Microsoft Office Name Remains Despite Copilot Confusion

So, no, Microsoft did not rebrand Office as Microsoft 365 Copilot. The confusion has to do with overlapping brand names, a vague product page, and a name change of the hub app — not on the part of these productivity suites themselves. Office is still Office for the always-on-desktop computer and continuous desktop license. Microsoft 365’s Copilot feature is, of course, a subscription and a web experience. Here’s how the wires got crossed, and how to quickly decode Microsoft’s labels.

What Led to the Mix-Up Over Office and Copilot Names

The confusion stems from Microsoft’s “Microsoft 365 Copilot app” page, which refers to the app as being “previously Office.” Many readers understandably read “Office” as the suite of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. In fact, those words describe the Office-branded web and mobile hub which enabled you to open files and hop into apps — not the licensed desktop suite itself. Coverage from The Verge and threads on X, Reddit, and Hacker News added to the confusion.

Complicating things, Microsoft describes myriad Copilot services which share similar names. And there are different versions of Copilot available more broadly, including a chatbot as well as Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps, consumer-focused Copilot Pro, and enterprise-grade Copilot for Microsoft 365. When users see a single word spreading across chat, features, and subscriptions, they assume it’s a new name for the entire product — even if that’s not actually the case.

Office, Microsoft 365, and Copilot Are Not the Same

There are those three layers with one goal to each layer in the ecosystem:

• Office: The desktop suite you buy once (now available in its most recent version purchased and perpetually licensed). It’s the Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook you’ve used for years; installed locally on your PC and available offline. It’s the Office name still, in this case.
• Microsoft 365: The subscription and internet-based offering that packages the Office apps with cloud services like OneDrive and Teams. It’s also the modern, regularly updated version that’s oriented toward both consumers and small businesses.
• Copilot: An AI helper that manifests in certain Microsoft products. Copilot can draft documents, analyze spreadsheets, summarize emails, and generate presentations in Microsoft 365. There’s also a stand-alone Copilot chatbot and a premium Copilot Pro tier for consumers. None of these are a rebranding of Office; they’re all about expanding Microsoft 365 and the wider Microsoft world.

A Quick Timeline of Microsoft Office, 365, and Copilot Names

A few years back, Microsoft transferred the brand “Office” that it had been using for subscriptions to its suite of apps to “Microsoft 365” as part of a move toward promoting a cloud-first suite rather than a box of desktop software. The Office mobile and web hub app was rebranded to simply be called Microsoft 365.

More recently, Microsoft folded Copilot into Microsoft 365 and started showing a “Microsoft 365 Copilot” label in various other locations too, even on the hub app. That survivalist desktop suite, meanwhile, not only retained the Office label but saw its subsequent release. The upshot: “Office” now predominantly refers to the perpetual license, while “Microsoft 365 Copilot” and “Microsoft 365” refer to what you get when you subscribe and its AI components.

This sort of staggered evolution is why you might see “formerly Office” on a page for the hub app while your standalone Office desktop suite continues to be quite visibly branded as Office in its About dialog and installer.

How to Figure Out What You’re Using: Office vs 365 vs Copilot

• If you paid once and installed from a product key or setup account, then you have Office (perpetual). Look at Word or Excel > File > Account and you’ll see those perpetual names.
• You pay once a year and want OneDrive storage, Teams, and constant updates? You have Microsoft 365. Yes; Copilot features can be surfaced in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams which is included with your plan.

The Microsoft 365 web hub was one of the items on a single start page called an open-use gateway that also displayed files and templates. The name change of that hub is the “formerly Office” that sowed confusion.

Why the Naming Matters for Office, Microsoft 365, and Copilot

Brand architecture is about more than just looking pretty. Clear naming slashes support tickets, reduces onboarding time, and decreases buyer friction. Analysts from Gartner and Forrester have always pointed out that complex licensing and a plethora of overlapping names generate friction for both consumers and IT teams. You can directly observe this in social chatter spikes around “Microsoft 365 Copilot” post-announcement, verified with Google Trends interest surges post-brand change, and via community inquiries as to if a plan is AI enriched or you have to upgrade.

The stakes are real: families want to know whether their current subscription includes Copilot; businesses need clarity for compliance with third-party audits and budgeting on new features; schools must make sure that students can find the right apps. Uncertainty results in erroneous selections and wasteful updates.

Bottom Line: Office, Microsoft 365, and Copilot Explained

Office was not rebranded as Microsoft 365 Copilot. Microsoft renamed its subscription and hub experiences along the way, brought Copilot in as an AI layer, and consigned the perpetual desktop suite to a cubicle under the Office banner. If you take away just one bit of trivia, it should be this: Office is the one-time license, Microsoft 365 is the subscription, and Copilot is the AI riding on top. The names are intertwined, but the products are not.