--- title: Microsoft Strips Copilot's Free Features — and Puts Deep... description: Starting 18 August 2026, Microsoft retired several free Copilot consumer features — Group Chat, AI-generated Podcasts, Deep Research, Copilot Labs and the Mico... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/8pypnxjn5 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Microsoft Strips Copilot's Free Features — and Puts Deep Research Behind a Subscription | daily.dev og:description: Starting 18 August 2026, Microsoft retired several free Copilot consumer features — Group Chat, AI-generated Podcasts, Deep Research, Copilot Labs and the Mico... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/8pypnxjn5 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/8PYPNXjn5.png og:image:alt: Post cover image og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Microsoft Strips Copilot's Free Features — and Puts Deep Research Behind a Subscription **[AI](https://daily.dev/sources/ai)** · [@jpdelatorre](https://daily.dev/jpdelatorre) · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Starting 18 August 2026, Microsoft retired several free Copilot consumer features — Group Chat, AI-generated Podcasts, Deep Research, Copilot Labs and the Mico character — as part of merging its consumer and business Copilot apps into one. Deep Research's replacement, Researcher, is now available only to Microsoft 365 Premium subscribers at a reported $19.99/month. Removed features like Podcasts and Group Chat came with a manual, deadline-bound save-or-lose export process with no bulk export option. Existing Deep Research reports remain accessible via chat history or Word export. The piece argues this is partly legitimate consolidation but also a pattern of moving the most valuable free capability behind a paywall while merely deleting less useful features. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Governing Security in the Age of Infinite Signal](https://daily.dev/posts/governing-security-in-the-age-of-infinite-signal-qhihbir44) · Snyk · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [No one has a good plan for how AI companies should work with the government](https://daily.dev/posts/no-one-has-a-good-plan-for-how-ai-companies-should-work-with-the-government-nkajqoze1) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#microsoft](https://daily.dev/tags/microsoft), [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#microsoft-copilot](https://daily.dev/tags/microsoft-copilot) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/8pypnxjn5) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/8pypnxjn5","headline":"Microsoft Strips Copilot's Free Features — and Puts Deep Research Behind a Subscription","text":"Shared: Microsoft Strips Copilot's Free Features — and Puts Deep Research Behind a Subscription","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/8pypnxjn5","datePublished":"2026-09-01T09:33:27.056Z","dateModified":"2026-09-01T09:34:04.154Z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"JP de la Torre","url":"https://daily.dev/jpdelatorre","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--vMLSF3-1--/f_auto/v1787723050/avatars/avatar_0fMQQvxSIIVibBvP847Xo?_a=BAMAMicg0","description":"Fullstack TypeScript Engineer","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"EndorseAction"},"userInteractionCount":690}},"image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--foaA6JGU--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2004","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"sharedContent":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/ZZLL0NnQ9"},"isPartOf":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://daily.dev/squads/ai","name":"AI"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"AI","item":"https://daily.dev/squads/ai"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Microsoft Strips Copilot's Free Features — and Puts Deep Research Behind a Subscription"}]} ```