How do you get rid of the floating Copilot icon that likes to float over the lower right hand side of an Excel Spreadsheet?

Question

How do you get rid of the floating Copilot icon that likes to float over the lower right hand side of an Excel Spreadsheet?

KarlBirch-1179 40

I don't find any usefulness in Copilot as it has lead me astray multiple times. How do I remove the floating icon that hangs out on my spreadsheets in the lower left hand corners? It has become an intolerable annoyance.

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Answer accepted by question author

Tamara-Hu 17,960 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi @KarlBirch-1179 and everyone.

I completely understand how this behavior can be frustrating, especially when it impacts the way you expect the product to work or fit into your workflow. Thank you for taking the time to share your experience, it’s truly valuable.

At the moment, this behavior is part of the product’s current built-in design and is not considered a bug. I understand this may be unexpected or could lead to some confusion, especially if it differs from what you were hoping to see. I’m sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

If you’d like to see improvements or changes in how this works, the most effective step is to share your feedback directly with the product team, using my previous answer. They will carefully review user feedback to better understand real-world needs, and your input can play an important role in shaping future updates, design enhancements, or official guidance.

Your voice genuinely helps influence the direction of the product, so I strongly encourage you to submit feedback when possible.

KarlBirch-1179 40 Reputation points

2026-05-18T15:37:49.7566667+00:00

Thanks Tamara-Hu. It is a bug and one that should have a can of bug spray unloaded on it as well as on the product manager of Excel and CoPilot. I suspect some clever hackers will come up with a solution in the future to rid the infestation. Thank you again for your time and efforts.

6 additional answers

KarlBirch-1179 40 Reputation points

2026-05-18T15:37:49.7566667+00:00

Thanks Tamara-Hu. It is a bug and one that should have a can of bug spray unloaded on it as well as on the product manager of Excel and CoPilot. I suspect some clever hackers will come up with a solution in the future to rid the infestation. Thank you again for your time and efforts.

Answer 1

Yuko Thomas 0

I would also like to remove this - it's annoying and intrusive. It covers the spreadsheet. It should be optional.

I figured it out with the help of my IT team. Configure to move it to the Ribbon, then, delete it from the Ribbon by right clicking on the riboon and choosing Customize. It is called "Assistance".

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Answer 2

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Answer 3

Hello @Karl Birch, @B_R,

Thank you very much for sharing your feedback and for taking the time to provide detailed information. I truly appreciate it.

At the moment, there is no user-level option available to permanently turn off or remove the Copilot icon in Excel. I understand how disruptive and frustrating this experience can be, especially when it affects your daily work, and I do agree that having a simple setting to disable it would be very helpful.

As a current workaround, if you are using a work or school account, you may consider reaching out to your IT Administrator / Microsoft 365 administrator. They can:

Remove or unassign the Copilot license from your account, by following this instruction: Assign or unassign licenses for users in the Microsoft 365 admin center
Which will effectively remove Copilot features (including the icon)

Please note that this requires administrative access and may not apply to personal subscriptions.

In the meantime, I would also encourage you to submit feedback directly to Microsoft product team through the Microsoft Feedback Portal. User feedback plays an important role in influencing future improvements, and requests like yours help highlight the need for better control over features like this.

Sign into Excel · Community.
Click Send Feedback on the right side of the page

User's image

Fill in the form and click Send to submit your feedback.

The Product Team is in-charge of the feedback site, and they are constantly checking the comments and feedback from our customer. Many features have been developed or improved based on users' comment.

After submitting your request on the site, you can return here and paste the link into this thread. That way, other users who visit this discussion can click the link and upvote your request to help bring more attention to it.

Just to be transparent, I’m a Q&A forum moderator here, but you can think of me as a user like yourself. I don’t have the ability to change product behavior directly or represent the Microsoft product team. What I can do, though, is share context around how things work today and help guide you toward the most effective next steps.

I sincerely understand the inconvenience this has caused, and I appreciate your patience and understanding while we work within the current situation. However, please know that you are not alone in experiencing this. I will continue to monitor this case and keep an eye on any updates. If there are any changes or new information regarding this feature, I will make sure to share them with you promptly.

Please let me know if there’s anything else I can assist you with. Thank you again for reaching out!

KarlBirch-1179 40 Reputation points

2026-05-13T15:39:12.37+00:00

Hey Tamara-Hu, thanks for the reply and for your suggestion to talk to our IT guys. I will do so as soon as he is back from vacation. Honestly, If I found CoPilot as useful as Grok or Gemini or Claude in analysis and then formula creation, I would use it. It gets the problem wrong too often and got me down rabbit holes that I did not need to go down. Thanks again for your help and suggestions.
Tamara-Hu 17,960 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-05-14T10:09:53.8066667+00:00

Thank you @KarlBirch-1179, for sharing your experience with Copilot. I understand that it doesn’t fully meet your requirements at this time, and it’s valuable to highlight these gaps so the product team can continue improving both the features and the overall user experience.

After testing with the IT team, you’re welcome to share the results here, whether my suggestion works for you or if you’ve found another idea to address the issue. Your input will be important, and I hope the product team will consider creating this functionality in the future so users feel even more encouraged to adopt the product.

Thank you again for your understanding so far!
KarlBirch-1179 40 Reputation points

2026-05-16T00:00:27.4633333+00:00

Hi Tamara Hu, Well our best IT guy on site and the TOP IT ADMIN from our 3rd party consultant firm all had a crack at it to remove this terrible bug. They were able to get rid of it for about 2 hours. I restarted Excel and low and behold, it came back. I also looked online in other forums, not one positive message was found. Everyone hates this bug. Thank you for attempting to help but, there does not seem to be a way to get rid of it permanently even with full ADMIN access to all accounts.
Tamara-Hu 17,960 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-05-18T07:35:24.5733333+00:00

Hi @KarlBirch-1179,

Thank you for sharing your experience.

Could you please confirm whether your organization’s IT administrator removed your Copilot license or made any other changes? It would be helpful if you could share more details about the steps your IT team has taken.

This information can help other users understand what to avoid, so they don’t spend unnecessary time troubleshooting similar situations.

Answer 4

B_R 10

None of these steps worked for me. Unbelievably frustrating to have this jammed down my throat. At least before the update I could remove it from the ribbon, but now this floating copilot icon chases me between documents offering useless advice or trying to break my excel sheets.

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