How to turn off Copilot in Windows, Edge, Microsoft 365, and Outlook

The Morse teamPublished November 1, 20266 min read

How to turn off Copilot depends on where it shows up: as of November 1, 2026, Microsoft lets you uninstall the Copilot app from Windows 11, reassign the Copilot key, hide Copilot in Edge, clear Enable Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote on Windows and Mac, and switch it off in Outlook, but there's no single switch for all of them. None of these switches deletes what Copilot already saved to your Microsoft account, which you clear separately on Microsoft's privacy dashboard.

We read Microsoft's own support pages, its Windows and Edge admin documentation, and its Copilot privacy pages on November 1, 2026, and give the paths exactly as Microsoft writes them. Microsoft deserves credit for documenting its own limits. Its Microsoft 365 page says plainly where Copilot can't be turned off. For what Copilot keeps while it's on, see is Copilot private.

Where can you turn Copilot off?

Each row is a separate switch. Read November 1, 2026, for a personal Microsoft account.

How do you turn off Copilot in Windows 11?

Uninstall the app. Microsoft says the Copilot app "should already be installed by default" on new Windows 11 PCs (Microsoft). To remove it, select Start > Settings > Apps > Installed apps, find Copilot, and select More > Uninstall (Microsoft). You can also right-click Copilot under Start > All apps and choose Uninstall.

Then turn off the taskbar button. Under Settings > Personalization > Taskbar, the Ask Copilot toggle puts Copilot on the taskbar, and while it's on, Microsoft says it "overrides the option selected" for the Copilot key (Microsoft).

"Hey, Copilot," the wake word, is an "opt-in, hands-free experience," Microsoft says (Microsoft). If you never turned it on, there's nothing to switch off.

What about the Group Policy called "Turn off Windows Copilot"?

It won't help with today's app. Microsoft's Windows policy reference marks Turn off Windows Copilot as deprecated and says it "isn't for the new Copilot experience" (Microsoft Learn). It was written for the old Copilot pane, and you'll still find it under User Configuration > Windows Components > Windows Copilot.

Its replacement for admins, RemoveMicrosoftCopilotApp, uninstalls the app only on PCs where Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Copilot are both installed, the user didn't install the Copilot app themselves, and the app "wasn't launched in the last 28 days." Users "can still re-install if they choose to." The page is inconsistent about Windows Pro: its edition table leaves Pro out, while the policy text lists "Enterprise, Professional and Education." On a home PC, uninstalling it yourself is simpler.

How do you change what the Copilot key does?

Go to Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Keyboard and open Customize Copilot key on keyboard (Microsoft). Microsoft lists Search, Microsoft Copilot, Custom, and Copilot as the choices, and says they "may differ based on your account settings and installed applications." Custom lets you pick another app.

Admins can set the key with the SetCopilotHardwareKey policy. Microsoft says that left unset, the key opens Copilot "if it's available in that country or region" (Microsoft Learn).

How do you turn off Copilot in Edge?

Hide the button, then stop Copilot reading your pages, which is a separate setting.

1. The button: go to edge://settings/appearance/copilotAndSidebar, select Copilot under App specific settings, and turn off Show Copilot button on the toolbar (Microsoft Learn).
2. What Copilot reads: open the More menu (...) in the Edge toolbar, select Copilot and AI, and turn off Allow Copilot to read context clues on the web. Microsoft says this "prevents Copilot from using the current webpage, page title, open tabs, or browser history in its responses" (Microsoft).

For a prompt that doesn't mention the page, Microsoft says Edge uses nothing "beyond the URL, the page title, your prompt, and previous conversation history." For work profiles, Microsoft's admin docs say page access is on by default outside the EU and off by default inside it (Microsoft Learn). A page that has someone else's writing in it is also how prompt injection reaches an assistant.

How do you turn off Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook?

App by app, and only on desktop: clear Enable Copilot under File > Options > Copilot on Windows, or Preferences > Authoring and Proofing Tools > Copilot on a Mac, then restart the app (Microsoft). Microsoft says these switches work only with a personal Microsoft account, not a work or school one, and each checkbox covers one app on one device. Copilot can't be switched off at all in the web, iPhone, or Android versions of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. Our guide to Word and connected experiences covers the privacy setting Microsoft offers there instead, and what Word sends when Copilot is on.

Outlook is the exception that covers every device at once. Its Turn on Copilot toggle applies wherever you're signed in with the same account, but Microsoft says there's "no estimated date" for it in classic Outlook on Windows.

Does turning off Copilot delete your data?

No. Every switch above stops new use and deletes nothing. Your earlier prompts and replies stay in your Microsoft account, split between two sections of Microsoft's privacy dashboard (Copilot apps, and Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps), and saved memories are deleted separately under Settings > Personalization in the Copilot app (Microsoft). We walk through clearing each one in is Copilot private.

How to keep AI chats out of your Microsoft account

Turning Copilot off changes where it appears, while every chat you do have with it goes to Microsoft and into your Microsoft account, the one that can also hold your Outlook mail and your Bing searches. It stays there until you clear two separate histories.

Morse is a web app with no Microsoft account behind it, so there's no Copilot setting to find on each device and no dashboard to clear afterward.

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Whichever mode you pick, your chat history is stored in your browser, encrypted, not on Morse's servers, and it locks when you sign out. Morse doesn't train AI on your content, sell your data, or show ads. Because your device holds the only copy, clearing your browser deletes your chats for good and Morse can't recover them, so copy anything you need into your own files. For how other assistants compare, see are AI chats private.

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