Copilot Mode in Edge Review 2026: Pricing, Features and Verdict

What it is

Microsoft launched Copilot Mode on October 23, 2025 as "your AI browser": a toggle that turned Edge's new tab page into a Copilot chat box and gave Copilot permission to read across your open tabs, act on websites and, with your consent, use your browsing history. It ran on Edge for Windows and Mac.

On May 13, 2026, the Edge team wrote that it was retiring Copilot Mode, saying the helpful features were now built directly into Edge. In practice, three things happened:

• Copilot in Edge took over the everyday features for everyone: the sidebar and new tab chat, page and YouTube summaries, multi tab comparison, writing help, voice and Vision.
• Journeys became broadly available and free on desktop in English markets and on mobile in the US.
• Copilot Actions, the agent, left its free limited preview and became Browse with Copilot, for Microsoft 365 Premium subscribers in the US on Edge desktop, with usage limits.

So when people search for Copilot Mode today, what they can actually use is Copilot in Edge plus, for Premium subscribers, Browse with Copilot. This review covers both.

Pricing explained

Plan	Price	Copilot in Edge
Free	$0	Chat, summaries, multi tab, Journeys, voice and Vision, with usage limits
Microsoft 365 Personal	$9.99 per month or $99.99 per year	Higher Copilot chat, Vision and image limits than free; Browse with Copilot not listed
Microsoft 365 Family	$12.99 per month or $129.99 per year	Personal for up to 6 people, 2 TB shared
Microsoft 365 Premium	$19.99 per month or $199.99 per year	Browse with Copilot agent (US, desktop), extensive Copilot usage, agentic research features

US prices from Microsoft's plan compare page, October 2026. Personal and Premium list a 1 month free trial. Yearly billing saves up to 17%, per Microsoft.

What the limits mean in practice. Microsoft does not publish numbers. The free tier has "usage limits," Personal and Family get "higher usage than free," and Premium gets "extensive usage." Browse with Copilot itself has "usage limits" with no figure. Compare that with Google, which lists 20 auto browse tasks a day on Google AI Pro.

Hidden costs. On Family and Premium, Copilot features are for the subscription owner, not every member, per Microsoft's plan terms. If two adults both want the agent, that is two Premium plans.

Worked example. A US user who wants an agent in their browser pays $19.99 a month for Microsoft 365 Premium, or $199.99 a year (about $16.67 a month). For that they also get Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, 2 TB of storage and Microsoft Defender, which a Gemini or Comet subscription does not include. If you already pay for Microsoft 365 Family at $129.99 a year, moving to Premium costs $70 more a year.

How it compares. The agent costs the same $19.99 as Google AI Pro for Gemini in Chrome auto browse and more than Brave Leo Premium at $14.99, which has no general release agent. Perplexity's Comet browser is free. See every assistant price on the Price Index.

Key features

Copilot sidebar and new tab chat

Copilot sits in Edge's sidebar and on the new tab page. It summarizes the current page, PDFs and YouTube videos, drafts and rewrites text, and answers general questions with Bing search behind it. You can sign in with a Microsoft, Google or Apple account, or a work or school account, and Microsoft keeps work and personal data separate.

Multi tab reasoning

Copilot can read across several open tabs at once, for example to compare three product pages or hotel listings in one answer. This was the headline feature of Copilot Mode and is now part of Copilot in Edge.

Journeys

Journeys organizes your past browsing into topics, such as a trip you are planning or a purchase you are researching, with a summary and suggested next steps. Microsoft says it uses your browsing history only with your permission. It is free on desktop in English markets (US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore) and on mobile in the US.

Browse with Copilot (the agent)

You describe a task and Copilot carries it out in Edge, such as unsubscribing from newsletters or booking a restaurant, examples Microsoft gave at launch. Microsoft says you get clear visual cues when Copilot is taking an action, listening or viewing. Since May 13, 2026 the agent requires Microsoft 365 Premium, is limited to the US and to Edge desktop, and has unpublished usage limits.

Voice and Vision

You can talk to Copilot to open pages or find information, and Copilot Vision can look at what is on your screen with permission. Both are free with limits and get more usage on paid Microsoft 365 plans.

Other Copilot features in Edge

The May 2026 update also lists long term memory, a writing assistant, a Study and Learn mode, quizzes, AI generated podcasts from pages and a redesigned new tab page.

What users say

Copilot in Edge has no separate rating. Microsoft Edge rates 4.7 on the US App Store from 590,405 ratings, which covers the whole browser, not the AI features alone. There is no G2 or Trustpilot listing for Copilot Mode itself.

What stands out from Microsoft's own posts is how much the product moved in seven months: a free US preview for Actions and Journeys in October 2025, then a retirement of the mode name, free Journeys for all English markets and a paid agent in May 2026. If you read a Copilot Mode review from late 2025, assume its pricing and feature list are out of date.

Privacy and security

Per Microsoft's Copilot privacy FAQ and Edge blog posts:

• Training: Microsoft uses consumer Copilot conversations for AI training unless you turn it off in Copilot's privacy settings. Signed out users, work (Entra ID) accounts, Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers, users under 18 and users in Brazil, China, Israel, Nigeria, South Korea and Vietnam are excluded.
• Retention: conversation activity is stored for 18 months by default.
• Browsing history: Microsoft says Copilot never accesses your history without your go ahead, and Journeys is permission based.
• Agent cues: Edge shows when Copilot is acting, listening or viewing, and Copilot Mode was always a toggle you could switch off.
• Work accounts: governed by your organization's policies, with work and personal data kept separate.

Agents that read web pages can be tricked by hidden instructions on those pages, a risk Microsoft's posts do not quantify. Keep Browse with Copilot away from email, banking and checkout pages unless you are watching it.

Who it is for

• Windows users who browse in Edge and want AI help without installing anything.
• Microsoft 365 Premium subscribers, who get the agent included with Office and 2 TB of storage.
• Researchers and shoppers who want free multi tab comparisons and Journeys.

Who should skip it

• Anyone outside the US who wants the agent. Browse with Copilot is US only.
• Mac and Chrome loyalists. Gemini in Chrome gives the same free features in the browser you use.
• Privacy first users. Default training on conversations and 18 month retention compare poorly with Brave Leo, which keeps no chats on its servers.
• People who want published limits. Microsoft gives none for the agent.

Alternatives

• Gemini in Chrome: free in Chrome; auto browse with Google AI Pro, 20 tasks a day.
• Brave Leo: the private option, free with no account, Claude on Premium.
• Perplexity Comet: free browser with an agent that acts on sites.
• Microsoft Copilot: the same assistant outside the browser; see Copilot pricing.
• The full ranking is in best AI browsers.

Verdict

As a free assistant, Copilot in Edge is good and frictionless for Windows users, with multi tab answers and Journeys that rival Gemini in Chrome. As an AI browser agent, it is a paid extra: $19.99 a month through Microsoft 365 Premium, US only, desktop only, with limits Microsoft does not publish. Buy Premium for the agent only if you also want Office and 2 TB of storage; otherwise Gemini in Chrome or Comet gets you an agent for the same price or less.