Copilot Chat

Copilot Chat is a free, secure AI assistant that uses advanced AI models to help you research information, draft and revise written content, summarize documents, analyze uploaded files and images, and generate images from text descriptions. It primarily uses information from the web and content you provide, with additional capabilities in some Microsoft 365 applications.

Data risk classification — Low and Moderate Risk only

When signed in with your Yale account, free Copilot Chat is approved for Low and Moderate Risk data, not High Risk data. High Risk data may be used only with a paid Microsoft 365 Copilot license when Work IQ is on (called the Work tab in some older interfaces). Free Copilot Chat users do not have this Work IQ option. The protected sign-in shield does not by itself mean that High Risk data is approved.

Here’s what you can do with Copilot Chat:

  • Write and summarize: Draft and revise emails, reports, and other text, or summarize information you provide.
  • Search for information: Use web search to find current public information and links to relevant sources. Web searching is permitted for Yale’s free Copilot Chat.
  • Work with documents and images: Upload supported files and ask questions, extract information, or request summaries. Microsoft currently permits up to 20 files per conversation and 50 MB per file.
  • Create images: Generate images from plain-language descriptions, subject to feature availability.
  • Use supported Microsoft 365 experiences: Copilot Chat appears in apps such as Outlook and Teams. Some experiences, particularly Outlook, can use limited relevant organizational context, but free Copilot Chat does not provide the broad Microsoft 365 access available through the paid Work IQ experience.
Chat with Copilot Chat Copilot Chat for Students

Details

Availability: Staff, faculty, and students at Yale (18 years of age or older).

Pricing: Free.

Data Risk Classification: Low and Moderate Risk only. Free Copilot Chat is not approved for High Risk data, including when accessed inside another Microsoft 365 application. High Risk data is approved only in paid Microsoft 365 Copilot with Work IQ on (or the older Work tab). See Yale’s Data Classification Guideline.

Privacy and Protection: When signed in with your Yale account, Copilot Chat provides enterprise data protection. Your prompts and responses are not used to train the underlying foundation models. Conversations may be retained and are subject to Yale’s applicable auditing, retention, and compliance policies. Web search can send generated queries to Bing, which has separate data-handling terms. See Microsoft’s privacy and protection information.

How to Access

Open Copilot Chat and sign in with your Yale email address. Students should use Copilot Chat for Students. Copilot Chat is also available in supported Microsoft 365 applications, including Outlook and Teams. If you use a Yale-managed workstation, you may also have a Copilot desktop widget. Features can vary depending on application and device.

Confirm that you are signed in with your Yale account and using the enterprise-protected experience. A shield indicator identifies Microsoft’s enterprise data protection; it does not change Yale’s approval of free Copilot Chat for Low and Moderate Risk data only.

Training Material

To get started using Copilot Chat, please refer to the following user guide.

For product instructions and feature guidance, see Microsoft’s overview of Copilot Chat and file upload instructions.

How Do I Get Support?

If your question or issue is not addressed on this website, use the following resources:

Comparing Clarity and Copilot Chat

Attributes Copilot Chat Clarity Platform
AI Models  Uses advanced AI models; model offerings change over time. Provides multiple AI models and featured agents. See the current Clarity agents list.
Web search Available for Low and Moderate Risk data in Yale’s free Copilot Chat. Available in the Radiate featured agent for Low Risk data; see Clarity web search guidance.
File upload  Documents and images can be provided for analysis.
 		 Documents, spreadsheets, images, and other supported formats can be uploaded. See Clarity’s file guidance for a complete list.
  
File upload limits Up to 20 files per conversation, with a maximum of 50 MB per file. No limit on number of file uploads and can upload up to 10 files simultaneously. There is a maximum file size of 512MB per file. In addition, the size of the extracted text (not the size of the original file) cannot exceed 10,000,000 characters.  
File upload from OneDrive Yes Yes
Image generation Yes Yes
Chat limits No limits No limits  
Chat history Conversations can be revisited; Chats are saved for 18 months by default and can be accessed using the chat search feature.   Chats are saved and can be accessed in the chat history panel.  
Costs Free  Free for eligible Yale users
Availability Staff, faculty, and students (18 years of age or above) Staff, faculty, and students  
Data risk classification  Low and Moderate Risk only. High Risk is not approved without a paid license and Work IQ on High risk data, with some restrictions such as ePHI. Refer to Clarity Platform Security and Health Sciences AI Toolkit for more information. Web search is Low Risk only.
Vendor / platform Microsoft The Clarity Platform is built on FoundationaLLM 

For additional details, see Clarity agents, Clarity file guidance, Clarity web search guidance, and Clarity security information.