Anthropic’s models are gradually making their way into Microsoft 365.
They are currently in preview under the Frontier program. This program is open to organizations holding a Microsoft 365 E3, E5, or Business Premium license, with at least 300 active users on Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses.
They can presently be found in two locations: the “Researcher” (an in-depth research agent) and Copilot Studio (an agent designer).
In the Researcher, you can experiment with Claude Opus 4.1, available on the web and as a desktop application. A “Try Claude” panel appears in the upper-right corner of the screen. When you end a session or close the application, you revert to the default model (GPT-4o; in the process of transitioning to GPT-5).
In Copilot Studio, you can try Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4.1, accessible via a dropdown menu. It’s possible to mix them with models from other providers to create agents.
Models not hosted by Microsoft
A global Microsoft 365 administrator must first permit access to third-party LLMs. For Copilot Studio, an extra step must be taken in the Power Platform admin center.
Anthropic’s models are not hosted by Microsoft. Consequently, Microsoft’s contractual terms and its data protection addendum do not apply. It is Anthropic’s terms that prevail.
Microsoft also does not guarantee SLAs, data residency, or protection for clients against copyright-related lawsuits.
For further reading:
In the rift, OpenAI and Microsoft find common ground
Anthropic’s valuation hits $183 billion after a new funding round
Whatever happened to the Microsoft 365 “productivity score”?
