Microsoft 365 Copilot Adds Anthropic’s Claude (Opus 4.1) to Frontier Beta

Microsoft has begun rolling out access to Anthropic’s Claude (Opus 4.1) for Microsoft 365 Copilot beta testers enrolled in the Frontier program. Claude is being integrated into Copilot’s Researcher and Copilot Studio, allowing testers to choose Anthropic models alongside OpenAI models.

What’s new

• Claude Opus 4.1 is available as an optional LLM in Copilot’s Researcher tool and Copilot Studio agent development environment.
• Access is rolling out via the Frontier beta program and requires an opt-in to use Anthropic models.
• Microsoft emphasizes Copilot will continue to use OpenAI’s latest models as the primary engine for most experiences for now.

How to try it

Sign up for the Microsoft Frontier beta program and opt in to Anthropic access in the Copilot settings. The feature is initially available to Frontier testers and will likely expand to more users over time.

Context

This multi-vendor approach lets Copilot users pick models best suited for specific tasks — for example, Researcher’s multistep reasoning workflows can now be run on Claude as an alternative to OpenAI models.

Microsoft product leads have suggested Anthropic will bring “more powerful experiences” to Copilot as integrations continue to roll out.

Source and further reading

Official Microsoft documentation: Microsoft 365 Copilot overview

Have you tried Claude in Copilot yet? Share your experience in the comments below.