A Copilot Plus PC is not a brand of laptop. It is a hardware standard Microsoft invented, and a machine either clears the bar or it does not. This explains the bar in plain words, what clearing it unlocks, and whether any of it should affect what you buy.
Updated October 2026. Prices and configurations change, so check the manufacturer pages linked at the end before you buy anything.
1. What a Copilot Plus PC actually is
Microsoft defines it by hardware. Its support page sets three requirements on top of the normal Windows 11 ones.
- An NPU capable of 40 or more TOPS.
- 16GB of DDR5 or LPDDR5 memory.
- 256GB of SSD or UFS storage.
Meet all three and the machine is a Copilot Plus PC. Miss one and it is an ordinary Windows laptop that can still run Copilot through the internet.
2. What an NPU is, and why it is separate
NPU stands for neural processing unit. It is a part of the chip built only for the kind of maths that AI models use, which is mostly multiplying large grids of numbers together.
A CPU can do that work and does it inefficiently. A GPU does it well and uses a lot of power. An NPU does one narrow job and uses very little power, which is what matters in a laptop running on battery.
So the NPU exists for the same reason a car has a starter motor as well as an engine. It is not more powerful. It is the right tool for a specific job.
3. What TOPS means, and its limits
TOPS stands for trillions of operations per second. 40 TOPS means forty trillion of those small operations every second.
It is a useful number and a crude one. It says nothing about which precision the operations use, how fast memory feeds the NPU, or how well the software uses it. Two chips with the same TOPS rating can behave quite differently.
It has also become a marketing number, which is why some manufacturers have stopped publishing it. Microsoft gives 80 TOPS for the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU in the 13 inch Surface Laptop, and publishes no figure at all for its own Surface Laptop Ultra. Apple publishes no TOPS figure for any chip.
4. What you get on a Copilot Plus PC
The features are the reason the standard exists, and they run on the machine rather than in a data centre.
- Windows Studio Effects. Background blur, eye contact correction and automatic framing on video calls, handled by the NPU so the battery lasts.
- Live Captions with translation. Subtitles for any audio playing on the machine, translated as it goes.
- Image generation in Paint and similar creative tools.
- Improved Windows Search, which finds files by describing them rather than by remembering the filename.
Microsoft support page is blunt about what happens without the hardware: features such as Paint Cocreator or the full set of Windows Studio Effects “may not function properly or at all”.
5. Which machines qualify
By late 2026 most new Windows laptops in the mid range and above clear the bar. Two current examples show the spread.
- Surface Laptop 13 inch, $1,199.99. A Qualcomm Hexagon NPU rated at 80 TOPS, which is double the requirement.
- Surface Laptop Ultra, $2,599.99. Microsoft confirms it is a Copilot Plus PC with an integrated NPU, but publishes no rating for it.
There is one more condition worth catching. A Microsoft footnote says Copilot Plus features are available only on configurations with 16GB of RAM or more, which matches the published requirement and rules out the cheapest versions of some models.
6. How it compares with what Apple does
Apple has the same hardware idea and no equivalent badge.
Every Apple silicon chip has a Neural Engine, which is Apple name for an NPU. The M6 in the new MacBook Pro has what Apple calls a dual 16 core Neural Engine, claimed to be up to 1.9 times faster than the M5. Apple software layer is called Apple Intelligence.
The difference is marketing rather than engineering. Microsoft set a number and made partners meet it, because it does not build most Windows laptops. Apple builds every Mac, so it does not need a standard to enforce.
One practical consequence: you cannot compare them. Apple publishes no TOPS, so there is no way to say whether an M6 Neural Engine is above or below 40 TOPS. Our look at the M6 AI figures goes through what Apple does publish.
Should you pay extra for a Copilot Plus PC
Three honest positions, depending on what you do.
- If you are on a lot of video calls, yes. Windows Studio Effects running on the NPU instead of the CPU is a real battery saving, every day.
- If you want local AI, partly. The NPU helps with small models and built-in features. Large language models mostly use the GPU and memory bandwidth instead.
- If you mainly browse and write, no. You will notice better search and little else, and you should buy on screen, keyboard and battery instead.
The good news is that the question is becoming theoretical. Nearly every new Windows laptop above the budget tier now clears 40 TOPS, so you will probably end up with one whether you aimed for it or not.
What a Copilot Plus PC does not do
Three misunderstandings are worth clearing up.
- It does not run large language models well on the NPU. Big models need memory capacity and bandwidth, which is why machines aimed at that work advertise 64GB or 128GB instead.
- It does not make Copilot itself faster. The chat assistant runs in Microsoft data centres on any machine.
- It does not future proof anything in particular. The 40 TOPS line was set in 2024 and will move.
Where the 40 TOPS line came from
Microsoft set the bar in 2024, when it introduced the category. The number was not derived from physics. It was chosen as the level at which the AI features Microsoft wanted to ship could run on the device, smoothly, without destroying battery life.
It has already moved once in a quieter way. Neowin reported that Microsoft updated its requirements page to raise the RAM minimum to 16GB, which tells you the bar is a living standard rather than a permanent one.
Expect it to rise again. The sensible conclusion is not to buy a machine because it clears a number by a small margin. The 13 inch Surface Laptop at 80 TOPS has double the headroom, which is a better position than a machine that scrapes past at 41.
NPU, GPU and CPU, with a worked example
A concrete example makes the division of labour obvious. Take background blur on a video call.
- On a CPU: it works, uses a lot of power, and the fan comes on. Your battery drops noticeably during a long meeting.
- On a GPU: it works well and still draws real power, because a graphics engine is built for much larger jobs than this one.
- On an NPU: it works, draws very little power, and leaves both the CPU and GPU free for whatever else you are doing.
That is the entire argument for an NPU in a laptop. It is not about doing things that were impossible. It is about doing small AI jobs continuously without the battery noticing.
How to check whether a PC qualifies
Three ways, in order of reliability.
- Look for the badge. Manufacturers label Copilot Plus PCs clearly, because they paid for the right to.
- Check the processor name against Microsoft approved list. The requirement is set per processor, and the list is published.
- Check the specification for an NPU rating. If the listing does not mention an NPU at all, it almost certainly does not have a qualifying one.
One warning. A machine with a qualifying chip can still miss the standard on memory or storage, and manufacturers do ship 8GB versions of qualifying processors. Check all three requirements, not just the chip.
The features that matter most in practice
Of everything on the Copilot Plus list, two features earn their place for most people and the rest are occasional.
Windows Studio Effects is the one you will use daily if you are on calls. Blur, framing and eye contact correction running on the NPU rather than the CPU is a measurable battery difference over a day of meetings.
Live captions with translation is the one that occasionally changes what is possible. Real time subtitles for any audio on the machine, translated as it plays, is genuinely useful for anyone working across languages and it runs locally rather than sending audio anywhere.
Image generation in Paint and improved search are pleasant. Neither would justify choosing one laptop over another.
The privacy argument, honestly
On device AI is often sold as a privacy feature, and it partly is.
Work done on the NPU stays on the machine. Background blur, captions and local search do not send anything to a server, which is a real difference from the cloud versions of the same features.
What it does not mean is that a Copilot Plus PC is private by default. The Copilot assistant itself runs in Microsoft data centres on every machine, qualifying or not. The hardware badge changes where some features run, not the whole relationship.
Buying advice that will still hold next year
Four points that are not tied to this particular generation of hardware.
- Buy memory, not TOPS. 16GB is the floor and 32GB is the comfortable choice. Memory limits more real work than NPU speed does.
- Headroom beats compliance. A chip at double the requirement will stay useful longer than one that just clears it.
- Ignore the badge if you do not take video calls. For browsing and writing, screen and keyboard matter far more.
- Do not pay a premium for it alone. Nearly every new Windows laptop above the budget tier now qualifies anyway.
A short history of the on-device AI argument
The idea that a laptop should do AI work itself, rather than sending it to a server, is newer than it feels.
For most of the 2010s the answer was always the cloud. Servers had the hardware, connections were fast enough, and nobody wanted to pay for specialist silicon in a laptop. Phones changed that first, because a phone cannot send every photo to a server and still have battery at six in the evening.
Laptops followed phones, as they usually do. The Copilot Plus PC standard is Microsoft putting a number on that shift, and Apple Neural Engine is the same idea arriving without a badge because Apple controls the whole product.
What has not been settled is how much of the work should stay local. Small, constant jobs clearly should. Large language models mostly still run better in a data centre, which is why the Copilot assistant itself does.
What to ignore in Copilot Plus PC marketing
Three claims are worth discounting whenever you see them.
- Any TOPS comparison between brands. Without knowing the precision each number was measured at, the comparison is meaningless.
- Future proofing. The standard has already moved once and will move again. No hardware purchase is proof against that.
- Feature counts. The number of AI features is not the point. Two of them are useful daily and the rest are occasional.
What is worth paying attention to is unglamorous: how much memory the machine has, how long its battery lasts, and whether the NPU figure has real headroom above the requirement rather than scraping past it.
What this means when you are shopping
The badge has become close to standard on new Windows laptops above the budget tier, which changes how much attention it deserves.
Two years ago it was a reason to choose one machine over another. Today it is a box most candidates already tick, so it works better as a filter than as a tie-breaker: check it is there, then go back to comparing screens, keyboards, memory and battery life.
The exception is the budget end of the market, where 8GB configurations still exist and do not qualify. There the badge tells you something real, and it is telling you about memory rather than about AI.
The short version
Everything above, in five lines.
- A Copilot Plus PC needs a 40+ TOPS NPU, 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
- An NPU is a low power chip section built only for AI maths.
- It unlocks Windows Studio Effects, live translated captions, image generation and better search.
- The 13 inch Surface Laptop publishes 80 TOPS. The Surface Laptop Ultra publishes none.
- Apple has the same hardware under a different name and publishes no TOPS at all.
Common questions
What is a Copilot Plus PC? A Windows 11 machine that meets Microsoft hardware bar: an NPU rated at 40 or more TOPS, 16GB of DDR5 or LPDDR5 memory, and 256GB of SSD or UFS storage.
What does TOPS mean? Trillions of operations per second. It measures raw AI throughput and says nothing about precision, memory speed or software support.
Can I use Copilot without a Copilot Plus PC? Yes. The Copilot assistant runs in Microsoft data centres and works on any supported Windows machine. The hardware bar is for features that run on the device itself.
Is a Mac a Copilot Plus PC? No. It is a Windows standard. Apple chips have an equivalent part called the Neural Engine and a software layer called Apple Intelligence, but Apple publishes no TOPS figure, so the two cannot be compared directly.
Is it worth paying more for one? If you are on video calls often, yes, because the effects run on the NPU and save battery. For browsing and writing, buy on screen, keyboard and battery life instead.
Sources and further reading
Where the figures and rules above come from, so you can check them:
- The official Copilot+ PC hardware requirements: Microsoft Support, Windows AI device hardware requirements
- Prices, screen sizes and battery figures for the Surface Laptop line: Microsoft, Surface Laptop
- Microsoft own page for the Surface Laptop Ultra, including the footnotes: Microsoft, Surface Laptop Ultra
- The announcement itself, with Apple own performance figures and footnotes: Apple Newsroom
Photo credits: Chip layout from the development phase of the Intel 4004 from 1971, the first microprocessor of the world (cropped and edited image) by Intel 4004 Chip Layout (29983532570).jpg: Wolfgang Stief from Tittmoning, Germany derivative work, the rectangular version above: Pittigrilli, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Notebook computer by KK IN HK, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Tape over laptop webcam by Santeri Viinamäki, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Motherboard MSI Trident X 9th 20201120 DSC6186 by PantheraLeo1359531, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Circuit board Closeup (24884298047) by Jonathan Cutrer from San Angelo, Texas, United States, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Join the discussion