Last week, Microsoft announced Copilot Pro, a paid subscription service that promised to offer better performance and advanced AI capabilities to the users. The Pro subscription costs $20/month for one user and offers access to Copilot for Office applications including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote on Windows, Mac and iOS. Copilot Pro also offered a couple of perks for image generation.
However, Microsoft"s alternative to ChatGPT Plus seems to started on the wrong foot as users on Twitter have noted that Copilot Pro is slow and has delays.
@MParakhin Copilot pro is very slow right now am not sure why :( like maybe less than 1 token per second it was lighting fast in the morning now it"s not on specific the GPT 4 creative mode turbo. pic.twitter.com/m8avrzYJ1L
— 날 두려워 (@NotKoreanXD) January 18, 2024
During the Copilot Pro launch, Microsoft noted that the subscription will offer users access to GPT-4 Turbo which will offer priority access and better performance even during peak hours. However, it looks like the company is not able to deliver on that promise.
Gain priority access to GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo including during peak times for accelerated performance to get things done faster.
Mikhail Parakhin, Microsoft’s head of Advertising and Web Services later mentioned that there was no server side issues or delays and suggested turning off efficiency mode on the web browser which reduces performance to save battery.
Server side looks good. Best theory is the client issue: browser enabling efficiency mode.
— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) January 18, 2024
In Edge, it is activated if the battery is low or if the settings are set that way: pic.twitter.com/BOTC5mWus6
— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) January 18, 2024
Furthermore, Parakhin also mentioned that Copilot Pro is not available on Android or iOS as Microsoft is still in the process of finishing the app updates and store approvals from the respective companies.
A few days - waiting for the store approvals.
— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) January 21, 2024
While, Copilot Pro is still new, Microsoft"s version of ChatGPT Plus does offer a better bang for the buck with its seamless integration with Office apps as well as access to DALL-E based image generation tool.