OpenAI announced that ChatGPT has officially landed in Microsoft Word, allowing users to add ChatGPT to Word documents to transform rough notes into drafts, streamline complex paragraphs, proofread, and provide editing suggestions, all without leaving the document interface. ChatGPT can even identify formatting issues within the document.

This feature is available simultaneously for Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, covering all ChatGPT subscription tiers, including the free version Free, Go, Plus, Pro, as well as Business, Enterprise, Edu, and K-12 institutional users, and is open for global use, with corresponding usage limits for each tier.

In terms of specific functionalities, in Excel, ChatGPT can build spreadsheets from scratch, analyze data across multiple worksheets and formulas, update existing workbooks, explain calculation logic, and create reusable workflows; in PowerPoint, it can generate complete slides based on notes or materials, optimize existing presentations, summarize presentation logic, and convert raw data into ready-to-use presentation pages while maintaining the editability of the slide structure.

To use the feature, users need to install the ChatGPT app from the Microsoft Marketplace, open it in the Office add-in sidebar in Excel or PowerPoint, and log in with their OpenAI account linked to their ChatGPT subscription. Each task consumes between 20 to 110 credits, depending on the task's scale and complexity, sharing the same token-based credit system as other ChatGPT functionalities.

Regarding functionality limits, the current version does not support advanced capabilities such as native chart editing, animation effects, complex templates, and custom fonts in PowerPoint; conversation history within the add-in will not sync with the ChatGPT.com web history, and the memory feature is also currently unavailable in the add-in. Users are reminded to verify the accuracy of numbers, formulas, and references in the document themselves.

OpenAI also announced that a two-week free preview of the GPT-5.6 Sol model will be available for Business and Enterprise users from September 17 to 30, and this preview will not count against users' regular usage limits.

From a market mechanism perspective, this move subtly contrasts with the collaboration announced over two months ago: on July 9, OpenAI announced that GPT-5.6 became the preferred model for Microsoft 365 Copilot, providing underlying capabilities for Microsoft's own Copilot through the OpenAI API. At that time, both parties emphasized that this was a deepening of strategic cooperation to bring advanced AI capabilities to more enterprise users; however, this time ChatGPT's direct entry into Word, Excel, and PowerPoint as an independent add-in indicates that OpenAI is continuing to supply model computing power to Microsoft Copilot while also competing for user engagement and subscription revenue with its own branded product within the same office software interface. The beneficiaries are end users who can freely switch tools according to their subscription limits, while the pressure is on Microsoft Copilot, facing direct competition in its native application scenarios.

Source: Public Information