Microsoft Copilot vs Open WebUI

Microsoft Copilot is an AI assistant available on the web, Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. It supports web search, file uploads, image generation, app integrations, team workspaces, and AI bot generation. A free plan offers limited access subject to capacity and usage limits. Paid Microsoft 365 plans bundle Copilot with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, OneDrive, Defender, and Teams. Microsoft 365 Personal costs $99.99 a year for one person, includes 1 TB of cloud storage, and allows sign-in on five devices at once. Family costs $129.99 a year for one to six people and provides up to 6 TB of storage, but AI features are available only to the subscription owner. Premium is $199.99 a year; Pro is $99.99 a month. Paid plans provide increased usage for chat and visual AI assistance, with agentic AI usage limited on Premium and highest on Pro. AI-generated audio is English only.

Open WebUI is a self-hosted interface for local and cloud AI models, designed to run entirely offline. It connects to Ollama and OpenAI-compatible APIs. Installation options include Docker, pip, uv, and desktop setup; the documentation recommends Docker or Python for production deployments. Listed capabilities include voice, vision, retrieval, generation, search, Python extensions, file uploads, image generation, app integrations, and team workspaces. Its extension system supports Filters, Actions, Pipes, Tools, and Skills, and can connect through MCP, MCPO, and OpenAPI tool servers. Knowledge retrieval includes local RAG with nine vector databases, multiple content-extraction engines, hybrid search, reranking, and full-context mode. Organizations can deploy it on-premises, in a private cloud, or in an air-gapped environment. The operator configures where chats and other data are stored; data can be routed externally when external providers, tools, model endpoints, or integrations are configured. The software is free to use as-is with original branding intact. Deployments with more than 50 users must keep Open WebUI branding visible unless an exception applies.