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Microsoft now offers AI-powered Copilot features as part of existing Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions—no extra add-on needed. However, these capabilities aren’t limitless—they work on a new system called “AI credits.”
Understanding Microsoft AI Credits
AI credits are essentially a virtual currency across various Microsoft products and services that fuel the AI-driven features. Each time you use an AI feature, whether it’sgenerating suggested replies in Outlookor using Copilot to create a presentation in PowerPoint, it consumes a certain number of AI credits.
Using AI Credits in Microsoft 365 Apps
AI credits are integrated within the Microsoft 365 applications and some first-party Windows apps. The system automatically deducts the necessary credits in the background each time you utilize an AI-powered feature in any productivity app. A credit is used each time you take an action involving AI, such as generating text, creating a table, or editing an image.
The odd thing about this system is that the AI benefits are only available to the subscription owner and cannot be shared with additional Microsoft 365 Family members. I have a Microsoft 365 Family subscription that I share with my wife. Still, she can’t use Copilot features unless she gets a separate Personal subscription or goes for a Copilot Pro subscription.
Tracking and Managing AI Credit Usage
You can track your credit usage on theMicrosoft account page. Credits reset on the first day of each month, regardless of whether they were used. And mind you, the unused credits do not roll over to the next month.
To manage your AI credits consumption, you can optimize the types of tasks for which you use AI-powered features. For instance, for a simpler, less demanding task, you might opt to do it yourself to save your AI credits for more complex and time-sensitive work.
Or you can use other AI tools and chatbots to complement Copilot features in Microsoft 365 apps. For example, I offload a lot of content generation and research work to Gemini and ChatGPT instead of doing that in Word to avoid using AI credits—generating entire slide-decks in PowerPoint or visualizing data in Excel is a much better use of those credits.
Additionally, while Word offers a way to rewrite content with Copilot to change tone or length, you could do that with the Copilot app on Windows – which doesn’t consume AI credits – and copy the result to the Word document you’re working with.
How I Made Copilot in Microsoft Word My Writing Partner
It’s not perfect, but Copilot in Word is the assistant I didn’t know I needed.
If you want to turn off Copilot in any Microsoft 365 app, you can clear theEnable Copilotcheckbox in the app’s settings.
