Should I switch off Microsoft Copilot AI visibility tracking now?

No, you shouldn't "switch off" anything, because there's nothing to switch off for most users. Semrush's change only affects the custom-priced Enterprise AIO product, and Copilot was never tracked on Semrush's self-serve plans in the first place. If you're one of the Enterprise AIO customers losing Copilot data on November 9, the more useful question isn't how to replace it like-for-like, but whether Copilot deserved a dedicated tool at all, given how small its open-web footprint still is.

What Semrush is actually ending on November 9

Semrush has told its enterprise customers that it will stop tracking Microsoft Copilot in its AI search monitoring product from November 9, 2026. It says recent changes to Copilot's access requirements prevent platforms, including its own, from collecting the data needed to track Copilot performance, as ppc.land reported. The notice went out by email to Semrush Enterprise AIO customers on October 28, and only became public when search consultant Glenn Gabe shared it on LinkedIn, calling it a sign that "AI visibility tools are facing their own version of tracking issues," per ppc.land's coverage. Semrush's enterprise pricing page lists nine platforms under AI Optimisation: ChatGPT, Google AI Overview, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Grok, Gemini, Claude and DeepSeek. Tracking for the other eight continues unchanged, as the same ppc.land article confirms. This is a single-platform removal inside one product tier, not a wider retreat from AI visibility tracking.

Why Copilot tracking broke

Semrush points to changes in Copilot's access requirements. The clearest public evidence is Microsoft Edge now requiring sign-in before users can reach Copilot at all, with a "Let's get you signed in" panel stating "Sign-in is required to access Copilot in Edge," as Search Engine Watch found. Separate testing by Windows Report found the same pattern across Edge desktop and InPrivate, Android, the Bing app and the Copilot web app, each showing a "Sign in to chat" screen with Microsoft, Apple or Google login options, according to Windows Report's hands-on testing. There's no public API to route around this either. Microsoft's own documentation states plainly, "Is Copilot Chat accessible via API? No, we don't offer an API," per Microsoft's Copilot FAQ. Note that ppc.land's reporting says this sign-in requirement applies to every consumer user; nothing in the public record shows it was designed with visibility vendors in mind. Semrush hasn't confirmed this is specifically the change it means, so treat it as the likely cause, not a confirmed one.

How much Copilot visibility matters for most brands

By most measures, Copilot's share of the open-web AI conversation is small. Microsoft Copilot reached 110 million monthly active users in September 2026, up 3% quarter on quarter, but that's only a 1.3% U.S. AI chatbot market share, "well behind ChatGPT and Google Gemini," according to First Page Sage's analysis. Among paid AI subscribers, Recon Analytics data cited by Stackmatix puts ChatGPT at 55.2% share, Gemini at 15.7% and Copilot at 11.5% as of January 2026, down from 18.8% in July 2025, a 39% contraction. By web visits, Copilot's standalone app held just 0.6% of worldwide AI chatbot web-visit share in September 2026 with 64.4 million visits, though Momentic Marketing's report notes most Copilot usage happens inside Windows, Edge and Microsoft 365, not on the open web where visibility tools look. Pew Research Centre's survey of U.S. adults conducted February 17 to 23, 2026 found 44% say they use ChatGPT against 17% for Copilot, with Gemini, Meta AI, Grok and Claude also ahead or close, as reported by Use Carly.

The enterprise picture looks different. More than 90% of Fortune 500 companies were using Microsoft 365 Copilot by fiscal 2026, per Xtended View's data, and First Page Sage reports 36.2 million paid Microsoft 365 Copilot seats, about 7.7% of commercial Microsoft 365 seats, though roughly one in three of those seats goes unused in a typical week. That gap between consumer chatbot traffic and enterprise deployment matters. Copilot may rarely surface your brand to a casual web searcher, but it's embedded in the daily tools of large organisations that could be reading about you inside Word, Outlook or Teams, somewhere no visibility tool currently reaches.

Does this even apply to you

This is the part most people miss. Semrush's change only hits the custom-priced Enterprise AIO tier. On every plan you can actually buy online, including the SEO + AI Search plans and the AI Visibility Toolkit, Semrush never tracked Copilot to begin with, stopping instead at ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity and Gemini, according to Arobis's comparison of rank trackers. So if you're on a self-serve Semrush plan, nothing changes for you on November 9. If you're an Enterprise AIO customer, the change is real but narrow: you lose one of nine tracked platforms, and the other eight keep working. The question worth asking isn't "do I need to replace Copilot tracking," it's "was Copilot tracking pulling its weight for us in the first place." For most brands outside large enterprise software or Microsoft-heavy B2B, the answer is probably not much. It's worth reading how other platforms get dropped from tracking tools for similar reasons, since Copilot isn't the first platform to raise this exact question.

Tools that still track Copilot, and what they cost

If you decide Copilot is worth tracking, Semrush isn't your only option. Otterly.AI includes Microsoft Copilot among its standard engines with daily checks alongside ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI products, starting at $29 a month on its Lite plan, per LLM Pulse's roundup and Zapier's comparison. Profound covers up to ten platforms including Copilot, Claude, Grok and DeepSeek, priced for enterprise programmes with custom quotes, as Contentpen's guide describes. Ahrefs Brand Radar also tracks Copilot among its AI platforms, a useful option if you're already in the Ahrefs suite, per Dageno's breakdown. At the budget end, Keyword.com's dedicated Copilot view starts at $7.83 a month billed annually for 20 credits, which Arobis calls "the cheapest way to watch Copilot at all."

Free ways to keep an eye on Copilot instead

The most useful free option comes from Microsoft itself. Bing Webmaster Tools launched an AI Performance report in public preview in February 2026 that tracks citations in Microsoft Copilot, Bing's AI summaries and some partner integrations, according to Accessibility Checker's guide. Because it's first-party, it isn't exposed to the sign-in wall that's tripping up third-party crawlers, which makes it a sensible default even if you keep a paid tool for the rest of your AI visibility stack. Before you lean too hard on any single number, Copilot included, it's worth reading about the broader gap in AI visibility measurement standards, about how differently AI engines can disagree with each other, and about how ChatGPT's own tracking tags have already made AI traffic numbers unreliable elsewhere. Semrush's own cross-platform research shows how far these tools can disagree even on platforms they do track, as covered in Semrush's UK and US AI visibility data. An IAB framework published in August 2026 found that only 16% of brands currently track AI visibility at all, which puts the Copilot question in context: most brands have a bigger gap to close than one platform going dark in one tool. If you want a quick read on where you currently stand across the platforms that matter most, you can run a free AI visibility scorecard before spending on another subscription.

Our view: Semrush dropping Copilot from Enterprise AIO looks worse in a headline than it is in practice. Unless you're selling into large, Microsoft-heavy enterprises, Copilot's open-web share is thin enough that losing automated tracking for it is a minor inconvenience, not a measurement crisis. The real limitation here is that no tool, Semrush included, can currently see what Copilot tells a user signed in inside Word or Teams, so even the tools that still claim to track Copilot are only watching its public web surface, which is the smallest part of how it's actually used.

Frequently asked questions

Does this affect my Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit subscription?

No. Semrush's self-serve plans, including the AI Visibility Toolkit at $99 a month per domain, never tracked Copilot, stopping at ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity and Gemini, according to Arobis's comparison.

Why can't Semrush just fix its Copilot tracking?

Semrush says recent changes to Copilot's access requirements prevent platforms including its own from collecting the needed data, and Microsoft Copilot has no public API, as confirmed in Microsoft's own FAQ. Combined with Copilot's new sign-in requirement across Edge and mobile apps found by Windows Report, there's currently no clean way for third-party tools to crawl it automatically.

Is Copilot worth tracking at all?

It depends on your audience. Consumer-facing brands may find Copilot's open-web share too small to prioritise, given its 1.3% U.S. chatbot market share reported by First Page Sage, while B2B brands selling to large enterprises may care more given that over 90% of Fortune 500 companies use Microsoft 365 Copilot, per Xtended View.

What's a free way to check Copilot visibility now?

Bing Webmaster Tools' AI Performance report, in public preview since February 2026, tracks citations in Microsoft Copilot and Bing's AI summaries at no cost, according to Accessibility Checker's guide.