ChatGPT vs Bing Copilot: Which AI Tool Should You Use for English Writing?

In this post, I’m going to put Bing Copilot and ChatGPT to the ultimate test: English writing.

So if you’re looking for a DEEP comparison of these two popular Large Language Models (LLMs) for various writing tasks, you’ve come to the right place.

Because in today’s post I’m going to compare ChatGPT vs. Bing Copilot in terms of:

• Core writing assistance and generation
• Research and real-time information access
• Integration with existing workflows
• Creativity and versatility
• Pricing and value
• And lots more

Let’s do this!

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Introducing: The Two Competitors

In the blue corner, we have ChatGPT by OpenAI.

ChatGPT redefined how we interact with AI for text generation, becoming a household name for its conversational fluency and broad knowledge base. It excels at generating creative content, summarizing complex topics, and even assisting with coding. While its initial versions had knowledge cut-offs, the integration of web browsing and plugins has significantly enhanced its ability to access current information.

As you’ll soon see, Bing Copilot also offers powerful writing assistance, but ChatGPT remains a benchmark for general-purpose conversational AI.

In fact, today, you can use ChatGPT to:

• Draft articles, emails, and social media posts
• Brainstorm ideas and outline content
• Refine existing text for grammar and style
• Summarize documents
• And much more

In the red corner, we have Bing Copilot by Microsoft (powered by OpenAI’s GPT models).

Bing Copilot (often referred to simply as Copilot in its various iterations across Microsoft products) is Microsoft’s AI assistant designed to integrate seamlessly into your daily productivity workflows. Its key differentiator is its direct access to Bing Search and its deep integration with Microsoft 365 applications, making it a powerful tool for context-aware writing.

Which is why it’s even possible to do a ChatGPT vs. Bing Copilot comparison for English writing. Copilot takes the raw power of foundational models and embeds them directly where you work.

Today, Bing Copilot has a ton of features that make it a direct competitor to ChatGPT, including:

• Real-time access to Bing Search for up-to-date answers
• Integration with Microsoft 365 apps (Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint)
• Contextual understanding of your documents and emails
• Summarization of web pages and documents
• Creative generation for various writing tasks

The bottom line is that ChatGPT offers broad, foundational AI capabilities, while Bing Copilot provides context-rich, integrated assistance, both highly valuable for English writing.

So it’s time to answer the key question: which AI tool is the best overall for English writing tasks?

Let’s get started.

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Which Tool Is Best for Core Writing Assistance and Generation?

First, I decided to see which tool was best for generating and refining various types of English text.

Let’s see who came out on top.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT is a powerhouse for raw text generation. Its core strength lies in its versatility and ability to produce long-form, coherent, and creative content from a wide range of prompts. Whether you need an essay, a marketing blurb, a fictional story, or a complex explanation, ChatGPT can deliver.

On the surface, this feature is similar to the one in Bing Copilot, with some key differences in how they leverage context.

The unique thing about ChatGPT here is its foundational strength in conversational interaction. You can iterate endlessly, refine prompts, and guide the AI through a multi-turn conversation to achieve the desired writing outcome. It excels at:

• Idea Generation: Brainstorming blog post topics, story plots, or marketing slogans.
• Drafting: Creating full articles, scripts, or emails from a simple outline.
• Creative Writing: Producing poetry, short stories, or imaginative scenarios.
• Rephrasing & Summarization: Rewriting existing text in different styles or condensing long documents.

Its flexibility allows users to experiment with various writing tasks without being tied to specific applications.

Bing Copilot

Bing Copilot’s strength in writing assistance comes from its contextual awareness and integration within the Microsoft ecosystem. While it can generate text from scratch, its real power emerges when it’s interacting with your existing documents, emails, or data. It functions more as an intelligent co-pilot rather than a standalone text generator. It excels at:

• In-app Assistance: Drafting emails in Outlook, summarizing meeting notes in Teams, or helping write reports in Word, using the context of your open documents.
• Summarization: Quickly summarizing long web pages or PDFs directly within the Edge browser.
• Content Refinement: Suggesting improvements to your writing in Word, checking for grammar and clarity, and even adapting tone.
• Generating from Context: Creating follow-up emails based on a previous conversation, or drafting a presentation outline from a document’s key points.

Its integration means less copy-pasting and more seamless assistance within your workflow.

Overall, I have to say that ChatGPT slightly wins for pure, unadulterated text generation and creative freedom. However, Bing Copilot takes the lead for contextual writing assistance where the AI needs to understand your current work environment.

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Which Tool Is Best for Research and Real-time Information Access?

Next, I wanted to see which tool provided the most reliable and up-to-date information, crucial for factual writing.

ChatGPT

Older versions of ChatGPT had a significant limitation: a knowledge cut-off date. This meant it couldn’t provide information on recent events or developments without specific plugins or paid features.

However, for ChatGPT Plus (paid users), the integration of web browsing capabilities has significantly improved its ability to retrieve real-time information. It can now:

• Search the web to answer current questions.
• Cite sources for factual claims (though consistency can vary, and direct links aren’t always provided).
• Synthesize information from multiple online articles, but this often requires explicit prompting.

For free users, access to real-time information remains limited, relying on the last training data.

Bing Copilot

This is where Bing Copilot truly shines, leveraging Microsoft’s core strength: its search engine, Bing. Copilot is designed with direct, real-time access to Bing Search, making it inherently more robust for factual accuracy and up-to-date information, even for free users.

Bing Copilot often:

• Provides more current data and events by default.
• Cites its sources directly from the web, allowing for easy verification with clickable links.
• Excels at summarizing web pages, news articles, and research by pulling live data from Bing Search.
• Has a built-in feature to suggest related search queries, aiding further research.

This direct integration with a powerful search engine gives Bing Copilot a clear advantage for English writers who prioritize factual accuracy, timeliness, and verifiable sources in their content.

When it comes to research and real-time information access, Bing Copilot is the clear winner. Its seamless integration with Bing Search and emphasis on source citation makes it an indispensable tool for fact-checking and current events writing.

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Which Tool Is Best for Integration with Existing Workflows?

The next feature I wanted to look at was how easily each AI tool fits into a writer’s existing work routine and applications.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT’s integration primarily relies on its API (Application Programming Interface) for developers to build it into their own apps, and its plugin ecosystem (for ChatGPT Plus users) to extend its functionality.

• Plugins: These allow ChatGPT to interact with third-party services (e.g., calendar apps, image generators, specialized databases). This requires actively choosing and activating plugins.
• Copy-Pasting: For most users, integration often means copying text from ChatGPT and pasting it into their document editor, email client, or CMS.
• Browser Extensions: Third-party browser extensions exist that try to integrate ChatGPT into various web pages, but these are not official and can be inconsistent.

While powerful, its native integration into everyday writing tools is not as deep as Copilot’s.

Bing Copilot

This is Bing Copilot’s undisputed stronghold. Its name “Copilot” perfectly encapsulates its design philosophy: to co-exist and assist directly within your primary working applications.

• Microsoft 365 Integration: Copilot is deeply embedded in Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams. You can ask it to draft emails, summarize documents, create presentations, or analyze data without leaving the application. This is a massive productivity boost for anyone using the Microsoft suite.
• Browser Integration: In Microsoft Edge, Copilot is readily available as a sidebar, allowing you to summarize web pages, ask questions about the content you’re viewing, or generate text based on the webpage’s context.
• Operating System Integration: As part of Windows, Copilot aims to be an assistant at the OS level, helping with various tasks across your computer.

This seamless, context-aware integration means less switching between apps and more focus on the actual writing task.

When it comes to integration with existing workflows, Bing Copilot is the overwhelming winner. Its deep ties to Microsoft 365 and the Edge browser make it an incredibly efficient writing assistant for users of those platforms.

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Which Tool Has Cool Unique Features for English Writers?

At this point we’ve compared the main features of each tool. Now it’s time to look at some of the unique features that make ChatGPT and Bing Copilot stand out for English writing.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT has a few cool features that Bing Copilot either doesn’t have or implements differently.

The biggest is its extensive plugin ecosystem (for paid users). These plugins extend ChatGPT’s capabilities far beyond basic text generation, allowing it to:

• Specialized Tools: Access specialized tools for SEO, content calendars, image generation (like DALL-E directly integrated), or even data analysis.
• Complex Scenarios: Handle more abstract or complex multi-step tasks by “chaining” plugin functionalities.
• Custom Instructions: As mentioned before, these let you personalize ChatGPT’s responses based on your consistent preferences (e.g., always write in a casual tone, never exceed 500 words).

Another cool feature for writers is its stronger emphasis on role-playing and persona adoption, allowing you to instruct it to write “as a marketing expert,” “as a historian,” or “as a friendly tutor.”

Bing Copilot

Bing Copilot’s unique strength lies in its “grounding” in Microsoft Graph data (your personal emails, documents, meetings) combined with real-time web access.

• Microsoft Graph Integration: This is a game-changer. Copilot can, with your permission, access your documents, emails, and calendar. This means it can draft a project proposal in Word, pull data from relevant Excel sheets, and then summarize it all in an email, all based on your specific files and context.
• “Creative Mode” vs. “Precise Mode” (in Bing Chat/Copilot): You can often choose different conversational styles, tailoring the output to be more imaginative or more factual.
• Visual Search Integration: In some Copilot iterations, you can use images as part of your prompt, asking it to describe or generate text related to a visual input.

This personal, context-rich interaction makes Copilot feel less like a separate tool and more like an integral part of your work.

I have to say it’s a tie in the “cool unique feature” department, depending heavily on your workflow. If you live and breathe Microsoft 365, Copilot’s integration with your personal data is unparalleled. If you need ultimate creative flexibility and a wide array of third-party tool integrations, ChatGPT’s plugin ecosystem is hard to beat.

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Which Tool Is The Best Overall Value?

Now it’s time for the question that’s probably on your mind:

“Which tool is going to give me the most bang for my buck for English writing?”.

Obviously, this depends A LOT on what’s important to you. And what you work on most.

For example, if you spend most of your day generating highly creative content, brainstorming ideas, and leveraging niche tools via plugins, ChatGPT’s value for money might be higher.

But if you’re a professional who primarily uses Microsoft 365 apps and needs an AI assistant that understands your work context and pulls real-time information, Copilot offers immense value.

With that caveat out of the way, here’s how the pricing for each tool breaks down.

ChatGPT pricing is fairly straightforward. It offers a Free tier with basic access to GPT-3.5. The ChatGPT Plus subscription ($20/month) provides access to GPT-4, higher message limits, web browsing, and plugin access. An API access allows developers to integrate GPT into their own applications, with pricing based on token usage.

Bing Copilot pricing can be a bit more nuanced. The basic Bing Chat experience (now called Microsoft Copilot in the browser) is largely free, offering powerful search capabilities and text generation. For deep integration with Microsoft 365, you typically need Microsoft 365 Copilot, which is an add-on subscription (often for businesses) on top of your existing Microsoft 365 license, priced per user per month. This means the full “Copilot” experience with all its integrations comes at a higher cost for most businesses.

When it comes to pure value for general English writing, ChatGPT’s $20/month Plus plan offers incredible value for its broad capabilities. However, if your work is entirely within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem and you can justify the cost of Microsoft 365 Copilot, its efficiency gains are unmatched.

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ChatGPT vs. Bing Copilot: And The Winner Is…

I’ve personally used both tools extensively. I find myself switching between them depending on the task: ChatGPT for pure creativity and open-ended generation, and Bing Copilot when I need contextual help within a document or real-time web answers.

So to come up with a winner, I took lots of factors into account:

• Core writing assistance and generation
• Research and real-time information access
• Integration with existing workflows
• Creativity and versatility
• Pricing and value
• Unique features
• Overall workflow enhancement for English writers

But if you had to make me pick ONE tool that best enhances English writing across the board for most users, I’d have to go with Bing Copilot.

This was a REALLY hard call to make. I honestly think you can’t go wrong with either tool. ChatGPT’s raw creative power and conversational flow are outstanding. However, Bing Copilot’s default access to real-time information (even in its free tier for browser use), coupled with its unparalleled, context-aware integration into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, makes it a more practical and immediately impactful tool for many English writers in their daily productivity. Its ability to work with your existing files and emails gives it a significant edge in streamlining the entire writing process.