If you landed here, Copilot probably just stalled, froze on a reply, or refused to load at all. That is frustrating, especially in the middle of real work. The good news is that most Copilot problems fall into a short list of causes, and you can usually figure out which one you are dealing with in a couple of minutes. Below is a calm, plain walkthrough of why Copilot stops working, how to fix it on your end, and how to tell whether the problem is Copilot or your own setup.
Common reasons Copilot stops working
When Copilot acts up, the cause is almost always one of these:
- Provider outage or heavy demand. Copilot runs on servers that occasionally go down or get overloaded during peak hours. When that happens, answers come slowly, time out, or fail for everyone at once.
- Your internet connection. A weak or dropping connection can make Copilot look broken when the real issue is between your device and the network.
- Browser cache and cookies. Old stored data can conflict with updates to the site, causing blank screens, login loops, or buttons that do nothing.
- Browser extensions. Ad blockers, privacy tools, and script blockers sometimes block the parts of Copilot that handle chat or sign-in.
- VPN or region. A VPN can route you through a location where access is limited or where traffic gets flagged, which can slow or block Copilot.
- Account or login trouble. An expired session, a password change, or a permissions issue on your work or school account can quietly lock you out.
- The mobile app. Apps can fall behind on updates or hold a stale session, so the app fails while the website works (or the reverse).
- Rate limits. If you send a lot of requests in a short time, Copilot may temporarily slow you down or pause responses until things cool off.
How to fix Copilot when it is not working
Work through these in order. Most people are back up and running before they reach the end.
- Hard refresh the page. Reload Copilot fully so it pulls a fresh copy. This alone clears a surprising number of glitches.
- Open it in a private or incognito window. This bypasses your cache and most extensions, which quickly tells you whether the problem is on your side.
- Sign out and back in. A fresh session fixes expired logins and many account hiccups.
- Clear your cache and cookies. If a private window worked but your normal window does not, clearing stored data for the site usually resolves it.
- Switch networks. Move from Wi-Fi to mobile data, or the other way around. If Copilot works on one network and not the other, the issue is the network, not Copilot.
- Disable extensions and any VPN. Turn off ad blockers, privacy add-ons, and your VPN, then reload. Re-enable them one at a time to find the culprit.
- Update or reinstall the app. On mobile, install the latest version, or remove and reinstall it to clear a stuck session.
- Wait out rate limits. If you have been sending rapid-fire requests, pause for a few minutes and try again at a slower pace.
Is Copilot down, or is it just you?
Telling the difference is simpler than it seems. Start with this page: the live verdict and the recent reports above are the fastest way to see whether other people are having the same trouble right now. If the signals here say Copilot is healthy but it still fails for you, the cause is almost certainly local.
To confirm, run two quick tests. First, open Copilot in a private window. If it works there, your cache or an extension is the problem. Second, try a different network, such as switching to mobile data. If it works on the other network, your original connection is the issue. When Copilot fails in a private window, on a fresh network, and other people are reporting problems too, then it is a genuine outage and the best move is to wait. For a calm checklist you can follow whenever any AI tool goes quiet, see our guide on what to do when an AI tool is down.
How we check Copilot
Microsoft reports Copilot service health on its Microsoft 365 status page, which does not expose a public machine-readable feed our monitor can poll. Our live verdict therefore comes from our own independent reachability check, which connects to Copilot the way a normal user would, combined with the crowd-sourced reports submitted on this page; check the official page for Microsoft-confirmed incidents. You can read more about how this works on our methodology page.
Alternatives to Copilot during an outage
If Copilot is genuinely down and you need to keep moving, a few other assistants can cover most of the same everyday tasks while you wait. It is worth keeping one or two of these handy so a single outage never stops you completely.
- ChatGPT is a strong general-purpose choice for writing, summarizing, and answering questions. Check its current status before you switch.
- Claude handles long documents and careful, detailed responses well, which makes it a solid backup for in-depth work.
- Gemini is another capable option for research, drafting, and quick questions if the others are also busy.
Once Copilot is back, you can pick up where you left off. In the meantime, the steps above will catch nearly every problem that is fixable on your end, and this page will tell you when the rest is simply a matter of waiting it out.
How Microsoft Copilot Problems Appear
Microsoft Copilot shows up in several places: the Copilot website, the Windows taskbar entry, and the sidebar in the Edge browser. All of them rely on a Microsoft account, and behavior can differ between a personal account and a work or school account, since organizations control which features are enabled. Many reported issues are really sign-in problems: Copilot prompts you to authenticate again, rejects a work account, or loads blank until the session refreshes. Regional rollout also plays a part, because some capabilities reach certain markets and account types later than others.
It is worth separating consumer Copilot from Microsoft 365 Copilot, which is a separate paid product wired into the Office apps and tenant data. An incident affecting the Microsoft 365 product, or your organization’s configuration, is not the same as the free consumer Copilot being down. The verdict above focuses on the consumer Copilot surfaces.