When Microsoft first introduced Bing Chat in early 2023, it positioned the tool as an AI-powered assistant built directly into Bing and Microsoft Edge. Two years later, the company has rebranded the service into Microsoft Copilot, expanded its capabilities, and integrated it across Windows, Microsoft 365, and third-party apps.

While Copilot builds on the foundation of Bing Chat, the experience has evolved significantly. Here’s a clear breakdown of what has changed, what has improved, and how the shift affects everyday users.

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A New Name With a Much Larger Scope

Bing Chat was primarily a search-oriented AI chatbot. It provided conversational answers, basic coding help, image generation, and web-based answers powered by GPT-4.

Copilot, on the other hand, is positioned as a system-wide productivity assistant. It works not just in the browser but inside Windows, Office apps, Edge, and even third-party developer tools.

Key difference:
Bing Chat = search assistant
Copilot = ecosystem-wide AI assistant

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Integration Across Windows and Microsoft 365

The rebranding aligns with Microsoft’s push to embed AI features across its core products.

• Windows Copilot brings AI interactions to the taskbar.

• Microsoft 365 Copilot integrates with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams.

• Edge Copilot replaces the Bing Chat sidebar with a more unified UI.

Bing Chat never had this level of integration. It lived solely in the browser; Copilot is now tied directly to the operating system.

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A More Capable Model Under the Hood

Bing Chat originally launched on GPT-4, but Copilot now uses:

• OpenAI GPT-5

• Microsoft’s own small language models (SLMs) for on-device tasks

• Improved multimodal capabilities through OpenAI’s vision and audio models

This allows Copilot to understand:

• Images

• Screenshots

• Documents

• Audio

• Live web content

Bing Chat supported some of this, but not at the level Copilot does now.

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A Redesigned Interface

Copilot replaces the older Bing Chat look with a cleaner, more minimal UI:

• More space for long-form answers

• Persistent side panel on Windows and Edge

• Quicker prompt suggestions

• Better formatting for code and tables

• Toggling between Creative, Balanced, and Precise modes is gone—Copilot uses a unified model

The experience is more polished and less experimental.

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Better Performance and Fewer Restrictions

While Bing Chat often timed out or refused certain tasks, Copilot is noticeably more reliable.

Improvements include:

• Faster response times

• Fewer "I can't help with that" messages

• More accurate search-grounded answers

• Better integration with third-party plugins

In daily use, Copilot feels more like a productivity tool than a demo.

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Real-World Use Cases Have Expanded

Bing Chat was mostly used for:

• Information lookup

• Simple coding help

• Writing summaries

• Image generation via DALL·E

Copilot adds deeper capabilities:

• Editing Windows settings

• Generating PowerPoint decks

• Extracting insights from Excel sheets

• Crafting emails in Outlook

• Assisting with Teams meetings

• Helping developers inside GitHub and VS Code

The shift moves Copilot from a general chatbot to a full AI assistant.

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Availability and Platform Support

Copilot covers more devices and more workflows.

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Does Bing Chat Still Exist?

Technically, no.
Bing Chat has been fully rebranded into Microsoft Copilot. Even the old Bing Chat URLs redirect to Copilot’s interface.

Users still searching for "Bing Chat" are essentially looking for the newer Copilot experience.

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Final Thoughts

The transition from Bing Chat to Copilot isn’t just a name change—it marks a shift from a browser-based chatbot to a broad, AI-powered ecosystem integrated across Windows and Microsoft 365.

For users who only used Bing Chat occasionally, Copilot may feel like a more refined, more versatile version of the same tool. But for power users, the upgrade represents a major step forward, especially with deeper productivity features, better models, and native Windows integration.