Best for
Best for people who work inside Microsoft 365 and Windows.
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
AI Chatbots & Assistants Comparison
Microsoft Copilot vs. Ollama
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for developers and teams that want an assistant whose data never leaves the machine, with a cloud fallback for models too large to run locally.
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | Microsoft Copilot | Ollama |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | lower value Free; Microsoft 365 Premium from $19.99 / month Copilot Pro is no longer sold. Microsoft 365 Copilot for organisations costs $30 per user per month, paid yearly, on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan. | Free for local models; Pro from $20 / month Local models cost nothing. Pro is $20 per month or $200 per year and includes $60 of cloud usage credits a month with three concurrent requests; Max is $100 per month with $300 of credits and ten concurrent requests; Team is $500 per month with $1,000 of shared credits and unlimited users; Enterprise is quoted. Extra credits can be bought on every paid plan. |
| Free trial | Free in Windows and Edge | Free plan with local models, starter cloud credits and one concurrent request |
| Commercial use | Yes | Not stated |
| Output | Assistant with access to Office files, email and calendar | Not stated |
| API | N/A | Yes, one REST API for local and cloud models, with Python and JavaScript libraries and a separate web search API |
| Hosting | Not stated | Runs locally on macOS, Windows and Linux; cloud models run on Ollama's servers in the United States, Europe and Singapore |
| Ecosystem | Microsoft 365 and Windows, with Edge integration | Desktop app and command line for macOS, Windows and Linux, with integrations for VS Code Chat, Claude Code, OpenCode and n8n |
| Live web search and sources | Yes, web search built in | Yes, through a separate web search API returning a title, URL and content snippet per result; it needs a free account and an API key, and is also reachable over MCP |
| Files and long documents | Yes, direct access to Office files, email and calendar | Yes, the desktop app takes files by drag and drop so a model can reason over text or PDFs, and code files can be passed in for understanding; for large documents the context length is raised in the settings, which the vendor notes costs more memory |
| Images, voice and video | Yes, image generation via Designer, plus Copilot Voice and Copilot Vision | Images for vision-capable models, passed as a file path, URL or base64 through the API and the libraries |
| Coding help | Can help with code, but general-purpose rather than a coding tool | Coding models in the library, plus integrations with terminal coding agents such as Claude Code and OpenCode and with VS Code Chat |
| Model choice | No model selector; runs on OpenAI models with a Think Deeper mode | Yes, and it is the point: any model from the library or an imported custom one, run locally or offloaded to the cloud through the same call |
| MCP-ready | No | stated Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based | Cloud (SaaS), On-premise |
| Support | more entries Email helpdesk, Chat, Community forum | Email helpdesk, Community forum |
| Onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base | Documentation and knowledge base |
| Company size | Small and mid-sized, Enterprise | more entries Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise |
| Integrations | Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive | more entries VS Code, JetBrains, Zed, Xcode, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, OpenCode, Cline, Roo Code, Codex CLI, Goose, n8n, marimo |
Add a tool
Adds a column to the table, from the tools in this category.
Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.
The short version
Key Differences
- Starting price Microsoft Copilot Free; Microsoft 365 Premium from $19.99 / month Ollama Free for local models; Pro from $20 / month
- Free trial Microsoft Copilot Free in Windows and Edge Ollama Free plan with local models, starter cloud credits and one concurrent request
- Deployment Microsoft Copilot Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based Ollama Cloud (SaaS), On-premise
- Company size Microsoft Copilot Small and mid-sized, Enterprise Ollama Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise
- Support Microsoft Copilot Email helpdesk, Chat, Community forum Ollama Email helpdesk, Community forum
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
Microsoft Copilot
Strengths
- Direct access to your Office files, email and calendar
- Deep Microsoft 365 and Windows integration
- Free in Windows and Edge
Limitations
- Most value inside the Microsoft ecosystem
- Consumer and enterprise tiers can confuse
Ollama
Strengths
- Models run on your own machine, so on the free plan nothing is sent anywhere
- The same API covers local and cloud models, so a model can be swapped without changing code
- Chat, coding, vision, embedding and reasoning models in one library, plus imported custom models
- Cloud use can be switched off entirely for a fully local setup
Limitations
- Large models need capable local hardware; otherwise they run in the cloud on a paid plan
- Cloud models and the web search API need an account and usage credits
- Paid plans are metered in usage credits rather than seats, so the monthly cost varies with how hard it is used
Plans
Pricing
Microsoft Copilot
- Free $0 On the web, in Windows and in Edge.
- Microsoft 365 Premium $19.99 Per month, or $199.99 per year. Replaces Copilot Pro; includes the Microsoft 365 apps with extended Copilot usage.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot Business $21 Per user per month, paid yearly; $18 promotional price through December 31, 2026. Add-on for an eligible Microsoft 365 Business plan.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot $30 Per user per month, paid yearly ($31.50 paid monthly with an annual commitment). Requires a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan.
Ollama
- Free $0 Local models, starter usage credits, starter models and one concurrent request.
- Pro $20 / month Or $200 per year. $60 of usage credits a month, larger models and three concurrent requests.
- Max $100 / month $300 of usage credits a month, early access to new models and ten concurrent requests.
- Team $500 / month Early access. Unlimited users, $1,000 of shared usage credits a month and central billing.
- Enterprise Not stated Custom pricing. Model access controls, cost budgets and dedicated support.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
Microsoft Copilot
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
Ollama
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
How we check reviews
Reviews are not published yet. The form on a tool's page works and reaches us, but nothing from it appears on this site, so no score here is based on a review. The rules below are the ones that will apply once reviews go live.
Every review is read by a person before it appears. We require a working email address and use it to come back to the author, so a review has a reachable sender rather than being anonymous. We publish positive and negative reviews alike, we pay nothing and offer nothing for a review, and we accept none that was bought or incentivised.
What we cannot do is verify a purchase. There is no shop here and no account, so whether the author really used the tool rests on what they tell us, plus the plausibility of what they write. We say so rather than implying a check that does not exist.
A vendor cannot have a review removed, cannot buy one, and cannot have one changed. Paid placement and a paid listing have no effect on which reviews appear or on any score.
Where this comes from
Where this comes from
Microsoft Copilot https://copilot.microsoft.com · checked against the official source on 2026-09-26
Ollama https://ollama.com · checked against the official source on 2026-09-12
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.