Choose Microsoft 365 Copilot if
You live in Microsoft 365
Most knowledge sits in SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams and Outlook, your permissions are clean, and people want AI inside the apps they already use.
Coveo vs Microsoft 365 Copilot vs Glean:which one should power your enterprise search?
Choose Microsoft 365 Copilot when most of your knowledge lives in Microsoft 365 and you want AI inside Word, Outlook and Teams. Choose Glean for the fastest employee search and assistant across many SaaS tools. Choose Coveo when one search platform must serve your intranet, website and support portal with fine control over relevance and permissions.
Written by an official Coveo implementation partner with a former Coveo backend developer on the team. We are not a Glean partner, and we tell clients when Microsoft 365 Copilot or another tool fits better.
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TL;DR
The honest short answer
Microsoft 365 Copilot is an AI assistant built into Microsoft 365. It grounds answers in your mail, chats, meetings and files through Microsoft Graph, and reaches other systems through Copilot connectors. It costs USD 30 per user per month, paid yearly, on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan (Microsoft pricing, checked 2026-10-19).
The two main alternatives to Microsoft 365 Copilot for enterprise search are Glean, a work assistant with search, chat and agents across workplace apps, and Coveo, a search and relevance platform that also runs websites and support portals. Many organizations keep Copilot for Office work and add one of them when ServiceNow, a CMS or file shares hold key knowledge.
Choose Glean if
Employee experience first
Your knowledge is spread across many SaaS tools, you want results in weeks, and nobody on your team will own search tuning.
Choose Coveo if
One platform, full control
You want one index for intranet, website and support, you need fine relevance and permission control, or Coveo is already in place.
12-dimension matrix
| Dimension | Coveo | Microsoft 365 Copilot | Glean |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary audience | Customers and employees: websites, support portals, commerce and workplace search | Microsoft 365 users: an assistant inside Microsoft 365 apps and Copilot Chat | Employees: workplace search, assistant and agents |
| Pricing model | Entitlement-based for websites and support. Seat-based plans for workplace search. Quote-based, USD or CAD | Add-on at USD 30 per user per month, paid yearly, with a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan. Copilot Chat is included, with metered agents and connectors (checked 2026-10-19) | Per user per month. Core Suite, or Enterprise Flex with pooled credits for agents. Quote-based |
| Time to value | Weeks to months, with relevance tuning after launch | Fast when content already lives in Microsoft 365 and permissions are clean | Fast pilot with polished defaults out of the box |
| Microsoft 365 content | SharePoint and other Microsoft sources through Coveo connectors | WinnerNative: mail, chats, meetings and files through Microsoft Graph | Prebuilt connectors to Microsoft 365 apps |
| Non-Microsoft sources | Native connectors for ServiceNow, Salesforce, Sitecore and more, plus universal connectors and APIs | Over 100 prebuilt Copilot connectors, including ServiceNow, Confluence, Salesforce and network file shares, plus a connectors API | 100+ prebuilt connectors focused on workplace apps |
| Permission model | Early binding: item permissions imported at crawl time, so unauthorized items are filtered out before results are built | Shows only data the user can at least view. Connector items carry an access list. The Everyone setting exposes content to all users and cannot be changed after setup | Source permissions enforced for each user at query time, plus Glean Protect to find overshared content |
| ServiceNow knowledge permissions | ServiceNow source indexes knowledge articles. Coveo documents only partial support for ServiceNow permissions, so test user criteria | Knowledge connector evaluates base and article user criteria. Script-based criteria need the Advanced flow | Connector reads advanced user criteria through a Scripted REST API and enforces permissions at query time |
| AI inside Office apps | Not the product's focus | WinnerCopilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams | Not the product's focus |
| Website and customer support search | WinnerCore use case, with front-end libraries and commerce and service offers | Not the product's focus | Not the product's focus |
| Employee assistant and agents | Generative answering, agents entitlement and APIs you assemble into your own experience | Prebuilt agents such as Researcher and Analyst, plus Copilot Studio | Assistant, no-code agent builder and MCP support ready for employees |
| Relevance tuning | WinnerQuery pipelines, ML models, A/B tests and detailed analytics | Semantic indexing managed by Microsoft. Admins mainly control sources and access | Strong defaults with a smaller tuning surface |
| Deployment and data | Multi-tenant SaaS with regional data residency, including a Canadian region | Runs in your Microsoft 365 tenant. Prompts and responses follow your Microsoft 365 contractual commitments and are not used to train foundation models | Glean Hosted (single-tenant) or Customer Hosted in your own GCP or AWS account |
When to choose each
Run the same decision in five steps: inventory your sources, get each vendor's permission model in writing, pilot on the same content with the same employees, compare total cost (licence, implementation and vendor footprint), and name a permanent owner.
Choose Microsoft 365 Copilot
If Microsoft 365 is where work happens
- Most documents live in SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams
- People want help drafting in Word, Outlook and PowerPoint, not only search
- You already pay for Microsoft 365 and want fewer vendors
- SharePoint permissions are clean, or you will fix oversharing first
- Other sources are few and covered by Copilot connectors
Choose Glean
If your knowledge lives in many SaaS tools
- Content is spread across Google Workspace, Slack, Confluence, Jira and similar tools
- You have no internal search team and do not plan to build one
- Leadership wants visible wins for employees within a quarter
- Employees want an assistant and agents across every tool
- Security prefers a single-tenant or customer-hosted deployment
Choose Coveo
If search is a platform decision
- ServiceNow, SharePoint and a CMS are central and permissions are complex
- Your security review requires detailed control over how permissions are indexed
- Coveo already runs your website or support search
- You need strong French and English results with Canadian data residency
- You have, or will hire, someone to own relevance
Copilot plus a dedicated search engine
Copilot and a dedicated engine often answer different needs, so many organizations do not pick only one.
Copilot for Office work, a search platform for the intranet
Copilot helps people write, summarize and catch up inside Microsoft 365. A dedicated engine such as Coveo or Glean runs the intranet search page and reaches knowledge outside Microsoft 365 with its own relevance and analytics.
Scenario: a bilingual organization licenses Copilot for its managers, while every employee searches the intranet through one index that covers SharePoint, the ServiceNow knowledge base and the CMS. The security team reviews both permission models once, on the same sensitive collections.
The cost is two products to license and govern. Do it only when each surface has a clear owner and budget.
If you already started with one of them
From a Copilot rollout to a dedicated engine
When answers miss ServiceNow, CMS or file share content
- List the questions Copilot answers poorly and the sources behind them
- Check which sources are indexed through Copilot connectors and with which access setting
- Pilot Coveo or Glean on those sources with the same employees
- Keep Copilot for Office work if people use it
- Decide who owns relevance and permissions after launch
Main effort driver: the number of non-Microsoft sources and their permission models
From Coveo or Glean toward Copilot
When most knowledge moves into Microsoft 365
- Confirm that the remaining sources have Copilot connectors
- Recreate each connector with the right access setting, since it cannot be changed later
- Run an oversharing review in SharePoint before go-live
- Keep Coveo on the website or support portal if it runs there
- Train employees on prompts and source checking
Main effort driver: permission hygiene in SharePoint and connector setup
Common questions
What are the alternatives to Microsoft 365 Copilot for enterprise search?
The two main alternatives are Glean and Coveo. Glean is a work assistant that searches and answers across workplace apps. Coveo is a search platform that can power an intranet as well as a website or support portal. Microsoft Search, built into Microsoft 365, covers basic search without Copilot. Read Coveo vs Microsoft Search for that comparison.
Is Microsoft 365 Copilot cheaper than Glean or Coveo?
Microsoft publishes a price: USD 30 per user per month, paid yearly, on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan, with Copilot Chat included at no extra cost (Microsoft pricing, checked 2026-10-19). Glean and Coveo quote their prices. Compare three-year totals for the users who need each tool, including implementation and the time of the person who runs it.
Can Microsoft 365 Copilot search our ServiceNow knowledge base?
Yes. The ServiceNow Knowledge Copilot connector indexes knowledge articles and evaluates knowledge base and article user criteria. If your instance uses script-based user criteria, Microsoft says to use the Advanced flow, because the default flow cannot evaluate those scripts. Glean and Coveo also offer ServiceNow connectors, each with its own permission limits to test.
Which one handles permissions best?
All three are built to show each user only what they can open in the source. They differ in how. Coveo imports item permissions at crawl time (early binding). Copilot shows only content the user can at least view, and each connector carries an access list (Microsoft). Glean enforces source permissions at query time (Glean). Test each one on your most sensitive collection. Our guide on making Copilot respect your access controls explains what to check.
Can we use Copilot together with Coveo or Glean?
Yes. They run as separate products, so you can keep Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps and use Coveo or Glean for the intranet search page and non-Microsoft sources. Budget for two licences and two permission reviews.
How does Glean compare with Coveo on its own?
Glean is the faster path to an employee assistant. Coveo is stronger when the same platform must also serve customers or when you need fine relevance control. See the full Coveo vs Glean comparison.
Planning an intranet search or Copilot project?
Bring your source list and your security requirements. We will tell you which tool fits, including when the answer is Microsoft 365 Copilot or Glean.
