Microsoft Copilot users get free access to GPT-5: Here’s how to try it | Technology News

If you want to try GPT-5, head over to the Copilot website from your favourite browser and choose Smart Mode by clicking on the model selector that appears just below the text input field. A week ago, Microsoft started rolling out a new Smart Mode for select Copilot users. 

At the time of writing, the new Smart Mode was not visible on the Windows Copilot app, which means Microsoft might be gradually rolling out the update. We tried using Copilot’s new Smart Mode, and during our usage, noted that the responses generated by GPT-5 were much faster than OpenAI’s previous models.

Compared to the free ChatGPT tier, which automatically switches to an older model after a certain number of queries, Copilot seems to have fewer restrictions, as we could use it for numerous queries. Also, you won’t need a Microsoft account to try Copilot’s new Smart Mode.

In a blog post, Microsoft said that its AI Red Team, which is responsible for anticipating and reducing potential harms “by probing critical AI systems before they are released”, rigorously  tested GPT-5 and noted that the reasoning model “exhibited one of the strongest AI safety profiles among prior OpenAI models.”

Coming to Microsoft 365 Copilot, the tech giant says OpenAI’s latest and most powerful model is better at answering and reasoning through complex questions and can stay on track in longer conversations. As it turns out, the upgraded model can also help customers reply to emails and analyse documents and files.

GPT-5 also made its way to GitHub Copilot, Microsoft’s AI coding tool. In a separate blog post, GitHub said that OpenAI’s latest model delivers “substantial improvements in reasoning, code quality and user experience over previous versions.”