Microsoft Copilot vs LLMxRay

Microsoft Copilot and LLMxRay are both AI Chat & Assistants tools (Chatbots). Below: what each costs, what it does well, its biggest catches, and who should pick which, all from public sources rather than our own testing.

Side by side

Microsoft CopilotLLMxRay
CategoryAI Chat & Q&A · ChatbotsAI Chatbots · Conversational AI
PricingFree tier: yes. Microsoft 365 Premium $19.99/mo. Microsoft 365 Copilot Business $18/user/mo paid yearly (discounted from $21), $25.20 on monthly billing. (checked Oct 10, 2026)Free, open source (Apache-2.0). (checked Oct 14, 2026)
Pros
  • Free Copilot chat on the web and in the app is genuinely usable
  • Microsoft 365 Premium bundles Office apps, storage and expanded Copilot
  • Works across Word, Excel and Outlook on paid plans
  • Free and open source (Apache-2.0), and starts with one command (npx llmxray) or Docker
  • Shows token-by-token streaming with speed coloring, plus automatic flags for repetition, refusals, gibberish and truncation
  • Can sit in front of Ollama so tools like VS Code Copilot, Open WebUI or Continue send traffic through it, showing prompt size and cache behavior per turn
Catches
  • The free version lacks deep Office-app AI and agents
  • On Premium, AI benefits apply only to the subscription owner, not family members
  • For business, Microsoft 365 Copilot is an add-on: $18/user/mo yearly is a discounted price (regular $21), and it sits on top of a Microsoft 365 plan
  • Built for Ollama only: you need it running locally with a model pulled
  • A small project so far (about 22 GitHub stars and 2 forks), and its Show HN got no comments, so there's little outside feedback
  • The 3.5x-faster prefill result in Cache Lab comes from the author's own test
Best forMicrosoft 365 households and businesses.Developers running local models in Ollama who want to see why responses are slow or bad.
Skip it ifYou mainly need free chat. You don't have to pay.You use hosted APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic) rather than local models; a cloud LLM observability tool fits better.

Which should you pick?

Pick Microsoft Copilot if…

you fit this: microsoft 365 households and businesses.

But not if: you mainly need free chat. You don't have to pay.

Watch out for: The free version lacks deep Office-app AI and agents.

Pick LLMxRay if…

you fit this: developers running local models in Ollama who want to see why responses are slow or bad.

But not if: you use hosted APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic) rather than local models; a cloud LLM observability tool fits better.

Watch out for: Built for Ollama only: you need it running locally with a model pulled.

More options

Sources

Microsoft Copilot

LLMxRay

Pros, catches and prices are compiled from public sources (official pricing and docs pages, published reviews, user reports), not hands-on testing. Prices change often, so check the vendor page before you buy.