Microsoft opens Copilot Cowork to everyone, powered by Claude models

Microsoft launches Copilot Cowork globally, using Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.8 and Sonnet 4.6 models to execute complex tasks within Microsoft 365.

Microsoft is rolling out Copilot Cowork to all users worldwide, after three months of preview.

The tool is not a simple chatbot: it executes long, complex, and multi-tool tasks end-to-end in the cloud, to deliver a finished result rather than a draft. It integrates with enterprise systems via the Work IQ context engine and remains within the Microsoft 365 trust boundary.

Notably: at this stage, Copilot Cowork runs on Anthropic's models, Claude Opus 4.8 and Sonnet 4.6, with GPT-5.5 remaining reserved for the Frontier program, and a less expensive in-house model named Cowork 1 expected soon. Billing is usage-based, in Copilot Credits, tied to a Microsoft 365 Copilot subscription, with safeguards for administrators: per-user or per-group budgets, alerts, and reporting. The publisher also enhances the tool with partner plugins (Harvey, Miro, monday.com, Moody's, among others) and web browsing via Edge.

On the competitive front, Microsoft states, based on its own tests, that Copilot Cowork costs on average 30 to 40% less per query than Claude Cowork connected to Microsoft 365, Anthropic's equivalent product.