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Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing

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This article is about licensing Microsoft 365 Copilot (shown as Microsoft Copilot on current Microsoft Learn pages), Copilot Chat, Copilot Studio Copilot Credits and Copilot pay-as-you-go services. Microsoft 365 suites and the User SL meter are covered in Microsoft 365 and Online Services licensing. Product Terms are the contractual source; Learn pages are educational.

On This Page

Microsoft 365 Copilot is licensed as a per-user add-on. Microsoft sells it as a User SL that must sit on top of a listed prerequisite license, the same subscription meter used for other Microsoft 365 Online Services.[2] Current Microsoft Learn pages call the product Microsoft Copilot and describe it as “available as an add-on plan with one of the licensing prerequisites”.[1] Agents are a second, consumption layer: Copilot Chat agents, SharePoint agents and Copilot Studio agents are metered in Copilot Credits, paid from prepaid capacity packs, pay-as-you-go through an Azure subscription, or a one-year pre-purchase plan.[9][13] The User SL rules themselves (assignment, 90-day reassignment, suites) are on Microsoft 365 and Online Services licensing; this page covers only what Copilot adds.

Plans

Offering How it is sold Published US price (retrieved 2026-09-26) 
Microsoft 365 Copilot Add-on User SL; annual commitment $30.00 user/month paid yearly, or $31.50 paid monthly[4] 
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business Add-on for Business plans; annual subscription Shown as “Originally starting from $21.00 now starting from $18.00” user/month, paid yearly[5] 
Microsoft 365 E7 Suite that includes Microsoft 365 Copilot Suite components: Office 365 E5, Enterprise Mobility + Security E5, Windows 11 Enterprise E5 Per User, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Agent 365, Microsoft Entra Suite[2] 
Copilot Chat Included with an eligible Microsoft 365 subscription No extra cost for web-based chat[1] 
Copilot Studio capacity pack Tenant-wide license, 25,000 Copilot Credits per pack $200.00 per pack per month[11] 

The enterprise pricing card adds that “A separate license for a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan is required.”[4] Product Terms also list Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales and Copilot for Service as separate User SLs.[2]

Metrics

  • User SL: the existing Microsoft Online Services meter. Microsoft 365 Copilot is sold on it; it is not a new meter.[2]
  • Copilot Credit: Microsoft calls Copilot Credits “the unit that measures agent usage” and the common currency across Copilot Studio capabilities.[10][9]
  • Copilot Studio message: the Azure meter name still shown for pay-as-you-go Copilot Chat and SharePoint agents, billed at $0.01 per message.[8] On 1 September 2025 the common currency for agents changed from messages to Copilot Credits, with no change to the pack quantity or the pay-as-you-go rate.[9]
  • Copilot Credit Commit Unit: the prepaid unit of the one-year Copilot Credits pre-purchase plan.[9]

Counting and metering

Seats

Each Copilot user needs a Microsoft 365 Copilot User SL and a prerequisite license (next section). The Learn page links to the Copilot License Details diagnostic for checking that a user account meets the requirements.[1] Copilot Chat has two modes: web-based chat, which shows internet results and is included with an eligible subscription at no extra cost, and work-based chat, which shows results the user’s Entra account can access and “Is available with a Microsoft Copilot license.”[1]

Copilot Credits

Copilot Studio bills each agent feature at a fixed number of credits. For example, a classic answer is 1 credit, a generative answer 2, an agent action 5, tenant graph grounding 10, and agent flow actions 13 per 100 actions.[10] Purchased capacity is pooled across the tenant, enforced monthly, and does not carry over.[10][9] Custom agents are disabled when a tenant reaches 125% of its prepaid capacity.[10]

Employee-facing agent use is “No charge” when the user holds a Microsoft 365 Copilot license and the agent runs under that user’s identity. This is subject to fair-use limits, applies to agent flows only when started by the “When an agent calls the flow” trigger, and excludes Computer-Using Agents.[10] Agents used by people without a Copilot license draw credits. One worked example on the rates page bills only the 100 unlicensed users of an agent that also serves 50 licensed users.[10]

Prerequisites

Product Terms state that purchases of listed licenses “also require the purchase of a Prerequisite License”. For Microsoft 365 Copilot, the prerequisites are Microsoft 365 Apps for business or enterprise, Business Basic, Standard or Premium, F1, A1, F3, E3, A3, G3, E5, E7, A5 or G5; Office 365 F3, E1, A1, E3, A3, G3, E5, A5 or G5; Exchange Online; SharePoint Online; OneDrive; Microsoft Clipchamp; Microsoft Teams EEA, Enterprise or Essentials; Planner Plan 1; Project Online; or Visio Online.[2] G3 and G5 were added on 1 August 2026.[3] Microsoft 365 Copilot for Business requires Business Basic, Standard or Premium, Microsoft 365 Apps for business, or Teams Essentials.[2] The Learn list also covers GCC, GCC High and DoD plans and academic plans bought through EES or CSP.[1]

The free Copilot Studio user license for makers requires a tenant prepaid Copilot Credit pack subscription. Makers can also build agents through the Copilot Studio authors role, a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, or a trial license that cannot publish agents.[9]

Data use

Microsoft Learn states that prompts, responses and data accessed through Microsoft Graph “aren’t used to train foundation LLMs, including those used by Microsoft Copilot.”[14] Product Terms add contractual commitments for Bing web queries sent from Entra ID-authenticated Copilot and Copilot Chat. Microsoft has no rights in that Query Data beyond providing the service, does not use it to improve Bing or build advertising profiles, and does not use it to train generative AI foundation models. The data is also treated as Customer confidential information.[2] Data shared with another Product is subject to that Product’s terms.[2]

Programs

  • Copilot Studio capacity pack: a tenant-wide license with 25,000 Copilot Credits per pack per month at $200.00 per pack.[11] Packs can also fund Copilot Chat through Copilot credit policies, up to 10 per tenant. Without a paired pay-as-you-go policy, Copilot Chat stops when the credits run out.[12]
  • Copilot Studio pay-as-you-go: environments are linked to an Azure subscription through a billing policy, and the organization pays at month end only for the credits its agents used.[9]
  • Copilot Credit Pre-Purchase Plan (P3): “a one-year, prepaid option for Copilot Credits”, drawn down as Copilot Credit Commit Units across eligible products.[9] Usage-based billing for Cowork and the Work IQ API can use P3, pay-as-you-go or Prepaid Capacity packs.[13]
  • Microsoft Copilot pay-as-you-go for Copilot Chat, SharePoint agents and the Copilot Retrieval API (Preview): pay-as-you-go is off by default. An admin creates a billing policy (an Azure subscription plus a set of users, with an optional budget) and connects it to the service.[7] Product Terms list Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat among the First-Party Consumption Services available as Azure meters.[6]

Buying programs (EA, MCA, CSP) follow Microsoft 365 and Online Services licensing. How prepaid and metered capacity behave generally is covered in subscription and consumption licensing.

Out of scope

  • Microsoft 365 suites, User SL assignment rules and CAL equivalency: see Microsoft 365 and Online Services licensing.
  • Security Copilot and its Security Compute Units, Dragon Copilot, Dynamics 365 Copilot capabilities and Agent 365.
  • GitHub Copilot, including GitHub Copilot bought through Microsoft: see GitHub Copilot licensing.
  • Copilot Studio agents built on the GitHub Copilot harness (a standalone Copilot Studio option)[11] and bring-your-own-model configurations, including Azure Foundry models, which Microsoft bills separately.[10]
  • The Copilot Studio Licensing Guide PDF (not retrieved) and full credit-rate tables beyond the rows quoted.

Catalog rows

Existing Microsoft rows used by this article: User SL (metric), Microsoft 365 Copilot (User SL), Microsoft 365 Copilot Business, Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales (User SL) and Microsoft 365 Copilot for Service (User SL) (SKUs).

New catalog rows for this article, grouped by table.

References

  1. License options for Microsoft Copilot (Microsoft Learn)Prerequisite plan lists; Copilot Chat web-based and work-based. Educational.Effective 2026-09-17. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  2. Microsoft Product Terms: Microsoft 365 (EA/EAS)License Prerequisites; Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Chat Data Handling and Query Data; E7 components.Effective 2026-09-15. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  3. Microsoft Product Terms: Summary of Changes1 August 2026 prerequisite change (G3, G5); latest entry 15 September 2026.Effective 2026-09-15. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  4. Microsoft Copilot for enterprise, pricing sectionUS list price for Microsoft 365 Copilot.Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  5. Flexible Copilot plans for every organization, Business plansUS price for Microsoft 365 Copilot Business.Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  6. Microsoft Product Terms: GlossaryCopilot; First-Party Consumption Services.Effective 2026-09-15. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  7. Microsoft Copilot pay-as-you-go service overview (Microsoft Learn)Effective 2026-08-18. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  8. Meters for Microsoft Copilot pay-as-you-go services (Microsoft Learn)Effective 2026-08-18. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  9. Licensing for agents powered by the standard harness, Copilot Studio (Microsoft Learn)Effective 2026-08-03. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  10. Billing rates and management, Copilot Studio (Microsoft Learn)Effective 2026-08-03. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  11. Microsoft Copilot Studio plans and pricingCapacity pack price and size; pay-as-you-go; pre-purchase plan.Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  12. Use Capacity Packs vs Pay-as-you-go Billing for Microsoft Copilot Chat (Microsoft Learn)Effective 2026-09-25. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  13. Usage-based Billing and Cost Management for Copilot Credits (Microsoft Learn)Effective 2026-09-25. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  14. Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft Copilot (Microsoft Learn)Effective 2026-08-18. Retrieved 2026-09-26.

See also

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