Understanding web search in Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat
Web search (also known as web-grounded) in Copilot Chat allows Copilot to reference web information when responding to prompts. It can improve the quality of responses by grounding your Copilot conversations with the latest information from the web.
Use web search to get Copilot to reference the latest information from the web
When web search is on, Copilot Chat will generate a Bing search query (or queries) to retrieve relevant information online and provide you with more accurate and up-to-date responses.
Search queries consist of a few words based on your prompt or any content you include with your prompt. The whole prompt (or associated file) is not used as the query unless the prompt is already short (e.g. “New York City weather”).
The following prompts are examples where web search could help provide more accurate and relevant Copilot responses:
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Specialized topics or knowledge: “Help me learn about [topic]”
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Industry trends: “Prepare a brief of today’s news from [finance] regarding [stocks]”
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Market research: “Gather external data about hiring trends in the [hospitality] industry”
If your organization allows web search, you can use it without taking additional action.
Manage web search in Copilot Chat
Without a Copilot add-on license Copilot Chat uses web search in its response, unless your organization has turned it off. If your admin turned off web search, Copilot only uses the Large Language Model (LLM) in its response.
If, however, you have a Copilot add-on license, you can set your toggle to Work and Copilot will search any work content you have access to. You can choose whether or not to include web search in your query by turning web search on or off.
Tip: For more information about the Copilot add-on license, see How Copilot Chat works with and without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
To turn web search off do the following:
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In Work mode, select the option Copilot chats and more in the top right corner of the Chat page.
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In the dropdown, select the Web content toggle on or off to include web search in your Copilot responses.
Tip: For admins who want more information about using web search in their organization, see Manage web search queries in chat.
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