Morse vs Copilot: who reads your prompt, who picks the model, and what it costs

The Morse teamPublished November 12, 2026Facts checked November 12, 202612 min read

Morse vs Copilot comes down to who reads your prompt before a model answers it. As of November 12, 2026, every Microsoft Copilot chat runs under your Microsoft account, passes through Microsoft's classifiers together with your recent conversation, goes to a model Microsoft chooses, and stays in your Copilot history, while Morse lets you pick from 80+ models, keeps your history encrypted in your browser, and in E2EE mode has your own browser verify the enclave before a message leaves your device. Choose Copilot if you want AI inside Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint, phone apps, and OneDrive storage on the same bill; choose Morse if you want to pick the model yourself, from an app that doesn't train on your chats or show ads on any plan, with no Microsoft account behind it.

We read Microsoft's Transparency Note for Copilot (dated November 10, 2026), the Copilot Terms of Use (effective August 18, 2026), the Microsoft Privacy Statement (last updated November 2026), its Copilot pages on privacy controls, activity history, young people, and the app changes, the Microsoft 365 plan comparison, the Copilot pricing page for individuals, the AI credits and limits page, and the Copilot Pro support page on November 12, 2026. This comparison covers the Microsoft Copilot app on a personal account, not GitHub Copilot, which has its own rules for your code. Microsoft deserves credit for two things. Its consumer app doesn't use your prompts, responses, or files to train foundation models, and its Transparency Note describes, step by step, what happens to a prompt before a model sees it.

At a glance

As of November 12, 2026. Every Copilot fact links to Microsoft's own page. The Copilot column is the updated app, signed in with a personal Microsoft account.

What happens to your prompt in Copilot?

Microsoft reads it, screens it, and picks a model for it. Microsoft's Transparency Note for individuals lays out the path. Your prompt, your conversation history, and Microsoft's system message go through "several input classifiers to help filter out harmful or inappropriate content." Next, "a determination is made if the request requires grounding data from the web and which language model should respond," and every model answers from "the user's prompt and recent conversation history" (Microsoft).

The same note lists the other checks on what you send. Uploaded images are scanned for child sexual exploitation and abuse imagery, which Microsoft reports to NCMEC. Uploaded files get "automated scanning" for things like "text that could relate to illegal activities or malicious code." Images shown to Copilot Vision "are deleted within 30 days after the conversation ends." The Privacy Statement adds that Copilot uses "your prompts, location, language, and related settings to provide helpful responses and improve services" (Microsoft).

Microsoft is open about this, and it means your words are readable on Microsoft's side at each step, under your account. The terms say: "You shouldn't share any information with Copilot that you don't want us to review" (Microsoft).

Morse's E2EE mode runs the other way around. Your browser checks the enclave's cryptographic proof first, then seals the message on your device so only that enclave can read it, and Morse's servers pass along ciphertext they can't open. Our guide to how end-to-end encrypted AI chat works goes through each check.

Which AI models does Copilot use?

The ones Microsoft chooses. The Transparency Note says Copilot draws on "language and multi-modal models from Microsoft, OpenAI, and other model developers," and the routing step above decides which one replies (Microsoft). Microsoft's pricing FAQ calls Copilot a single experience built from "AI models selected by Microsoft" (Microsoft). Its overview page says you "can also choose between leading AI models for different kinds of work" and that "Specific features vary by subscription," without naming a model (Microsoft). What a paid plan adds is "Preferred access to AI models during peak times" (Microsoft).

On Morse, you choose the model for each chat, from 80+ open and closed models made by OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, DeepSeek, Z.ai, Moonshot AI, Qwen, and others. Free includes GPT-6 Luna, Claude Haiku 5.5, and GLM 5.3 Flash. Pro adds unlimited use of its Pro text models, Claude Sonnet 5.5, Grok 4.7, and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash among them, plus 250 credits a month for frontier models.

How much does Copilot cost in 2026?

From $0 to $99.99 a month, and on every paid plan the AI belongs to one person. Microsoft sells Copilot inside Microsoft 365, and Family, Premium, and Pro share apps and storage with up to five other people, but Microsoft's footnote says "AI features only available to subscription owner and cannot be shared" (Microsoft). We put each plan's price and AI limits side by side from Microsoft's plan comparison, its Copilot pricing page, and its AI credits and limits page, all read November 12, 2026.

On November 12, Microsoft's pages also showed a limited-time first-month or first-year discount on Personal and Premium, renewing at the regular price. Morse's plans are Free at $0 with no card, Pro at $19 a month ($17 billed yearly), and Max at $49 a month ($44 billed yearly). Pro costs 99 cents less than Microsoft 365 Premium and includes E2EE chats. Max, with higher rate limits and 5,500 credits a month worth $55, is under half the price of Microsoft 365 Pro.

Copilot Pro, the $20 plan that guides still describe, is gone. Microsoft's support page says it "is no longer available for purchase; existing subscribers can continue using it until they cancel or support ends on August 1, 2026" (Microsoft). A guide titled "Copilot Pro for Students 2026: Worth $20?", last updated in May 2026, still tells readers to "Pay the $20 for Copilot Pro" if they live in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint (TrueScho).

Microsoft's own pages also disagree on the top tier. The Copilot Pro page says Microsoft 365 Premium "offers the highest Copilot usage limits," while the pricing page files Microsoft 365 Pro, at $99.99 a month, under "Highest usage limits." If a limit matters to you, check Services & subscriptions in your Microsoft account, where the credits page says your remaining limits are shown.

Does Copilot show ads?

On the free version, it can. Copilot's terms say "If you use Copilot without a paid Microsoft 365 subscription, Copilot may include advertising" (Microsoft). The settings that shape those ads are in is Copilot private. Morse shows no ads on any plan, Free included, and runs no advertising trackers or third-party analytics.

Does Copilot train on your chats?

Not its foundation models. Microsoft says "Prompts, responses, and your file contents when using the Microsoft Copilot app aren't used to train foundation models" (Microsoft), though its Privacy Statement keeps wider wording for Microsoft as a whole; is Copilot private walks through the gap. Morse doesn't train AI on your content on any plan, so there's no training switch to look for.

Does Copilot refuse more than Morse?

Yes, compared with Morse's paid plans. Copilot's Code of Conduct tells you not to use it to "create or share adult content, violence or gore, hateful content," or content "that is otherwise disturbing or offensive," and Microsoft "may block, restrict, or remove your Prompts" that break the terms or "could lead Copilot to create a Response that violates these Terms" (Microsoft). The Transparency Note adds that Copilot "may not respond with creative content when the user prompt contains certain terms." When its classifiers read a message as suicide or self-harm intent, "the system disengages from the conversation" and shows crisis resources (Microsoft).

On Morse's paid plans, picking an unfiltered model gets answers other apps refuse: dark fiction, straight medical and legal answers, and help testing your own security. Free plan models aren't unfiltered, and nothing on Morse helps with anything illegal. Character chats on Morse show crisis lines when a message reads like suicidal thinking, and that check runs on your device.

Can Microsoft cut off your Copilot access?

Yes, at any time. The terms say Microsoft may "limit, suspend, or permanently revoke your access to or use of Copilot (and potentially all other Services) in our sole discretion, at any time and without notice," including when "your Microsoft Account or the account you use to log in to Copilot is suspended or closed" (Microsoft). Your Copilot history is kept with that same account. US users also agree to the binding arbitration clause and class action waiver in Section 15 of the Microsoft Services Agreement, which the terms flag in capitals at the top; we compare those clauses across apps in AI chatbot arbitration clauses.

What does Copilot do better than Morse?

On Microsoft's own pages, read November 12, 2026, Copilot leads in six areas:

• Office. Paid plans put Copilot in the Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote desktop apps. Copilot in Excel needs AutoSave, so the file must be saved to OneDrive (Microsoft).
• Agents. Premium and Pro include Researcher and Analyst, and Cowork drafts and sends email, manages your calendar and OneDrive files, and runs prompts on a schedule (Microsoft).
• Apps everywhere. Copilot runs on the web, Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android, with voice chat and Vision for your screen or camera (Microsoft). Morse is a web app.
• The bundle. 1 TB to 5 TB of OneDrive, Microsoft Defender, and Teams, with apps and storage shared across up to six people on Family, Premium, and Pro (Microsoft).
• A cheaper paid tier. Microsoft 365 Personal, at $9.99 a month, puts Copilot in desktop Office. Morse's first paid plan is $19.
• Labeled images. Microsoft says every image made with Copilot carries C2PA content credentials, so others can check it was AI-generated (Microsoft).

If your work lives in Microsoft 365, that's the strongest reason to pay Microsoft.

How Morse keeps your prompts out of Microsoft's pipeline

Every Copilot answer starts with your words readable on Microsoft's systems, under your Microsoft account. Microsoft's classifiers read them, Microsoft picks the model, Microsoft decides when ads appear, and Microsoft keeps the history with an account it can close. Morse is built so your chats don't sit on a server under your name, ours included.

On Morse, you pick the model for each chat. No plan shows ads, so there's no ad tier to buy your way out of, and Morse doesn't train on your chats, so there's no training switch.

• E2EE, for prompts you'd keep out of any company's pipeline. Your browser verifies the secure enclave's hardware attestation, encrypts the message on your device for that enclave alone, and decrypts the reply only in your browser. Morse's servers relay ciphertext they can't read. Each E2EE reply has a lock you can open to see every check that passed, and a full report to download. The enclaves are run by third-party providers, not by Morse, and the guarantee depends on the enclave hardware and attestation working as designed. E2EE runs open-weight models like GLM, Kimi, and DeepSeek, without web search or image generation, and comes with Pro at $19 a month.
• Anonymous, for GPT, Claude, and Gemini with no account of yours behind them. Our proxy strips your account, email, and IP address and sends the message under Morse's own account. The provider sees the message without knowing it's you, and may keep it for a limited time to check for abuse, under its own policy, so leave out names and details that point to you.
• Private, the default, for everyday questions on hosts that agreed to keep nothing. Open-weight models like DeepSeek, Kimi, and GLM, plus xAI's Grok, run here. Morse has zero data retention agreements with its inference, search, and other providers, and where a provider confirms zero retention on each reply, Morse checks it and refuses a reply that doesn't.

In every mode, your chat history, Studio images, and the characters you make are stored in your browser, encrypted, locked when you sign out, and opened with two keys: one that never leaves your device and one our server issues at sign-in. Our servers don't keep messages or log what they say, and your account holds only sign-in details, your plan and balance, and a usage ledger with no content. Morse doesn't train AI on your content, sell your data, or show ads. Because we don't store chats, we usually have very little to give authorities. Clearing your browser or deleting your account removes your chats for good, and Morse can't recover them, so keep a copy of anything you'll need. The privacy modes page shows what each party sees in each mode.

Copilot or Morse: which should you choose?

• Choose Copilot if you work in Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint every day, want Researcher, Analyst, or Cowork to handle multi-step work, need phone and desktop apps, or want terabytes of OneDrive on the same bill, and you're comfortable with Microsoft reading and routing each prompt under your account.
• Choose Morse if you want to choose your model from 80+, keep your history encrypted on your own device, get E2EE chats your browser verifies for $19 a month, and never see an ad or a training setting, with no Microsoft account involved.

Try a first chat from the Morse home page without signing up, or open a free account and move to Pro when you want E2EE.

Morse publishes this comparison. We've tried to keep it fair; if something's wrong or out of date, email hello@trymorse.ai.

Copilot is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Morse is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft Corporation.