BeforeQuery vs Microsoft 365 Copilot
Microsoft 365 Copilot is Microsoft's AI inside Outlook, Word, Excel, Teams, and SharePoint — deeply integrated for organisations standardised on Microsoft 365. BeforeQuery is a docs and support assistant that spans 18 source types (SharePoint is one) and surfaces answers on a widget, Slack / Discord / Teams bots, MCP, and inside every major helpdesk.
Feature comparison
Information about Microsoft 365 Copilot is drawn from Microsoft's public product pages.
Where BeforeQuery focuses differently
Knowledge isn't only in Microsoft 365
M365 Copilot retrieves from SharePoint, OneDrive, Outlook, Teams. Real-world knowledge lives across SharePoint, Confluence, Notion, GitHub, Google Drive, Zendesk, Slack, and files nobody has migrated. BeforeQuery indexes all of them into one knowledge base — SharePoint is one source among 18.
Customer-facing surfaces
Copilot is internal — it helps employees inside Microsoft 365. BeforeQuery ships a hosted widget for your docs / product site, plus Slack, Discord, and Teams bots for community and customer channels. Microsoft-hosted content can be a source; BeforeQuery is the assistant that surfaces it externally.
Multi-helpdesk Support Ticket AI
BeforeQuery runs Support Ticket AI inside Zendesk, Freshdesk, Front, Intercom, Jira SM, Linear, and Salesforce. Copilot's helpdesk story is limited to Microsoft's own tools (Teams). Different job.
Not locked to Microsoft 365 seats
M365 Copilot is priced per user (~$30/month) on top of your Microsoft 365 subscription. BeforeQuery is standalone SaaS with a $0 free tier and a $99 Pro tier — priced by usage, not by Microsoft seat count.
Frequently asked questions
Should I use Microsoft 365 Copilot or BeforeQuery?
If your use case is 'help employees do work faster inside Outlook, Word, Excel, and Teams', M365 Copilot is well-suited. If your use case is 'answer questions from our docs on our site, in Slack/Teams/Discord, and inside our helpdesk', BeforeQuery is purpose-built for it. Many organisations use both.
Does BeforeQuery index SharePoint?
Yes. The SharePoint connector indexes SharePoint sites, lists, and documents, respecting SharePoint permissions on the account it's connected under. Sync cadence is 10 minutes for most content.
Can I use Copilot inside M365 and BeforeQuery for customer-facing?
Yes — they're complementary. Copilot helps employees write emails and analyse Excel; BeforeQuery answers your customers on the widget, in support tools, and via MCP for AI IDEs.
How does pricing compare?
M365 Copilot is priced per Microsoft 365 seat (~$30/user/month). BeforeQuery is flat monthly (Free / $99 Pro / Enterprise) and independent of your Microsoft 365 subscription — you don't pay per user for a customer-facing widget.
Is my data used to train models?
No. Your indexed content and end-user conversations are never used to train models. PII masking runs before every LLM call; zero-retention mode is a per-workspace toggle.
See for yourself
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