Copilot+ PC Explained: Meaning, Requirements and Features

A Copilot+ PC is a Windows 11 computer built around a neural processing unit (NPU) fast enough to run at least 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS) — the hardware bar Microsoft set in 2024 to unlock a specific tier of on-device AI features, including Recall, Click to Do, Cocreator and real-time Live Captions translation, that simply don't run on older or lower-powered Windows 11 machines. It isn't a different version of Windows. Every Copilot+ PC runs the same Windows 11 as any other laptop; the "+" refers to the extra NPU-driven capability layer that switches on when the chip, memory and storage clear Microsoft's minimum bar.

What "Copilot+ PC" actually means

Copilot+ PC is a hardware certification and marketing tier, not a product Microsoft sells directly (aside from Surface). Microsoft, together with Qualcomm, Intel and AMD, defined a minimum spec — a capable NPU, enough RAM and enough fast storage — that any laptop maker can build to and then label "Copilot+ PC." Microsoft introduced the category in May 2024 alongside the first wave of Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus laptops, and has since extended it to Intel and AMD machines as their chips grew NPUs powerful enough to qualify.

The name borrows "Copilot" from Microsoft's AI assistant brand, but a Copilot+ PC and the Copilot app are not the same thing. Copilot the chatbot runs in a browser tab or app window on almost any Windows, Mac or mobile device and mostly relies on cloud servers. Copilot+ PC features, by contrast, are Windows 11 capabilities that run models locally on the device's NPU — which is exactly why they need dedicated silicon. For a broader look at how Copilot's browser-based tools stack up against other AI assistants, see this comparison of AI browsers and Copilot mode.

The hardware bar: why 40+ TOPS specifically

An NPU (neural processing unit) is a chip block purpose-built to run the matrix-multiplication math behind AI models, rather than general-purpose computing. It does this far more efficiently than a CPU or GPU, which is what allows Copilot+ PCs to run features like live transcription, image generation and semantic search locally, continuously, without draining the battery or sending every keystroke to the cloud.

Microsoft's own Copilot+ PCs developer guide states the requirement plainly: Copilot+ PCs are "powered by a high-performance Neural Processing Unit (NPU)... that can perform more than 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS)." That figure, along with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD/UFS storage, is confirmed on Microsoft's Windows 11 specifications page as the incremental requirement on top of standard Windows 11 system requirements. A PC that runs Windows 11 fine but has an NPU rated below 40 TOPS — or no NPU at all — will simply never see the Copilot+ exclusive features appear in Settings, no matter how much RAM or storage it has.

Which chips qualify: Snapdragon X, Intel Core Ultra, AMD Ryzen AI

As of now, Microsoft lists three qualifying chip families on its official specifications page: Qualcomm's Snapdragon X series, AMD's Ryzen AI 300 and 400 series, and Intel's Core Ultra 200V and 300V series.

Crucially, it's the chip and its NPU that determine eligibility — not the laptop brand. Microsoft's developer guidance lists example Copilot+ PCs spanning Microsoft's own Surface Laptop and Surface Pro, plus third-party machines like the HP OmniBook X 14, Dell Latitude 7455 and XPS 13, Acer Swift 14 AI, Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x and ThinkPad T14s, Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge, and Asus Vivobook S 15 and ProArt PZ13 — a mix of Arm and x86 machines that all clear the same 40-TOPS bar.

Copilot+ PC vs. a "normal" Windows 11 PC

Every Copilot+ PC is a Windows 11 PC, but not every Windows 11 PC is a Copilot+ PC. The difference isn't features Microsoft has hidden behind a paywall — it's features that are computationally impossible to run smoothly without a fast enough NPU, so Microsoft gates them at the hardware level.

In other words, a regular Windows 11 PC still runs Edge, Office, games and the cloud-based Copilot chat assistant just fine. What it can't do is run Microsoft's newest on-device AI features locally, because its processor was never built with a big enough NPU. If you're deciding whether to hold onto an older machine or move up, it's worth reading how the broader current Windows 11 release changed even for non-Copilot+ hardware, since plenty of quality-of-life updates ship to every Windows 11 PC regardless of NPU.

The features you actually get

Here's what's exclusive to Copilot+ PCs today, based on Microsoft's own product and developer documentation:

• Recall — an opt-in, locally stored, searchable timeline of snapshots of your screen activity, designed to let you find something you saw or did earlier by describing it in your own words. It runs entirely on-device and snapshots stay local unless you choose to delete or pause them. For the full rundown of how it works and how to control it, see this explainer on Windows Recall.
• Click to Do — a press-and-hold gesture that surfaces contextual actions (summarize, rewrite, erase background, open in an app) on whatever text or image is currently on screen, without switching apps first.
• Cocreator (in Paint) — generates images in near real time by combining ink strokes with a text prompt, with a slider to move the output from literal to more expressive interpretations.
• Restyle Image and Image Creator (in Photos) — restyles personal photos using preset looks, and generates new images on-device, without a per-image cloud cost or limit.
• Live Captions with translation — converts audio from dozens of languages into live English captions across any app, including offline, running the translation model on the NPU rather than a server.
• Enhanced Windows Studio Effects — camera and microphone effects for video calls, including portrait-light adjustment, creative filters, an eye-contact correction effect, and improved background blur and voice focus.

None of these require a subscription beyond what Windows 11 and the relevant app already need; the gating factor is the NPU, not a paywall.

"Copilot+ PC" vs. "Copilot" — clearing up the confusion

Because Microsoft named the hardware tier after its AI assistant, it's easy to conflate the two. To be clear: Copilot (no plus sign) is the AI chat assistant built into Windows, Edge and Microsoft 365 — it works on virtually any modern PC, Copilot+ or not, because most of its heavy lifting happens in Microsoft's cloud. Copilot+ PC is the hardware tier described above, whose exclusive features run locally on the NPU instead of the cloud. You can buy a brand-new laptop today with no NPU at all and still use Copilot in Edge or Windows; you just won't get Recall, Click to Do, Cocreator or the other on-device features tied specifically to Copilot+ hardware.

How to check if your PC already qualifies

Since the requirement is the NPU rather than any single chip name, the simplest way to check is in Windows itself. Open Task Manager's Performance tab — Copilot+ eligible machines show an "NPU" entry alongside CPU, GPU, Memory and Disk, as documented in Microsoft's developer guide. If there's no NPU entry, or Settings doesn't show Copilot+ features under System, the device doesn't qualify no matter how new or powerful its CPU is. Laptop makers and retailers also label qualifying machines "Copilot+ PC" directly on the spec sheet and product page, since it's now a standard marketing designation across Microsoft, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Asus, Acer and Samsung listings.

Is a Copilot+ PC worth buying right now?

That depends on how much the specific feature set matters to you versus a normal Windows 11 laptop with similar specs, which is often cheaper. A few practical considerations:

• If you want Recall, Click to Do or on-device image generation today, only a Copilot+ PC delivers them, and the category now spans three chip makers and price points from under $700 up through premium Surface and business configurations, so it's no longer a narrow or expensive niche.
• If your priority is battery life, the NPU-equipped chips in this category — especially the Arm-based Snapdragon X machines — were built around efficiency as much as AI, and Microsoft and OEMs have marketed all-day battery life as a core selling point of the category since launch.
• If you mainly browse, use Office and run everyday apps, a non-Copilot+ Windows 11 PC still does all of that, still gets Windows Update feature drops, and still runs cloud-based Copilot — you simply lose the on-device AI extras.
• If you're buying for software compatibility, particularly on Arm-based Snapdragon machines, check that the specific apps you rely on run natively or emulate acceptably, since Arm compatibility has improved steadily but isn't universal.

There's no meaningful risk in buying a Copilot+ PC today the way there sometimes is with very new hardware categories: the spec has been stable since 2024, three chip vendors now build to it, and Microsoft continues to add new Copilot+ exclusive features to existing qualifying hardware through ordinary Windows updates rather than requiring a new purchase each time.

What's next

The Copilot+ PC lineup keeps widening rather than staying fixed to the 2024 launch chips. Intel's newest Core Ultra Series 3 ("Panther Lake") processors began shipping in early 2026 and qualify under the same 40-TOPS bar, AMD continues extending its Ryzen AI 400 series, and Qualcomm has followed its original Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus with the Snapdragon X2 Elite. Expect the NPU performance floor to keep climbing as Microsoft adds new on-device AI features that demand more local compute, and expect "Copilot+ PC" to keep showing up as a standard spec-sheet label rather than a premium sub-brand, the same way "Wi-Fi 6" or "Bluetooth 5" became baseline shorthand rather than a marketing novelty.

Written byFelix Moreau

Felix Moreau writes Pandromeda's software coverage and how-to guides. He covers Windows, macOS and Linux updates, the apps people rely on, emulators and developer tools, and turns official documentation into clear, numbered steps that work on the current version.

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