I want to disable Copilot in Word on MacBook Air

I also find that feature very annoying so I researched the answer. To disable Copilot in Microsoft Word on a Mac, open your Word document, go to File > Options > Copilot, and then uncheck the "Enable Copilot" box. I'm happy to report it works!

You can find more detail here:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-to-turn-off-copilot-in-microsoft-365-family-and-personal-subscriptions-bc7e530b-152d-4123-8e78-edc06f8b85f1

Jack, you are preaching to the wrong choir. This is an Apple forum, not a Microsoft forum. Since none of the solutions in this thread seem to work for everyone, your only option is to contact Microsoft directly

I did the advice to go to Preferences and Privacy, then Connected Experiences. I disconnected all three, and it got rid of CoPilot, but that also disconnected my OneDrive, which was a dealbreaker. So I only disabled the third feature of the Connected Experiences. This got rid of the annoying chatty paperclip on my document, but CoPilot is still on the dashboard. I'll keep trying.

JackBRochester wrote:

The point being, did the "Microsoft/Word/365 etc. user community" ask for these changes, or were they they product of some junior programmer who lacked an understanding of how PEOPLE use word processing software? I'll stop my rave about workflow process here and just say, "if it isn't broke, it doesn't need to be fixed."

That sounds like something to ask in the Microsoft forums or by contacting Microsoft.

As of midday on 22 Jan 25 1) I have the version of Word for Mac that my Microsoft account's "help" function says has an "Enable Copilot" box that can be unchecked, but it does not, in fact, have this box. 2) Contrary to what is stated in this "help" I am not allowed to "manage connected experiences" in the Privacy section. Shame on Microsoft for posting these blatant lies. If I am next asked to pay for AI that I don't want, I will switch to LibreOffice.

No—it doesn't just go away when you start to type. It reappears every time you hit "return."

Alas, most of us don't have that option. The best I could do is to tweak the privacy settings. But that blasted co-pilot icon still appears in every new document, even if it doesn't work.

I've found the transition to Pages smooth and seamless. Seems like Apple has done some good work on it and menus and commands are easy to find.

~ Jack

I suspect that, if enough people register their complaints through the "Feedback" option (Help/Feedback), this issue will be addressed in another update cycle or two. Until then, we soldier on.

Well then, we are back to Barney-15E's suggestion. Contact Microsoft. Somehow I now only see the Co-Pilot icon at the top right of any Word document I'm working on. It's no longer popping up on its own. Maybe if you disregard it enough times, it goes away?

Carol B. wrote:

Well then, we are back to Barney-15E's suggestion. Contact Microsoft. Somehow I now only see the Co-Pilot icon at the top right of any Word document I'm working on. It's no longer popping up on its own. Maybe if you disregard it enough times, it goes away?

I'll have to check on that. I'm usually using Word with a work account that doesn't have Copilot, though.

Disabling the CoPilot functionality (if you can) in Microsoft 365 will not change Microsoft's decision to increase the subscription prices for personal and family. Single-purchase Office 2021/2024 for Mac suites have no access to CoPilot and their pricing remains the same.

Did you delete the latest version of Word (move it to the bin)? If not, it will not install the older version. And turn off AutoUpdate? If not, it will automatically update to latest version. Not sure if it works for everyone, but at least for some of us.