Microsoft now allows administrators to disable Copilot Chat, making the Microsoft 365 Copilot experience a pre-Copilot experience. The default activation of Copilot Chat without explicit control was also a topic for the Swiss Parliament earlier this year.
Administrators have two options.
1) Disable Copilot Chat for Copilot Basic and Premium users
Microsoft provides the Copilot app as an Integrated App in the Microsoft 365 admin center. As with such apps, you can restrict the app to users or groups.
Copilot Chat is then turned off for these users.
I added an optional information link. You can define the link in the Microsoft 365 admin center > Copilot Settings > Custom link for blocked Microsoft 365 Copilot app.
Reminder:
The Copilot app is a cross-platform app. Organizations that have not yet migrated to Unified App Management will still find Copilot Chat in Teams, but it will be unavailable to users. The Copilot Chat section is gone if you migrated to Unified App Management.
What you should know:
- Before disabling this Copilot app, read the doc Manage Microsoft Copilot Chat to understand the impact on other services. If you migrated to Unified App Management, Copilot Chat in Teams is also affected.
The Copilot app is an integrated app that provides Copilot Chat in the Microsoft Copilot app (web, desktop, mobile) and in Outlook (web, desktop, mobile). It also supports Copilot Chat on the web.
- The system shows some errors where Microsoft forgot a Copilot integration was there.
- Users are “Work accounts” and are neither Copilot Basic nor Copilot Premium users.
This capability should already be available.
2) Disable Work IQ Chat capabilities for Copilot Premium users
This is a curious configuration, as it disables Work IQ Chat capabilities (reducing Copilot licensed users to Copilot Basic chat) but leaves all other Copilot Premium features on, such as Copilot in Office Apps, Copilot in Teams (intelligent meeting recap, Interpreter, Facilitator), and others. All except Work IQ Chat.
- Users will have access to a primarily web-grounded Copilot Chat, with reduced organizational data (Microsoft Graph) grounding in select apps.
- Personal Content Mode will no longer be activated.
Disable the “Microsoft Copilot with Graph-grounded chat” service plan in the Microsoft 365 Copilot license to remove Work IQ Chat capabilities.
The service plan information via Microsoft Graph:
- skuID: 639dec6b-bb19-468b-871c-c5c441c4b0cb
- skuPartNumber: Microsoft_365_Copilot
- servicePlanId: 3f30311c-6b1e-48a4-ab79-725b469da960
- servicePlanName: M365_COPILOT_BUSINESS_CHAT
Service desk requests about Copilot Chat (Basic) users:
Copilot Chat indicates the user is a Copilot Chat (Basic) user, but the user has access to Copilot Premium features in other products. This may generate service desk requests asking why the user is not a Copilot Premium user.
The rollout for this capability should be completed in September 2026.
