Move your team from Microsoft Copilot to Gemini.
Each person gets a short interview, then a personalized step-by-step guide showing exactly where their saved work, prompts, and projects land in Gemini — and the few things that need a manual step, walked through. You send one invite; nobody becomes the help desk, and nothing in Microsoft Copilot is changed or cancelled. Want to see where you’re paying for both first? Run the free audit.
Both products provide a persistent AI chat interface grounded in the user's organizational or personal data. To move from Copilot Chat to Gemini: export any important Copilot conversation summaries manually (Copilot does not provide a bulk transcript export), then begin fresh conversations at gemini.google.com. Enable Keep Activity (on by default for users 18+) so chat history persists and Gemini's Memory feature can personalize future responses. On Copilot's side, work data comes from Microsoft Graph (emails, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams) automatically; on Gemini's side, connect Workspace apps (Gmail, Drive, Docs, Calendar) via Settings > Connected Apps to achieve comparable grounding. In the reverse direction, users moving from Gemini to Copilot must have an eligible Microsoft 365 subscription plus the Copilot add-on license before Graph grounding activates — basic Copilot Chat without the add-on only uses web search and uploaded files.
- Warning: Copilot Chat with full org-data grounding requires a paid Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on license; the free-tier Copilot Chat (no add-on) only searches the web and user-supplied files — significantly narrower than Gemini's free tier with Workspace connected.
- Warning: There is no export API for either product's chat history, so conversation archives must be copied manually before switching; Gemini's activity can be viewed and deleted at myactivity.google.com but there is no bulk download in JSON/CSV.
- Warning: Gemini's Memory personalization toggle is separate from Keep Activity and defaults to an unspecified state — verify it is enabled to get persistent personalization comparable to Copilot's Graph grounding.
Both platforms support creating persistent custom AI assistants with specific instructions and knowledge. Copilot calls these 'declarative agents' (built via Agent Builder or the M365 Agents Toolkit); Gemini calls them 'Gems'. To migrate a declarative agent to a Gem: export the agent's system prompt and instructions from the Agent Builder, create a new Gem at gemini.google.com > Explore Gems > New Gem, paste the instructions into the Gem's Instructions field, and upload any reference knowledge files into the Gem's Knowledge section (Gemini supports document uploads for grounding). In the reverse direction, copy a Gem's instructions into a new declarative agent in Agent Builder and attach SharePoint/OneDrive documents as knowledge sources. Gems are simpler to create (no code, no hosting) but are limited to the gemini.google.com chat surface; Copilot declarative agents can deploy to Teams, Outlook, Word, and Excel, making them better for integrated workflow automation.
- Warning: Copilot custom engine agents (which bring a custom orchestrator and models) have no Gem equivalent — Gems are fixed to Gemini's own model and do not support bring-your-own orchestration.
- Warning: Copilot agents connect to external data via Microsoft 365 connectors (Graph-indexed content) and MCP federated connectors; Gems have no equivalent external connector mechanism beyond uploaded files and Connected Apps.
- Warning: Gem sharing is limited to named individuals via a Drive-style link (web only, since Sept 2025); there is no public Gem marketplace. Copilot agents can be published to an organization's Teams App Catalog.
- Warning: Gems are available on the free Gemini tier as of 2026; Copilot declarative agents require a Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on license.
Both products support AI-assisted drafting, summarization, and analysis of documents. Copilot's assistance is embedded directly in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint via a Copilot pane in the Office ribbon; Gemini's is available as a side-panel inside Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides (Workspace embeds), plus file uploads at gemini.google.com for ad-hoc analysis. To migrate a document workflow from Copilot to Gemini: export the relevant Word/Excel/PowerPoint files, upload them to Google Drive, and open in the corresponding Workspace app where the Gemini side panel (sparkle icon) offers 'Help me write', formula suggestions, and 'Help me visualize'. For pure analysis without migrating files, upload the file directly into a Gemini chat at gemini.google.com (up to 100 MB per file, up to 10 files per prompt) and prompt for summaries, rewrites, or data insights. In the reverse direction, download Google Docs as .docx and open in Word with the Copilot pane active.
- Warning: Copilot's in-app editing writes back directly to the open document; Gemini file uploads at gemini.google.com produce text output that must be manually pasted back — only the Workspace side-panel embeds offer comparable in-context editing.
- Warning: Gemini's Workspace side-panel (in Docs, Sheets, Slides) requires a Google AI Pro or AI Ultra subscription for personal accounts, or a Gemini for Workspace business add-on — it is NOT included on the free Gemini tier.
- Warning: Excel-specific features (formula generation, chart creation) have direct analogues in Sheets via Gemini's Sheets integration, but complex Excel macros (VBA) have no automatic conversion path to Google Apps Script.
Both products embed AI assistance directly into email workflows. Copilot in Outlook provides email drafting, reply suggestions, thread summarization, and tone adjustment natively inside the Outlook desktop, web, and mobile clients. Gemini in Gmail (via the Workspace side panel or 'Help me write' button) provides the same core capabilities — drafting new emails, summarizing threads, and adjusting tone. To migrate email-assist workflows from Copilot to Gemini: enable the Gmail integration in Gemini's Connected Apps (gemini.google.com > Settings > Connected Apps > Gmail) so Gemini can read thread context when you invoke it from the standalone chat. For in-Gmail use, the 'Help me write' button appears in the compose window; the Gemini side panel is available when reading threads on the web. In the reverse direction, install Outlook and activate the Copilot pane — no additional configuration is required beyond the M365 Copilot license.
- Warning: Gemini's 'Help me write' in Gmail and basic Workspace embeds are included in Google AI Plus and above; users on the free Gemini tier do not get in-Gmail Gemini assistance.
- Warning: Copilot's Outlook coaching feature (feedback on clarity and tone before sending) has no direct equivalent in Gmail's Gemini side panel as of June 2026.
- Warning: Copilot summarizes email threads using Microsoft Graph context (related calendar events, meetings, people data) automatically; Gemini in Gmail summarizes thread content only — it does not cross-reference Calendar or Meet data unless explicitly invoked with @Calendar.
Both products ground AI responses in the user's organizational and personal data, but via different integration mechanisms. Copilot uses Microsoft Graph grounding — every prompt is automatically enriched with context from the user's emails, OneDrive/SharePoint files, calendar, and Teams chats, with no per-prompt configuration required. Gemini uses Connected Apps — the user must explicitly connect each Google Workspace service (Gmail, Drive, Docs, Calendar, Tasks, Keep) and third-party services (GitHub, WhatsApp, Spotify, etc.) in Settings > Connected Apps, then invoke them with '@AppName' or let Gemini auto-route. To migrate from Copilot's Graph grounding to Gemini's Connected Apps: visit gemini.google.com > Settings & help > Connected Apps and authorize each Workspace service you relied on in Copilot (at minimum Gmail, Drive, and Calendar cover the equivalent of Graph email/files/calendar). Keep Activity must be on for Workspace Connected Apps to function. In the reverse direction, Graph grounding is automatic once the M365 Copilot license is provisioned — no per-source connection setup is required.
- Warning: Copilot's Graph grounding is fully automatic and always-on across emails, files, calendar, and Teams; Gemini's Connected Apps require explicit per-service authorization and may require '@' invocation — users may find responses less proactively contextual on Gemini.
- Warning: Gemini's Connected Apps (Keep Activity on) are available only on personal Google accounts; work/school accounts have admin-controlled Workspace integrations, which may require IT provisioning before users can connect Gmail or Drive.
- Warning: Microsoft Graph grounding respects M365 role-based access controls automatically; Gemini Connected Apps grant Gemini access at the full OAuth scope of the connected app — review permissions carefully when connecting Gmail or Drive to a shared-device account.