A Complete Guide to Using Copilot in Microsoft Teams

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Streamline chats, catch up on messages, and more with Copilot

Written by Stan Kats | Edited by Travis Boylls

Last Updated: March 29, 2026 Fact Checked

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• Performing General Tasks with Copilot
|
• Using Copilot in a Chat & Channels
|
• Video

|Show more |Show less

If you have a Microsoft 365 Business or Education account, you can use Copilot in Microsoft Teams to summarize meetings and chats, review data, create charts, and more. This wikiHow article teaches you how to use Copilot in Microsoft Teams.

Use Copilot in Teams

You need a Microsoft 365 Enterprise or Education account to access Copilot in Teams. Click the Copilot icon in the menu to the left to open Copilot in Teams. Select a prompt or enter your own. You can also click the Copilot icon in the upper-right corner of a chat or channel to access Copilot in the chat or channel.

Steps

Section 1 of 2:

Performing General Tasks with Copilot

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1. 
   1
   Click the Copilot icon. You should see Copilot in the menu bar to the left. It has an icon that resembles a circular band. This opens Copilot in Teams.

   • If you don’t see the Copilot icon in the menu to the left, make sure you have a subscription to Microsoft 365 Enterprise or Education, or a Copilot subscription. If you have this and still do not see the Copilot icon, click the icon with three dots at the bottom of the menu to the left. Enter “Copilot” in the search menu and click Copilot.
   • If you can’t access Copilot, it may be disabled by your administrator.
2. 2
   Select one of the prompts. You’ll see a variety of suggested prompts on the front page. These may include prompts like “Summarize messages I was mentioned in,” or “What tasks should be on radar from emails last week?”
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3. 3
   Enter a prompt. To enter your own prompt, click the composition box that says “Message Copilot” and enter a prompt. This can be anything you want. For example, you can enter “Prepare an email explaining that TPS reports are due at the end of the day.”
4. 4
   Upload a file to Copilot. When you upload a file to Copilot, it can use the data from the file to perform tasks for you. To do this, click the plus (+) icon below the prompt bar and click Upload. Then select the file you want to upload. Enter a prompt about the file. You can also type a forward slash (“/”) followed by a search term in your prompt. This will display a list of files in your OneDrive. Click the file you want to upload.

   • For example, you can type “Create a chart of all the expenses from /expense_report.xlsx” to have Copilot create a chart of the data from a spreadsheet.
5. 5
   Reply to Copilot responses. When Copilot responds to one of your prompts, you can click the Thumbs Up icon to indicate you like the reply, or the Thumbs Down icon to indicate you don’t like the reply.
6. 6
   Read the response aloud. If you want Copilot to read a response aloud, click the speaker icon below a response. Once you click the speaker icon, it will turn into a pause icon. Click the Pause icon to stop reading aloud.
7. 7
   Copy the response. If you want to copy the text from Copilot, click the icon that resembles two sheets of paper. You can paste the text into an email, a chat, a Word document, or whatever you want.
8. 8
   Save a response to Pages. To save a Copilot response to your pages, click the icon that resembles a pencil below the response. This adds the response to your pages. You can share your page and collaborate with others.
9. 9
   Use follow-up prompts. After Copilot replies to a prompt, you can ask it follow-up questions or ask it to rephrase the response. For example, you can ask it to emphasize the importance of the TPS reports, or ask it “Which is the most costly department?”
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Section 2 of 2:

Using Copilot in a Chat & Channels

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1. 1
   Click Chats. It’s in the menu bar to the left. This displays your Teams chats.
2. 2
   Select a chat or channel. Click a chat from the list to view the full conversation.
3. 3
   Click the Copilot icon. It’s the purple icon that resembles a circular band. It’s in the upper-right corner. This displays a separate Copilot chat to the right.

   • The Copilot chat is your personal chat. Other members of the chat cannot see it.
   • If the Copilot icon is not available, you may not have an Enterprise or Education subscription to Microsoft 365. It may also be disabled by your administrator.
4. 4
   Use a suggested prompt. To do so, click View prompts below the composition box in the Copilot chat to view a list of suggested prompts. Click the prompt you want to use.
5. 5
   Enter a prompt. You’ll see the composition box at the bottom of the Copilot menu. Enter a prompt into the composition box and click the Send icon. It’s the icon that resembles an arrow pointing right. For example, you could type “Summarize key points of chat” or “Summarize unread messages.”

   • Copilot’s responses will have numbers next to some of its summaries. These are chat references. Click the number to jump to the line in the chat it is referencing.
6. 6
   Summarize a channel thread. To summarize a channel thread, click the icon with three dots (•••) next to the thread. Then click More actions. Click Summarize thread. Copilot will generate a summary of the thread.

   • Alternatively, you can click the link below the channel posts to expand the thread. Then click Summarize thread below the channel posts.
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