Microsoft Retires Consumer Copilot Deep Research
The August 18 cutoff removes Deep Research from the consumer Copilot app while preserving saved reports and steering Microsoft 365 Premium users to Researcher.
Microsoft is retiring Deep Research in the consumer Copilot app starting August 18, 2026. The dated change removes the feature after the cutoff while preserving earlier research content, affecting people who used Copilot to create detailed reports and analyses.
What changed on August 18
Microsoft's support notice says Deep Research will no longer be available in Copilot after August 18. It directs Microsoft 365 Premium subscribers to Researcher in Copilot for continued creation of detailed reports and analyses.
Microsoft describes Deep Research and Researcher as separate experiences that serve similar in-depth research needs. That distinction matters: the retirement is not presented as a rename of the same consumer feature, and the continuing creation path named by Microsoft is tied to the Premium subscription.
What users keep
Existing saved research content will not be deleted as part of the change. Premium subscribers can access saved content through Researcher, while Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers can open previous Deep Research reports from their Copilot chat history.
Microsoft also says existing reports can be opened in Word and saved for later use. The retirement does not itself cancel or alter a user's broader Microsoft 365 subscription; the support page says each plan continues to include its available features and benefits.
What the cutoff means in practice
The change separates the ability to create a new in-depth report from the ability to retrieve an older one. Premium subscribers retain both a creation route through Researcher and access to saved work. Personal and Family subscribers retain access through chat history, but Microsoft's notice does not identify an equivalent replacement for creating new Deep Research reports on those plans.
For affected users, the practical checkpoint is therefore plan-specific. Saved material remains available, and important reports can be exported through Word, but the named continuing research tool is Researcher for Microsoft 365 Premium.
Evidence quality and remaining questions
The evidence is an official Microsoft Support page with an explicit August 18 retirement date and account-level access guidance. It is authoritative for Microsoft's product policy, but it is still first-party evidence and does not independently show that every account has already received the change.
Microsoft does not specify an exact cutoff time, a region-by-region rollout sequence, or whether any temporary exceptions apply. Those account-level implementation details remain the next verifiable checkpoint.
Status
Confirmed, with medium internal confidence. Microsoft has published the retirement date and the continuing access paths; broad account-level completion has not been independently observed.
Sources
Update note: Last reviewed 2026-08-18. We will revise this post if Microsoft changes the cutoff, availability or saved-report guidance.
Sources
Drafted with AI assistance from source briefs; reviewed for citation completeness and label accuracy.