If your company runs on Microsoft 365, Copilot in Outlook is the obvious thing to try first, and it is a good tool for what it covers. This comparison is about what it does not cover: the Teams message, the Slack thread from a client and the Gmail account that sit next to your Outlook mailbox. Nolario is our product, so weigh this page accordingly; we say below where Copilot is the better choice.
What Copilot in Outlook does
Copilot in Outlook prioritizes, summarizes and drafts the mail in your Exchange Online mailbox. When we read Microsoft's FAQ on October 21, 2026 (marked last updated August 2026), it listed four things: Prioritize my inbox, which "reviews your emails as they arrive in your inbox and assigns a priority (high, low, normal)"; a summary that extracts the key points of a thread; drafts generated from a prompt with thread context; and meeting scheduling through Copilot chat with up to two other people.
It lives where Outlook lives: Outlook for Microsoft 365 on Windows and Mac, new Outlook for Windows, and Outlook for Android and iOS. Microsoft's privacy page says prompts, responses and data accessed through Microsoft Graph are not used to train the foundation models behind Copilot. Microsoft also describes its drafts as something to review before sending, which is the same stance Nolario takes.
What we found on the page that decides it for most readers
The limits that matter are on the FAQ, not on the marketing page. Reading it on October 21, 2026, three lines stood out. Copilot scenarios "are not supported on mailboxes that are not hosted on Exchange Online". They work only on your primary mailbox, not on archive, group or shared and delegate mailboxes. And chat with Copilot requires a work or school account. If you run one Exchange Online mailbox for yourself, none of that bites. If you also keep a Gmail account, an IMAP mailbox or a shared client mailbox, it does.
The same applies to channels. The FAQ is about Outlook, and Teams has its own Copilot. A Microsoft support page for Copilot in Teams says you must have a Microsoft 365 and a Copilot license, and describes chat summaries that cover the main points, action items and decisions and can show highlights from the past 1, 7 or 30 days. It uses only the chat thread you have open. So you get an inbox ranking in Outlook and a summary per chat in Teams, and the question "which of these two needs me first?" is still yours.
Copilot pricing for a business in October 2026
Copilot is an add-on to a Microsoft 365 plan, not a standalone product. On Microsoft's business pricing page on October 21, 2026 the Copilot Business add-on was listed at $18.00 per user per month billed yearly, a promotional price available between July 1, 2026 and December 31, 2026 for the first year, with a list price of $21.00 and $25.20 per user per month on monthly billing. The promotion is limited to existing Microsoft 365 customers with an eligible Business plan. Bundles were listed at $23.50 per user per month yearly for Business Standard with Copilot and $32.00 for Business Premium with Copilot. Microsoft noted that Copilot in Teams requires a Teams license. Prices change; check the page before you budget. Nolario's own entry price is €29/mo, with access by waitlist.
| Feature | Nolario | Copilot in Outlook |
|---|---|---|
| Available today | No | Yes |
| Outlook mail | Yes | Exchange Online, primary mailbox |
| Gmail and IMAP mailboxes | Yes | No |
| Teams and Slack in the same list | Yes | Separate Copilot in Teams, per chat |
| Importance of each item | 0 to 100 score, all channels | High, low or normal, mail only |
| Drafts replies | In your voice, never sent | Yes, from a prompt and thread context |
| Extra license needed | Waitlist plan | Copilot add-on on a Microsoft 365 plan |
| Starting price | €29/mo (waitlist) | $18 to $21 per user per month, add-on |
Where Nolario is the better choice
Nolario is better when the message that matters might arrive anywhere. It pulls Outlook, Teams, Slack, Gmail, Google Calendar and any IMAP mailbox into one feed, scores every item from 0 to 100 and ranks the feed so the highest is on top. A short Teams message from a client can sit above a newsletter that arrived earlier in Outlook, because both are scored on one scale. We keep the same Teams limit Microsoft does: Teams chats work for work and school accounts only, because Microsoft Graph does not expose chats for personal Microsoft accounts. We built the connector, found that, and Nolario says so plainly when you connect.
On privacy, message content is scrubbed on our side before an AI provider sees it: names, email addresses and numbers are removed first. That is a different design from Copilot's, which keeps the data inside the Microsoft 365 boundary, and which is better depends on whether you would rather trust one large vendor or filter before data leaves.
Good
- One ranked feed across Outlook, Teams, Slack, Gmail, calendar and IMAP
- A 0 to 100 importance score on every item, not only mail
- Drafts in your voice, never sent for you
- Plans from €29/mo, no add-on to a Microsoft plan
Not so good
- Access is by waitlist today
- Desktop web app, with no mobile app available
- No shared queue and no assignment, so it is not a team helpdesk
- Sits next to Outlook; it does not replace it
Where Copilot is the better choice
Copilot wins if your work is almost entirely in Microsoft 365 and your company already pays for the license. It is native to Outlook and Teams, covered by your tenant's permissions and compliance setup, and available now. Its meeting recaps and its Teams chat summaries are also not something Nolario replaces. If you want one assistant that your IT team can manage and audit, Copilot is that, and Nolario is not.
Verdict: which one for an Outlook and Teams company
Pick Copilot if all your important mail sits in one Exchange Online mailbox and your admin will buy the license. Pick Nolario, once you have access, if your day crosses Outlook, Teams, Slack and a second mailbox and you keep missing the message that mattered. Many people will run both: Copilot inside the Microsoft apps, a feed outside them to decide what to open first. For the wider field of Outlook assistants see the best AI email assistants for Outlook, and for the manual setup that does not need any AI, how to keep Outlook and Teams from burying a deadline. If Gmail is part of your day, the best AI assistants for Gmail, Slack and Teams compares the cross-channel options. The channels Nolario connects are on integrations, plans on pricing, and the free tools need no account.
