Does Copilot Work in China?

Does Microsoft Copilot work in China?

No, not on Chinese mobile data or Wi-Fi. GreatFire, which tests websites from mainland China, keeps a test history for copilot.microsoft.com that shows it blocked. It says reaching the site from mainland China takes a VPN or another circumvention tool.

Microsoft doesn’t offer Copilot there either. Its page on supported regions and languages, last updated in September 2026, says Copilot is available in over 170 markets. It names a few exceptions: “regions like China (excluding Hong Kong SAR) and embargoed markets, where Copilot is either not available or not supported.” The page says this applies to every Copilot experience. That covers personal accounts, including Personal, Family, Premium and Pro plans, work and school accounts, and the free Copilot Chat. The page doesn’t give a reason, or say how Microsoft decides where you are.

Copilot in mainland China and Hong Kong

Microsoft treats Hong Kong differently from the mainland. Its list of exceptions names China “excluding Hong Kong SAR”. Microsoft Hong Kong announced in December 2023 that Copilot for Microsoft 365 was generally available to businesses there, with Cathay and MTR among the first to adopt it.

That sets Copilot apart from ChatGPT. OpenAI’s list of supported countries leaves out Hong Kong as well as mainland China. OpenAI warns that using ChatGPT from outside its list may get an account blocked or suspended. Microsoft doesn’t exclude Hong Kong.

So in mainland China there are two separate blocks. China’s firewall stops copilot.microsoft.com on Chinese networks. Separately, Microsoft doesn’t offer Copilot in mainland China. A roaming eSIM or a VPN can get you past both, as explained below.

Does M365 Copilot work in China?

Microsoft says it isn’t available or supported in mainland China. Its regions page covers work and school accounts as well as personal ones. Microsoft now calls Microsoft 365 Copilot simply Microsoft Copilot, and the work app is moving to copilot.cloud.microsoft.

What that means for a traveler with a work account on Microsoft’s global service isn’t clear. Microsoft’s page doesn’t say whether Copilot stops working in China or is only unsupported there. PTS, a Hong Kong IT consultancy that sells China IT services, wrote in August 2026 that on a global tenant “the licence works wherever the user happens to be; the constraint is connectivity.” It said users on ordinary local internet in the mainland “often watch Copilot spin.”

The connection matters because of how Copilot works. Microsoft’s requirements say Copilot needs full WebSocket connections to office.com and cloud.microsoft addresses. It can fail when a network blocks those connections, a device inspects the encrypted traffic, or a proxy cuts connections off too soon. Microsoft also says China’s links to the global internet are congested, which causes packet loss and delays for all traffic in and out of the country. We couldn’t confirm whether China’s firewall blocks copilot.cloud.microsoft.

Ask your IT team before you fly. Microsoft suggests that companies carry Microsoft 365 traffic from China over their own private network, or have users connect through a VPN into the company network. See Corporate VPN in China and Microsoft 365 in China.

Copilot in the 21Vianet edition of Microsoft 365

The separate edition of Microsoft 365 for China doesn’t include Copilot. Microsoft doesn’t run that edition. 21Vianet operates it from data centers in China with technology licensed from Microsoft, and the service is subject to Chinese laws.

Microsoft’s feature table for Copilot covers its worldwide service and US government clouds only. Its service description for the 21Vianet edition doesn’t mention Copilot, and its SharePoint documentation says the 21Vianet edition doesn’t currently support Copilot in SharePoint. PTS says Microsoft 365 Copilot isn’t offered on the China service at all, so a company’s staff on a 21Vianet account have nothing to license.

Does GitHub Copilot work in China?

It can, but it depends on your connection to GitHub. GitHub’s export rules for Copilot don’t cover China. Its trade controls page says Copilot may not be sold or exported, without authorization, to embargoed destinations or the countries in a US export control group. It says these currently include Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Belarus, and the Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. China isn’t on the list.

The firewall is the obstacle. GitHub says Copilot users must be able to sign in to GitHub and reach the Copilot service. It lists the addresses Copilot needs, including github.com, copilot-proxy.githubusercontent.com and githubcopilot.com API addresses. GreatFire rates github.com as unreliable from mainland China. It found api.githubcopilot.com and copilot-proxy.githubusercontent.com not blocked in its latest tests, in July and September 2026.

Reports describe Copilot in China as usable but patchy. A user answering a question on GitHub’s community forum in August 2026 said Copilot can be used from mainland China, but connectivity depends on your network. CodePick, a site that compares AI coding tools and links to deals, rated Copilot usable but degraded from mainland China in May 2026. It said Copilot’s API was less reliable than the GitHub website.

For GitHub itself, see GitHub in China.

On a roaming eSIM or VPN

A travel eSIM, home roaming or a VPN can get you past both blocks on Microsoft Copilot. Each can take your connection out of mainland China, so China’s firewall doesn’t filter it. Microsoft’s page names only mainland China and embargoed markets as exceptions, and says Hong Kong isn’t one. So unlike with ChatGPT, it doesn’t matter if your connection comes out in Hong Kong.

On mobile data, a travel eSIM or home roaming can take your traffic out of China. UNSW’s Salil Kanhere told the Bega District News in July 2026 that roaming data is in many cases routed through your home carrier or an overseas gateway. He said certain travel eSIMs route traffic through offshore gateways such as Hong Kong, Singapore or Australia. A local Chinese SIM or a China-specific eSIM, he said, typically remains subject to local filtering. Airalo, which sells eSIMs, says its plans with China coverage route traffic through gateways outside mainland China, as long as you use the eSIM’s data and not hotel Wi-Fi. See eSIM or VPN for China? and compare plans on our eSIM page.

On hotel Wi-Fi, you need a VPN. Compare the VPNs we track on our VPN page, and read Is a VPN legal in China? and VPN for hotel Wi-Fi in China before you go. With a work account, ask your IT team before you use a personal VPN.

For GitHub Copilot, only the firewall matters, because GitHub’s trade controls don’t cover China. A roaming eSIM or a VPN takes your GitHub traffic out of China too.

Chinese alternatives to Copilot

Microsoft doesn’t offer Copilot in mainland China, and people there use Chinese AI assistants. NPR described several in March 2026:

• Doubao: ByteDance’s chatbot, China’s most popular. NPR says it’s built into Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
• Qwen: Alibaba’s chatbot. NPR says it can order things for you and pay through Alipay.
• Yuanbao: Tencent’s chatbot, folded into WeChat and connected to WeChat Pay, according to NPR.
• DeepSeek: NPR names DeepSeek and Moonshot AI among China’s prominent AI startups.

For coding, ByteDance launched a Chinese version of its Trae coding tool in March 2025. The Standard and TechNode reported that it runs ByteDance’s Doubao model and can switch to DeepSeek’s models. We couldn’t confirm which of these let you sign up with a foreign phone number.

Related guides

• ChatGPT in China
• AI tools in China
• GitHub in China
• Microsoft 365 in China
• eSIM or VPN for China?
• VPN for hotel Wi-Fi in China