Microsoft
Microsoft Strips Copilot's Free Features — and Puts Deep Research Behind a Subscription
From 18 August 2026 Microsoft retired Copilot's free Deep Research, AI podcasts and group chats as it merged its two Copilot apps. In-depth research now needs a paid Microsoft 365 Premium plan; the escape hatch for the rest was to save each item by hand before the deadline. The clean-up is reasonable; the paywall and the export burden are not.