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Microsoft Copilot Alternative: Seven AI Labs, Grounded in Your Sources

Copilot is Microsoft's assistant, built into Windows, Edge, and Microsoft 365. Scholarly is a study workspace with Claude, GPT, Gemini, and Grok in one model picker: upload a PDF, notes, or a recording, get cited answers from it, and turn it into a narrated video lecture, a podcast, slides, flashcards, or a practice exam.

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Scholarly vs Copilot: Feature Comparison

An honest look at how the two platforms compare.

AI labs you can pick from in chat

Scholarly
OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, Meta, Mistral, DeepSeek
Copilot
Microsoft chooses the models

Claude, GPT, Gemini & Grok in one model picker

Scholarly
Copilot

Persistent source library shared by every chat and artifact

Scholarly
Copilot
Notebooks on eligible Microsoft 365 plans

Page citations into your own files

Scholarly
Copilot
Varies by app and feature

Narrated AI video lectures from your documents

Scholarly
Copilot

Podcasts from your sources

Scholarly
Multi-speaker, up to 60 minutes
Copilot
Podcasts and audio overviews

Slide decks from your sources

Scholarly
Copilot
In PowerPoint with an eligible Microsoft 365 plan

Flashcards with Anki export

Scholarly
Copilot

Graded practice exams from your material

Scholarly
Copilot
Study tools for school accounts

Cited deep research reports

Scholarly
Copilot
Researcher on Microsoft 365 Premium

Built into Windows, Edge, Word, Excel, and Outlook

Scholarly
Copilot

Office desktop apps and cloud storage in the same bill

Scholarly
Copilot

Unlimited chat on paid plans

Scholarly
Unlimited on Auto
Copilot
Usage limits vary by plan and feature

Individual pricing

Scholarly
Premium $30/mo, Laureate $99/mo
Copilot
Microsoft 365 Premium from $19.99/mo (Oct 2026)

Team workspace with shared source library and roles

Scholarly
Copilot
Microsoft 365 Copilot for work

Free tier

Scholarly
3 chats + 1 creation to try it
Copilot
Free Copilot app with usage limits

Comparing tools for a whole team?

Scholarly Teams puts your team, class, lab, or company on one Premium or Laureate plan - the chosen access for every member, all built from your shared material.

Where Copilot Still Shines

Copilot is a great tool with real strengths worth acknowledging.

Everywhere you already work

Copilot is built into Windows, Edge, and the Microsoft 365 apps, so it can help inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook without a new tab. If your day already runs on Microsoft 365, that reach is hard to beat, and Scholarly does not try to replace it.

One bill for Office, storage, and AI

Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, and Premium bundle the Office apps and cloud storage with Copilot, and Premium adds the Researcher and Analyst agents with Microsoft's highest consumer usage limits (see Microsoft's pricing page for current rates). If you would pay for Office anyway, Copilot comes along with it.

A free app and audio features

The Copilot app is free to start, and Microsoft 365 plans add higher limits for voice, image generation, podcasts, and audio overviews. For quick everyday help on a Microsoft account, it is a convenient default.

Why People Switch to Scholarly

Pick the model, from seven labs

Paid Scholarly plans can pick GPT 6.1 Sol, Terra, and Luna, Claude Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5, and Haiku 5.5, Gemini 4 Argon, Grok 4.7, Muse Spark 1.3 and Muse Wonder, Mistral Large 3, and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash in AI Chat. Switch per question or mid-conversation when one model fits the job better, instead of taking whichever model the assistant chooses for you.

Your sources, cited to the page

Upload lecture slides, a textbook chapter, a recording, or a work document once. Every chat, quiz, video, and report works from that persistent library and cites the page it used, so you can check an answer against your own material.

Study artifacts in one step

Scholarly turns a source into a narrated video lecture of up to 45 minutes, a multi-speaker podcast of up to 60 minutes, a slide deck, a flashcard deck that exports to Anki, a graded practice exam, or a cited research report. Copilot helps you inside documents; Scholarly hands you the finished study material.

No Microsoft account or school licence required

Scholarly works the same for a student, an exam candidate, a researcher, or a professional studying work material, on any browser and any account. You do not need a Microsoft 365 subscription or a school tenant to get the study tools.

Unlimited chat on every paid plan

Chat on Auto has no message cap on paid plans. Best and the named models, including Claude and Grok, draw on a weekly premium chat allowance, and chat keeps answering on Auto when it runs out. Weekly AI Creation Credits only meter creation jobs like videos and podcasts.

Teams without an enterprise rollout

Scholarly Teams is self-serve for 1-29 seats (Premium for Teams $35/seat/mo) with a shared source library, Owner/Admin/Member roles, activity reporting, and one bill. Upload the handbook once and everyone gets the same grounded answers, training videos, and quizzes from it.

How Scholarly Works

Step 1: Add Your Content

Upload PDFs, paste notes, add images, or link YouTube videos. Any study material works.

Step 2: AI Builds Your Study Materials

Our AI reads your material and turns it into grounded answers, flashcards, quizzes, summaries, and more.

Step 3: Study Your Way

Review with spaced repetition, listen as a podcast, watch as a video lecture, or export to Anki or PDF.

Scholarly vs Copilot: A Closer Look

The clearest difference is where each assistant lives. Copilot lives inside Microsoft: Windows, Edge, and the Microsoft 365 apps, with the models Microsoft chooses. Scholarly lives around your sources: a library of your PDFs, notes, slides, and recordings that every chat and artifact shares, with your choice of Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok, Muse, Mistral, or DeepSeek doing the work.

The second difference is the output. Copilot is excellent at helping inside a document you are already writing, and it can turn material into podcasts and audio overviews. Scholarly is built to turn material into study artifacts: a chaptered, narrated video lecture from your course notes, a graded practice exam from a review book, a flashcard deck with Anki export, or a slide deck from a research paper, each citing your source.

On price: the Copilot app is free to start, and Microsoft 365 Premium starts at $19.99/mo as of October 2026, with Personal and Family below it (see Microsoft's pricing page for current rates). Scholarly Premium is $30/mo or $180/yr with 15 weekly AI Creation Credits, and Laureate is $99/mo with 80 credits and four times Premium's premium chat allowance. Teams are $35/seat/mo for Premium for Teams and $110/seat/mo for Laureate for Teams, self-serve for 1-29 seats. If you want AI inside the Office apps you already pay for, Copilot is the natural fit. If you want AI that works from your own material and hands you something to study from, that is what Scholarly is for.

Keep exploring

Related Pages

Scholarly vs ChatGPT

How Scholarly compares to OpenAI's assistant.

Scholarly vs Gemini

How Scholarly compares to Google's assistant.

Scholarly vs Claude

Anthropic's assistant compared with a workspace that includes Claude models.

Scholarly vs NotebookLM

Google's source-grounded notebook, compared in detail.

Scholarly AI

Everything the AI workspace can create from your sources.

Scholarly Teams

Shared source library, roles, and per-seat billing for 1-29 seats.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Scholarly a good Microsoft Copilot alternative?

Yes, if your work starts from your own material and ends in something to study or share. Scholarly grounds answers in your uploaded sources with page citations, lets you pick models from seven AI labs, and turns your sources into video lectures, podcasts, slides, flashcards, and practice exams. If you mainly want AI inside Word, Excel, Outlook, and Windows, Copilot is the better fit.

Does Scholarly work with Microsoft 365?

Scholarly is a separate workspace that runs in any browser. Upload Word documents, PowerPoint decks, PDFs, and other files, and Scholarly works from them; it does not need a Microsoft account or a Microsoft 365 subscription.

Which AI models does Scholarly include?

AI Chat has two modes: Auto (GPT 6 Luna, unlimited on paid plans) and Best (GPT 6.1 Sol). Paid plans can also pick a model by name: GPT 6.1 Sol, Terra, and Luna, Claude Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5, and Haiku 5.5, Gemini 4 Argon, Grok 4.7, Muse Spark 1.3 and Muse Wonder, Mistral Large 3, and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash. Named models and Best draw on a weekly premium chat allowance; when it runs out, chat keeps answering on Auto until it resets. The free plan chats on Auto. Chat never spends an AI Creation Credit.

Is Scholarly's AI chat really unlimited?

On paid plans, chat on Auto has no message cap. Best and the named models, including Claude and Grok, use a weekly premium chat allowance and fall back to Auto when it runs out. Weekly AI Creation Credits meter creation jobs such as video lectures, podcasts, and slide decks, never chat. The free plan is a trial: 3 lifetime chat messages on Auto, 1 lifetime AI Creation Credit, and 1 lifetime upload.

Copilot can make podcasts too. What is different?

Copilot offers podcasts and audio overviews on Microsoft 365 plans. Scholarly's podcasts are built from your uploaded sources with multiple speakers and run up to 60 minutes on paid plans, and the same sources also become narrated video lectures, slide decks, flashcards, and graded practice exams.

How much does Scholarly cost compared to Copilot?

Scholarly Premium is $30/mo or $180/yr with 15 weekly AI Creation Credits, and Laureate is $99/mo with 80 credits and four times Premium's premium chat allowance. Teams are $35/seat/mo for Premium for Teams and $110/seat/mo for Laureate for Teams, self-serve for 1-29 seats. The Copilot app is free to start, and Microsoft 365 Premium starts at $19.99/mo as of October 2026, with Personal and Family below it (see Microsoft's pricing page for current rates). Microsoft 365 also bundles the Office apps and storage; Scholarly bundles models from seven labs plus artifact creation from your files.

Is Scholarly for students or professionals?

Both. Students and exam candidates use it to turn lectures, textbooks, and notes into practice exams, flashcards, and video lectures. Professionals and researchers use it to turn reports, papers, and work documents into cited answers, briefings, and training. Teams get the same product with a shared library and one bill.

Ready for AI That Starts From Your Own Material?

Pick the right model for each question, keep one source library, and leave with a video lecture, a podcast, or a practice exam instead of a chat thread.

Sample lecture

What one video lecture gets

Free makes a lecture of about 2 minutes in 720p with the Scholarly logo, to watch in Scholarly. Premium and Laureate make lectures up to 45 minutes in 1080p that you can download as an MP4, with the logo off if you choose.

Pricing shown in USD by default. Local currency may be available in app or at checkout.

Compare plans

Image creation · Beta

Shared across Image Studio and chat. Separate from AI Creation Credits. Free images are lifetime and do not reset. Paid allowances reset weekly without rollover. Limits may change during beta.

Free
2 lifetime
Premium
40/week
Laureate
80/week

AI chat

Premium and Laureate include unlimited AI chat on Auto. Chat starts on Best, and premium models such as GPT 6.1 Sol, Claude Sonnet 5.5, and Claude Opus 5.5 draw on a weekly premium usage allowance; when it runs out, chat keeps going on Auto until it resets. Chat never spends AI Creation Credits.

Free
3 total
Premium
Unlimited
Laureate
Unlimited

Premium chat models (Best)

Chat answers on Best, the strongest model, by default. Premium models draw on a weekly allowance that resets every Monday at 00:00 UTC; long threads, large files, background tasks, and Claude Opus 5.5 use it faster. When it runs out, chat keeps going on Auto until the reset.

Free
Not included
Premium
Weekly usage
Laureate
4× weekly usage

AI Creation Credits

AI Creation Credits cover videos, slides, documents, and other AI creations. Most models use 1 credit, a few use 2, and Frontier models use 2, 3, or 4. Image Studio and chat images have a separate weekly allowance.

Free
1 total
Premium
15/week
Laureate
80/week

Podcast length

Free episodes are about 2 minutes. Paid plans can set a target length up to 60 minutes.

Free
About 2 minutes
Premium
Up to 60 minutes
Laureate
Up to 60 minutes

Video lecture length

Free lectures with a length control are about 2 minutes. Paid plans can set a target up to 45 minutes. Short uses its own short video format.

Free
About 2 minutes
Premium
Up to 45 minutes
Laureate
Up to 45 minutes

Video lecture resolution

Free
720p
Premium
1080p
Laureate
1080p

Download lectures as MP4

Free
-
Premium
Included
Laureate
Included

Scholarly logo on lectures

Free
Always on
Premium
Your choice
Laureate
Your choice

File uploads

Free
1 total (8MB)
Premium
Unlimited (300MB)
Laureate
Unlimited (1 GB each)

PDF to flashcards

Free
32 pages
Premium
1000 pages
Laureate
3000 pages

Sources per creation

Free
Up to 1
Premium
Up to 10
Laureate
Up to 20

Practice questions

Free
5 total
Premium
Unlimited
Laureate
Unlimited

Practice exams

Free
1 total
Premium
Unlimited
Laureate
Unlimited

Voice mode

Free
15 min total
Premium
2 hr/day
Laureate
12 hr/day

Autocomplete

Free
500 words total
Premium
Unlimited
Laureate
Unlimited

Export to Anki

Free
-
Premium
Included
Laureate
Included

Support

Free
Standard
Premium
Priority
Laureate
Priority

What customers say

Scholarly has enhanced the quality of notes and questions I administer to my tutees. Insightful, to the point.

TD Georgas

TD Georgas

Tutor

I have very good experience with Scholarly it summarise me scientific text in hovel academic level with citation. I use this for any therapeutic area . It is great and useful tool.

Diana

Diana

Scholarly user

Scholarly has been a valuable tool for my studies. The AI-generated flashcards and intuitive features make organising and retaining information much easier.

Briana

Briana

Scholarly user

This app is great for studying for big test. Drop your PDF's in the system and it'll do the trick. You can organise it specifically for your needs.

Kelvin

Kelvin

Scholarly user

Your questions, answered

Is Scholarly free to use?

Yes! The free plan includes core study tools with lifetime allowances: 3 AI Chat messages, 500 autocomplete words, 5 quiz questions, 15 voice minutes, 1 practice exam, one free AI Creation Credit total, and 1 file upload. These allowances do not reset. Image Studio and chat also share 2 lifetime images during beta; this separate Free allowance does not reset and may change. Upgrade to Premium for 15 AI Creation Credits per week and unlimited uploads.

What uses my free AI Creation Credits?

AI Creation Credits are shared across flashcards, podcasts, videos, slides, AI Documents, Deep Research, and the Transcribe tool. The selected model determines the credit cost. Recording a meeting does not use an AI Creation Credit. Transcript and notes are included, up to 10 hours on paid plans.

Can I cancel any time?

Absolutely. There are no contracts or commitments. You can cancel your subscription at any time from your account settings, and you'll keep access until the end of your billing period.

What payment methods do you accept?

We accept all major credit and debit cards through Stripe. Pricing is displayed in USD by default, but local currency is available in the app.

Can I use Scholarly with a class or school?

Yes. For a school or organisation-wide rollout, contact us at hello@scholarly.so and we'll help you find the right setup.

What happens when I hit a free plan limit?

You'll see a prompt to upgrade. Your existing work is never lost. Limits only apply to new actions. Most Free allowances are lifetime limits. The separate beta image allowance includes 2 lifetime images on Free with no reset, 40 per week on Premium, and 80 per week on Laureate. Limits may change during beta. Premium includes 15 AI Creation Credits per week, podcasts up to 60 minutes, video lectures up to 45 minutes, unlimited uploads, chat, autocomplete, quizzes, and exams, plus more daily voice time.