AI tools ·
ChatGPT is now a sidebar inside Microsoft Word — and it works on the free plan
You can now use ChatGPT directly inside Microsoft Word, without copying text into a separate chat window. OpenAI launched a ChatGPT sidebar add-in for Word on September 17, 2026, available on every ChatGPT plan — including Free, subject to plan usage limits. Install it from Microsoft Marketplace, open it from the Word ribbon, and sign in with your existing ChatGPT account.
The sidebar reads your open document: it can draft from notes, rewrite selected passages, reorganize sections, proofread, and flag inconsistent terminology or formatting, per OpenAI’s documentation. It can also pull in context from connected services like Outlook, SharePoint, Google Workspace, and Dropbox, where your plan, permissions, and administrator settings allow. The same Microsoft add-in already covered Excel and PowerPoint, so Word completes the core Office trio. Limits remain: conversations created through the add-in stay separate from your main ChatGPT history, memory doesn’t carry over, and complex formatting, charts, and tables may still need manual correction.
Business and Enterprise customers get a free preview of the new GPT-5.6 Sol model inside Word from September 17 through September 30, excluded from normal usage limits. And OpenAI plans to switch the add-in on by default for ChatGPT Work beginning October 1, unless administrators disable it.
Why it matters
The writing loop finally stays inside the document — no more paste-and-reformat, and no more losing structure in copy-paste. But it also moves ChatGPT onto Microsoft’s turf: OpenAI supplies the models behind Microsoft 365 Copilot, and now its ChatGPT-branded assistant sits in the same Word ribbon, competing for the same user’s attention.
Sources
- RuntimeWire — OpenAI adds ChatGPT to Word and opens its Office add-in to free users
- TheWinCentral — ChatGPT Microsoft Word sidebar add-in
- Biggo Finance — ChatGPT for Word add-in details
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