Microsoft Copilot is now providing GPT-4 Turbo at no cost

Microsoft's AI assistant Copilot has boosted its capabilities with a turbocharged enhancement to its complimentary tier. GPT-4 Turbo, the powerful OpenAI model driving Copilot's Pro tier, is now accessible to users of Copilot's free tier. To utilize GPT-4 Turbo, users must set Copilot to either Creative or Precise mode. While subscribers to Copilot Pro retain default access to the GPT-4 Turbo model, Microsoft's advertising and web services CEO Mikhail Parakhin mentioned in a post on X that these users have the option to revert to older models if desired.

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed that GPT-4 Turbo now powers the experience for free Copilot users in Creative mode. Additionally, Copilot Pro users retain the ability to enable or disable GPT-4 Turbo in Creative mode.

Trained on data up to April 2023, GPT-4 Turbo boasts the capability to handle text-to-speech prompts and a context window that can accommodate 128,000 tokens—the highest token capacity offered in a GPT version. Tokens, in this context, represent fragments of words. The increased token capacity allows users to input more text into the model, providing additional context and yielding better results.

Last year, Microsoft introduced Copilot, an AI assistant aimed at integrating artificial intelligence across its platforms. This assistant is accessible online and is integrated into various Microsoft products such as Windows 11, the Bing search engine, Microsoft 365, and the Edge browser. Copilot's Pro tier, priced at $20 per month, offers additional AI-powered functionalities in Office apps, priority access to new OpenAI models, and enhanced image-creation tools.

With the advent of OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot in late 2022, numerous tech companies are incorporating generative AI into their products. Google is exploring AI integration in search functions, while Samsung recently released the Galaxy S24 smartphone featuring a range of AI capabilities. Although Apple has not yet unveiled a generative AI product, it has expressed enthusiasm about the potential opportunities and developments in this area for the remainder of the year.

Meanwhile, OpenAI has started allowing users to construct specialized AI applications. Additionally, its competitors in the AI chatbot space, such as Google Gemini and Anthropic's Claude, are consistently enhancing their services.

Will GPT-4.5 Turbo be the next release?

It's uncertain why Microsoft opted to introduce GPT-4 Turbo to its free Copilot tier. Initially, Microsoft provided a more advanced AI model in Copilot Pro to incentivize users to upgrade to the paid version. However, by offering the same model in both free and premium tiers, individuals who were solely interested in the improved GPT option might choose to stick with the free version.

Alternatively, Microsoft's decision could indicate something more significant. There are rumors circulating about OpenAI developing a new model named GPT-4.5 Turbo. Although OpenAI has been secretive about future GPT iterations, recent findings by Reddit users suggest that a blog post briefly published by OpenAI implied that GPT-4.5 Turbo "outperforms GPT-4 Turbo in terms of speed, accuracy, and scalability."

Even though the blog post was swiftly removed from the OpenAI website, it hints at the imminent release of an upgraded GPT model. Furthermore, if Microsoft intends to maintain a distinction between its Copilot versions by offering the superior model in its paid tier, it may be planning to introduce GPT-4.5 Turbo to Copilot Pro upon its release.