How to disable the Microsoft Office 365 Word CoPilot Summary

The automatic Copilot summary that appears at the top of Word documents is part of the “automatic summary of documents on file-open in Word” feature. There is currently no separate end‑user control to turn off only the summary while keeping Copilot enabled.

Available options from the documented behavior:

1. Feature behavior
   • When a document is opened, Copilot generates a summary in the Word window. Users can hide the summary for that document or open the Copilot chat pane to ask questions about the document, but the feature itself is on by design when Copilot is available and enabled.
2. Turning off Copilot per app (if not blocked by policy)
   • Word on Windows and Mac has an Enable Copilot checkbox per app and per device. Clearing this checkbox turns off Copilot in that app on that device. However, in this scenario Copilot is enforced by corporate policy, so this control is not available to the user.
3. Turning off Copilot via privacy settings (if allowed by the organization)
   • On Windows devices, Copilot and other content-analyzing features can be disabled by clearing Turn on experiences that analyze your content under File > Account > Account Privacy > Manage Settings. This change applies across the Office apps on that device.
   • On Mac devices, the equivalent is in Word > Preferences > Personal Settings > Privacy > Connected Experiences > Manage Connected Experiences, then clear Turn on experiences that analyze your content.
   • In this case, these settings may also be locked by corporate policy; if so, they cannot be changed by the user.
4. What can be done in a corporate-managed environment
   • Because Copilot is explicitly enabled and enforced by corporate policy, disabling only the Word summary experience is not supported at the user level.
   • The only viable path is to work with the Microsoft 365 administrator:
     • The admin can review Copilot and privacy policies and decide whether to disable Copilot or connected experiences for Word (which would also affect other Copilot capabilities).
     • If the organization wants Copilot but not this behavior, the admin must monitor Microsoft 365 Copilot release notes and configuration options as they evolve; currently, the documentation only exposes app-level and privacy-level controls, not a dedicated “disable summaries on open” toggle.

In summary, with Copilot mandated by corporate policy there is no documented way to disable just the automatic document summary in Word. Any change would need to be made centrally by the Microsoft 365 admin, either by disabling Copilot for Word or by turning off content-analyzing connected experiences, if allowed by organizational requirements.

References:

• Microsoft 365 Copilot release notes
• Turn off Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps
• Frequently asked questions about Copilot in Word
• Copilot is missing, disabled, or doesn't work correctly
• Create a summary of your document with Copilot in Word