Does Microsoft Word train AI on your documents? Connected experiences and Copilot

The Morse teamPublished October 26, 202610 min read

As of October 2026, Microsoft says it does not train AI on your documents in Microsoft Word, whether your text goes through connected experiences, Copilot in Word, or a work account. Its privacy page for home plans says prompts, responses, and "your file contents when using Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps aren't used to train foundation models," and that personal data from connected experiences "isn't used to train large language models (LLMs)" (Microsoft). Those promises are worded around foundation models and LLMs. Your text still goes to Microsoft's cloud for most of Word's smart features, and a thumbs-down on a Copilot reply can send Microsoft the files Copilot read.

We read Microsoft's connected experiences documentation, its support pages for Copilot in Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, Premium, and Pro, its page on turning Copilot off, its Copilot feedback page, the Microsoft Privacy Statement (last updated September 2026), the Microsoft Services Agreement (effective September 30, 2026), and its work-account Copilot privacy pages on October 26, 2026. Microsoft's November 2024 denial has held up. The connected experiences pages we read describe editing, design, and translation features, and say nothing about training.

Which Word settings control AI and your documents?

Six, for a personal Microsoft account in Word for Windows or Mac. Microsoft says that if you never open Manage Settings, "all connected experiences are available to you" (Microsoft Learn), so the first three start on.

The connected experiences switches live under File > Account > Account Privacy > Manage Settings in Word for Windows, and under the Word menu > Preferences > Privacy on a Mac (Microsoft).

Do connected experiences in Word train AI?

No, Microsoft says. Its home privacy page says "Your personal data collected from the use of connected experiences in Microsoft 365 isn't used to train large language models (LLMs)" (Microsoft). Microsoft's work-account Copilot privacy page, updated October 8, 2026, carries the same sentence (Microsoft Learn).

Connected experiences are Word's cloud features. Microsoft's examples are "working with others on a document stored on OneDrive or translating the contents of a Word document into a different language" (Microsoft Learn). The ones that analyze your content "use your Office content to provide you with design recommendations, editing suggestions, data insights, and similar features."

The privacy statement says what happens to the text in one case. When you use Translate in Word, "the text you typed and selected to translate is also sent," and "Your text and the translation are not stored by our service" (Microsoft). Basic Editor checks keep working with the setting off, and then "no content or data related to your use of Editor is sent to Microsoft" (Microsoft Learn).

The scare started on November 24, 2024, when a widely shared post said Office "has slyly turned on an 'opt-out' feature that scrapes your Word and Excel documents to train its internal AI systems" (nixCraft on X). Microsoft 365 replied the next day: "In the M365 apps, we do not use customer data to train LLMs. This setting only enables features requiring internet access like co-authoring a document" (Microsoft 365 on X).

Guides from that week still give the path File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Privacy Options and a box called "Turn on optional connected experiences." Microsoft's docs now give that path only for volume-licensed Office 2019, whose support ended on October 14, 2025 (Microsoft Learn). In current Word, use Account Privacy instead.

Does Copilot in Word train on your documents?

No, in Microsoft's words. For Copilot in Word with a Personal, Family, Premium, or Pro plan, Microsoft says "Prompts, responses, and your file contents when using Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps aren't used to train foundation models" (Microsoft). Copilot reads "the content in the file that you're working in or content in another file that you ask it to look at."

There's no training switch to find. Microsoft's FAQ for the older Copilot app says Microsoft 365 consumer users, and Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Outlook, "will not see this setting, and their conversations will not be used for training the generative AI models we offer in Copilot or other products" (Microsoft).

Copilot in Word keeps a record. Microsoft calls your prompts and responses your "activity history," and in Word on Windows, Mac, mobile, and the web you can still see it after you close and reopen the app (Microsoft). You can export it from the Microsoft privacy dashboard. Our guide to whether Copilot is private covers that dashboard and the separate Copilot app.

For AI services, the Microsoft Services Agreement says "Microsoft will process and store your inputs to the service as well as output from the service, for purposes of monitoring for and preventing abusive or harmful uses or outputs" (Microsoft). None of the pages we read gives a period for keeping those inputs.

Why does Microsoft's privacy statement say it may train on your data?

Because it covers every Microsoft product. Under product development, the statement says "we may use your data to develop, train, and fine-tune our AI models, including large language models (LLMs)" (Microsoft). Its "Learn more" link beside that sentence goes to the FAQ for the older Copilot chatbot app, which let signed-in users opt out of training on their conversations (Microsoft).

The Microsoft Services Agreement grants Microsoft "a worldwide and royalty-free intellectual property license to use Your Content," including "to improve Microsoft products and services" (Microsoft). The same section says "We don't claim ownership of Your Content." For how Microsoft's terms compare with other AI companies' terms, see which AI companies train on your data.

What each Microsoft page promises about your Word text

Read October 26, 2026. Each row quotes the page in its first column.

Every Word-specific page says "foundation models" or "LLMs." None of the pages we read says whether Word text could train smaller models, such as the ones behind text predictions, so we can't tell you either way.

Can the Copilot feedback button send your document to Microsoft?

Yes, if you agree when you send feedback. Microsoft says that until you submit, "no data is collected other than your initial thumbs-up or thumbs-down choice" (Microsoft). In the feedback pane, Microsoft "might also ask your permission to collect additional data."

The extra data can include your prompt, Copilot's response, the history of your chat with Copilot, and "files or other content that Copilot used to formulate the generated response, which might include content not shown or referenced in the final response" (Microsoft). Log files may come too, and Microsoft says these "might contain the content of your files, your name or email address, your IP address, or other personal data."

Microsoft says it uses this feedback "only to improve Copilot" and doesn't use it "to train the foundation models used by Copilot with Microsoft 365 apps" (Microsoft). You can see what you've sent under My Feedback in the Microsoft feedback portal. On a document you'd rather keep to yourself, decline the extra data, or don't rate the reply.

How do you turn off Copilot in Word?

Clear Enable Copilot in Word on each Windows or Mac device you use.

1. Windows: go to File > Options > Copilot, clear Enable Copilot, select OK, then close and restart Word (Microsoft).
2. Mac: open the Word menu, go to Preferences > Authoring and Proofing Tools > Copilot, clear Enable Copilot, then close and restart Word.
3. Web, iPhone, and Android: Microsoft says "You can't turn off Copilot in the iOS, Android, or web versions of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint." Its fallback is to clear Turn on experiences that analyze your content in your privacy settings, which also turns off text predictions in Word, PowerPoint Designer, and automatic alt text.

The checkbox "only applies to that app on that device," and turning it off "turns off Copilot for anybody using that device" (Microsoft). Removing the Copilot icon from the ribbon "doesn't turn off Copilot." The privacy settings are different. Change them in one app, and the change reaches the others next time you open them. Your privacy settings also roam to your other Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices on the same account, except the switch for all non-essential connected experiences, which you have to turn off on each device (Microsoft).

Is Word with a work or school account different?

Yes, because your employer's contract with Microsoft covers it, and your admin holds the switches. On a work account, "the admin in your organization decides whether these connected experiences are available to you" (Microsoft Learn). What work accounts promise on training, and what your IT admin can see, is in our Copilot privacy guide, under work accounts.

A personal account sits under consumer terms instead. Microsoft says Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps for home "is covered by the Microsoft Services Agreement" (Microsoft).

Some Word features on a work account fall under those consumer terms too. Researcher, Smart Lookup, Similarity checker, and Insert Online Pictures are "optional connected experiences" that "aren't covered by your organization's license with Microsoft" and are licensed to you under the Microsoft Services Agreement (Microsoft Learn). Microsoft says the queries Bing gets from them "aren't linked to you by the Bing organization." What your employer can see of your AI use is in our guide to AI on a work laptop.

How to get AI help with a document without sending it to Microsoft

AI help in Word means sending your text to Microsoft's servers under your Microsoft account, and Microsoft's own terms let it store Copilot inputs for abuse checks. The settings above decide what Microsoft does with the text once it arrives. Morse is built so your chats aren't kept in an account on our servers. Keep the document where it is, and paste in the part you want help with.

• E2EE, on Pro, for a draft no one else should read. Your browser checks the secure enclave's hardware attestation, then encrypts the message so only that enclave can read it. Morse's servers relay text they can't read, and the reply is decrypted only in your browser. This rests on the enclave hardware and attestation working as designed, and the enclaves are run by third-party providers, not by Morse. E2EE runs open-weight models like GLM, Kimi, and DeepSeek, and here's how to check an enclave's attestation.
• Private, for everyday rewrites and summaries. New chats start here, with open-weight models like DeepSeek, Kimi, and GLM, plus Grok. Morse has zero data retention agreements with its inference, search, and other providers, so they keep nothing. Where a provider confirms zero retention on each reply, Morse checks it and refuses a reply that doesn't.
• Anonymous, for GPT, Claude, or Gemini without the provider knowing it's you. Our proxy removes your account, email, and IP address and sends the message under Morse's own account. The provider may keep the message for a limited time to check for abuse, under its own policy, so take names out of the passage first.

Morse doesn't train AI on your content, sell your data, or show ads (Morse privacy policy). Your chat history is stored in your browser, encrypted, not on our servers, and our servers don't keep your messages or log what you write. It locks when you sign out and takes two keys to open, one of which never leaves your device. Attached files are sent with the message and never stored by Morse. Clearing your browser or deleting your account removes your chats for good, and Morse can't recover them, so keep the original document in your own files. Writers weighing this for a manuscript can read private AI for writers.

So which Word settings should you change?

• Training: there's nothing to switch off in Word, since Microsoft's no-training lines apply by default. Morse has no switch either, because it doesn't train on your chats.
• Text leaving your computer: clear Turn on experiences that analyze your content if you'd rather Editor and Translator stay local, knowing Copilot goes with them.
• Copilot: clear Enable Copilot in Word on each Windows or Mac device.
• Feedback: decline the extra data when you rate a Copilot reply on a private document.
• A draft no one should read: paste it into an E2EE chat on Morse, where our servers relay text they can't read.

Try a chat from the Morse home page without an account, or start free with no card needed. End-to-end encrypted chats come with Pro, at $19 a month.