How to Turn Off Copilot in Word and Excel on Windows and Mac

Quick Answer

• In Word for Windows, go to File, Options, Copilot, clear Enable Copilot, click OK and restart Word.
• On Mac, open Preferences, then Authoring and Proofing Tools, then Copilot, and clear the same box.
• If you do not see a Copilot tab, your account or app version may not offer that switch.
• On older versions, you can turn off connected experiences in your privacy settings, but that also switches off other features.
• Excel is reported to use the same Copilot checkbox in Options.

Copilot can show up in Word as a button on the ribbon or a small icon next to your cursor. If you would rather write without it, you can switch it off. The steps depend on your version, your device and your account, so this guide covers each case and explains what to do when the option is missing.

How to turn off Copilot in Word on Windows

This works on newer versions of Word for Microsoft 365. Reports say you need version 2412 or later.

1. Open Word and click File.
2. Click Options (it is at the bottom left).
3. Select the Copilot tab.
4. Clear the Enable Copilot checkbox.
5. Click OK, then close and reopen Word.

Microsoft’s own help page describes the same path for turning Copilot on, so you can reverse these steps any time. That page says the on and off option is available for Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions. The page dates from 2025, so menus may look slightly different today.

How to turn off Copilot in Word on Mac

1. Open Word and click Word in the top menu bar, then Preferences.
2. Choose Authoring and Proofing Tools, then Copilot.
3. Clear Enable Copilot.
4. Quit Word completely and open it again.

This is reported for Word 16.93 and later. If you do not see it, update Word first.

How to turn off Copilot in Excel

Excel appears to follow the same pattern. One 2026 guide says to open File, then Options, go to Copilot, clear Enable Copilot, click OK and restart the app. We could only confirm this from a single source, so check the menu in your own copy of Excel. As with Word, the Copilot tab may not appear on every account.

If you do not see a Copilot option in Word

This is the most common complaint. A Microsoft moderator on the Microsoft Q&A forum (March 2026) explained that the Copilot settings tab appears only when a full Microsoft 365 Copilot licence is active on your account and the Word desktop app has picked it up. If your account is not licensed, or your organization has not finished the rollout, the tab may not show.

What you can try:

• Update Word to the latest version, then restart it.
• Check which account you are signed in with. A work or school account is controlled by your IT admin, so the option can be missing or greyed out.
• Use the privacy method below.

In that same forum thread, the user who could not find the tab and wanted to remove the Draft with Copilot icon did not report a confirmed fix. So if the icon stays after you try these steps, you are not alone, and we cannot promise a fix.

Turn Copilot off with privacy settings (older Word versions)

This method is for older versions that do not have the Copilot checkbox. It switches Copilot off across Microsoft 365 apps such as Word, PowerPoint and Outlook.

Windows:

1. Go to File, then Account, then Account Privacy, then Manage Settings.
2. Under Connected Experiences, clear Turn on experiences that analyze your content.
3. Restart Word.

Mac:

1. Open Preferences, then Personal Settings, then Privacy.
2. Choose Manage Connected Experiences and clear the same option.
3. Restart Word.

There is a catch. One guide warns that this also disables other features that depend on connected experiences, including text prediction, translation and dictation. Use it only if the checkbox is not available.

What if you want Copilot off across Windows too?

Word and Excel are only part of the picture. Windows 11 has its own Copilot app, and Edge has its own switch. We cover all of those in our guide on how to disable Copilot on Windows 11. If privacy is the reason you want it off, read whether Copilot human reviewers can see your photos.

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