Best Open Source Microsoft Copilot Alternatives in 2026 — Free & Self-Hosted

About Microsoft Copilot

💰 $30/user/mo (Microsoft 365 Copilot)

Microsoft Copilot (formerly Bing Chat) integrates AI into Microsoft 365 products — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and Outlook. Powered by GPT-4 with access to your Microsoft 365 data.

Microsoft 365 Copilot costs $30/user/month on top of M365
Requires Microsoft ecosystem lock-in
Data processed through Microsoft's servers
Consumer Copilot limited vs paid version

Top Open Source Microsoft Copilot Alternatives

4 free tools ranked by GitHub stars and community adoption

Dify

⭐ 146k+ stars on GitHub

Open-source LLM app development and orchestration platform

🏆 Best for building custom Copilot-like AI workflows for your specific processes

Open WebUI

⭐ 142k+ stars on GitHub

User-friendly self-hosted web UI for Ollama and LLMs

🏆 Best general Copilot replacement for daily AI chat tasks

AnythingLLM

⭐ 62k+ stars on GitHub

All-in-one desktop and Docker AI application

🏆 Best for team document workspace — similar to Copilot for M365 docs

Danswer

⭐ 30k+ stars on GitHub

AI-powered enterprise search connecting all company data

🏆 Best for enterprise knowledge base Q&A (replaces Copilot's document search)

🏆 Which Microsoft Copilot Alternative Should You Choose?

1 Anything-Llm — Best for team document workspace — similar to Copilot for M365 docs

2 Open-Webui — Best general Copilot replacement for daily AI chat tasks

3 Danswer — Best for enterprise knowledge base Q&A (replaces Copilot's document search)

4 Dify — Best for building custom Copilot-like AI workflows for your specific processes

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Frequently Asked Questions About Microsoft Copilot Alternatives

Is there a free alternative to Microsoft Copilot?

Open WebUI + Ollama provides free AI chat without usage limits. For document Q&A (the key Microsoft 365 Copilot feature), AnythingLLM self-hosted offers team document workspaces at zero per-user cost.

Can I get AI in Word and Excel without Microsoft Copilot?

Not directly integrated, but you can combine Open WebUI or a local LLM with manual paste/export workflows. For Excel specifically, Python scripts with local LLMs handle data analysis tasks that Copilot handles in Excel.

Which open source tool is best for AI over company documents?

Danswer is the most enterprise-ready open source alternative, connecting to SharePoint, Teams messages, Confluence, and 30+ other sources — providing the same document-aware AI chat that M365 Copilot offers.

What's the total cost comparison: M365 Copilot vs self-hosted?

Microsoft 365 Copilot is $30/user/month (plus M365 at $22/user/month = $52/user/month). A self-hosted AnythingLLM + Ollama setup on a small server costs ~$50–100/month total for a small team.