Microsoft says it has over 20M paid Copilot users, and they really are using it

Source: TechCrunch

Growing User Base and Enterprise Adoption

Microsoft announced that M365 Copilot now has 20 million paid enterprise seats. The figure was shared by CEO Satya Nadella during the company’s quarterly earnings conference call.

The company has quadrupled the number of customers with over 50,000 seats. Notable enterprises such as Bayer, Johnson & Johnson, Mercedes, and Roche each have more than 90,000 seats. Microsoft also highlighted a recent deal with Accenture for over 740,000 seats – described as “our largest Copilot win to date”【Reuters】(https://www.reuters.com/business/accenture-roll-out-copilot-all-743000-employees-boost-microsoft-2026-04-27/).

Engagement Metrics

Nadella emphasized that users are engaging with Copilot at a rate comparable to email:

• Copilot queries per user rose nearly 20 % quarter‑over‑quarter.
• Weekly engagement now matches Outlook, indicating a “daily habit of intense usage.”

Model Flexibility

Copilot is not tied to a single AI model. Users can access multiple models by default, with intelligent auto‑routing that allows agents to critique and counsel. For example, Microsoft 365 supports Anthropic’s Claude.

Agent Mode and New Capabilities

Agent mode, which enables Copilot to perform multi‑step actions directly within documents, has become the default experience across Copilot, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Microsoft recently made Copilot’s agentic capabilities generally available【Microsoft Blog】(https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2026/04/22/copilots-agentic-capabilities-in-word-excel-and-powerpoint-are-generally-available/), giving users a new way to delegate and complete work.

“You now have a new way to delegate and complete work using Copilot,” Nadella said.

Analyst Commentary

Morgan Stanley’s Keith Weiss called the Copilot numbers “super impressive” and noted they are “way ahead of most people’s expectations.”