account Privacy, select Manage Settings.
   • Make sure Experiences that analyze your content is turned on.
   • Make sure All connected experiences is turned on.
   • If Microsoft 365 is managed by an organization, these settings may be controlled by IT.
5. Check where the Copilot button should appear
   • In supported Microsoft 365 apps, Copilot is available on the Home tab.
   • If checking another tab in Word, it may appear to be missing.
6. Try Word on the web
   • Copilot is available in Word on the web for Copilot subscribers.
   • If it works there but not in desktop Word, that points to a desktop app issue rather than a subscription problem.

If the problem is only with specific documents, file location can matter. Some users can get license validation or related errors when a file is stored in a third-party storage location. Moving or copying the file to OneDrive or SharePoint before using Copilot can help.

If Word still does not show Copilot after these steps, the most likely explanation supported here is a Word-only desktop issue rather than a loss of the overall Copilot entitlement.

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References:

• How to find and enable missing Copilot button in Microsoft 365 apps
• I am getting license validation errors with Copilot
• Microsoft 365 Personal, Family and Premium subscription benefits