Enterprise & platform players
Microsoft (Copilot & MAI)
Ships the Copilot assistant across Windows, Edge and Microsoft 365 — built on a mix of OpenAI models and Microsoft’s own in-house “MAI” model family.
Checked October 1, 2026
No lab publishes a real roadmap
So this page keeps three things apart on purpose. What has already shipped is dated. What is coming is listed only where the lab itself has said it in public, with the source named. Everything else sits under “What to watch” and is my own read of their shipping pattern — informed guessing, not news. If a date matters to you, check the lab's own page linked above.
What they are
Microsoft is best known for reselling OpenAI's models through Copilot, but it now ships its own in-house MAI model family too.
Its free access is mostly bundled rather than offered: you get MAI capability inside VS Code, GitHub Copilot and Microsoft 365 rather than as a standalone free tool you sign up for.
What they currently ship
Every model in the directory entry, with its free-tier status.
- MAI-Transcribe-2-Streaming— In-house streaming speech-to-text model with 2.5% WER on Artificial Analysis; available in public preview on Azure.Paid only
- MAI-Voice-2.1— In-house text-to-speech model for natural, expressive generation and voice matching; available in public preview on Azure.Paid only
- Copilot (consumer)— Microsoft’s assistant app and web chat. The September 2026 relaunch added a Home hub, a Code mode for programming tasks, and an Autopilot mode that carries out multi-step tasks; the base tier is free, with paid Pro and Microsoft 365 bundles on top.Free with limits
- MAI-1-preview— Microsoft’s first fully in-house general-purpose model — testable free on LMArena, with limited free use inside some Copilot features.Free with limits
- MAI-Code-1-Flash— A lightweight coding model, now the default model in VS Code and bundled into GitHub Copilot.Free
- Note: Copilot still routes many requests to OpenAI models; Microsoft does not label which model answers a given prompt.
- Note: MAI-Transcribe-2-Streaming and MAI-Voice-2.1 (October 2026) provide low-latency transcription and speech synthesis via Azure; other MAI models remain bundled inside Microsoft 365 apps.
What you get for free
The honest version, in one paragraph.
Free if you already use Microsoft's tools. The coding model is bundled into VS Code and GitHub Copilot at no extra cost, and you can try the general model free on LMArena. There is no general-purpose free API, and the voice and image models arrive bundled inside paid Microsoft 365 apps.
Track record
Things that actually happened, oldest first, each with a date.
- 2023–2025Copilot rolls out across Windows, Office and GitHub, powered largely by OpenAI models.
- August 2025MAI-1-preview and MAI-Voice-1 are announced as Microsoft's first in-house models.
- 2026MAI-Code-1-Flash becomes the default model in VS Code.
Confirmed and announced
Only what the lab has stated in public. Nothing here rests on a rumor.
MAI-1-preview is testable free on LMArena, with limited free use inside some Copilot features.
Announced by the lab
MAI-Code-1-Flash is bundled free into VS Code and GitHub Copilot.
Stated on the lab's own pricing or docs page
What to watch
My own read of where this lab is heading, based on how it has shipped so far. Not announcements — treat these as questions to check, not facts.
- — How far the in-house line displaces OpenAI models inside Copilot, which is the real strategic question here.
- — Whether a standalone MAI API with a free tier appears, rather than access only through Microsoft products.
- — Voice and image MAI models, currently reachable mostly bundled inside Microsoft 365 apps.
Their ethics and safety policies
What Microsoft (Copilot & MAI) has published about safety and ethics, the documents themselves, what those documents leave out — and my own read, kept separate.