Comparison
Microsoft Copilot Studio pricing: credits, packs, and pay-as-you-go
Direct answer
Here is Copilot Studio pricing as of October 2026. Microsoft sells Copilot Studio capacity in Copilot Credits three ways: a capacity pack at $200 a month for 25,000 credits, pay-as-you-go at $0.01 a credit billed through Azure, or a pre-purchase plan with up to 20% savings, per Microsoft's Copilot Studio pricing page. Each thing an agent does costs a set number of credits, from 1 for a scripted answer to 5 for an agent action. Employees with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license ($30 per user a month, paid yearly) can use internal agents at no extra credit charge, within fair-use limits. Agents for customers or outside channels need paid credits.
Copilot Studio pricing options at a glance
Figures are from Microsoft's pricing page and Azure's public retail price list as of October 2026.
| Option | Price | What you get | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity pack | $200 per pack per month | 25,000 Copilot Credits a month, pooled across your tenant | Steady, predictable usage |
| Pay-as-you-go | $0.01 per Copilot Credit | Billed monthly in arrears to an Azure subscription, no commitment | Pilots and spiky usage |
| Pre-purchase plan | Up to 20% savings with up-front purchase | Prepaid Copilot Credit Commit Units | Larger, known annual volume |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | $30 per user a month, paid yearly | Copilot Chat plus building and using internal agents in Microsoft 365 | Employee-facing agents |
A full pack works out to $0.008 a credit, which is 20% less than pay-as-you-go. That only holds if you use most of the pack.
Microsoft's page draws one line clearly. The standalone Copilot Studio options (packs, pay-as-you-go, pre-purchase) let you publish agents to external channels. The Microsoft 365 Copilot license keeps agents inside Microsoft 365 for your own staff.
What each agent action costs in credits
Microsoft publishes the credit rates in its billing rates documentation. The same rates apply whichever built-in language model the agent uses.
| Agent feature | Copilot Credits |
|---|---|
| Classic answer (a scripted response you wrote) | 1 |
| Generative answer (AI-written from your knowledge sources) | 2 |
| Agent action (triggers, deep reasoning, topic transitions, computer use) | 5 |
| Tenant graph grounding (search across your Microsoft Graph data) | 10 |
| Agent flow actions | 13 per 100 actions |
| Text and generative AI tools, basic / standard / premium | 1 / 15 / 100 per 10 responses |
| Content processing tools | 8 per page |
| Voice: classic / GenAI / premium GenAI | 10 / 35 / 75 per minute |
One user message can hit several of these at once. Microsoft's own example is a tenant-grounded answer that costs 12 credits: 10 for grounding plus 2 for the generative answer. Reasoning models add the premium AI tools rate on top of the feature rate, at 10 credits per 1,000 tokens.
How the Microsoft 365 Copilot license fits in
This is where most of the confusion sits. If an employee has a Microsoft 365 Copilot license and uses a Copilot Studio agent under their own signed-in identity, Microsoft's rate table marks that usage "No charge." That covers classic and generative answers, agent actions, tenant graph grounding, and AI tools.
The exceptions are in the footnotes:
- It applies only to employee-facing use by licensed users. Customers, unlicensed staff, and autonomous agents that run on their own consume credits at the normal rate.
- Agent flows are only free when started by the "When an agent calls the flow" trigger by a licensed user. Flows with other triggers use credits.
- Computer-using agents are not included in the license.
- Usage is subject to fair-use limits that Microsoft can change.
So a company that already pays for Microsoft 365 Copilot can build internal helper agents without buying credits. A company that wants an agent on its website, or one that runs on a schedule, needs a pack or pay-as-you-go.
What happens when you run out
Under prepaid packs, Microsoft allows some overage as a grace period. Per the billing documentation, when a tenant reaches 125% of its prepaid capacity, custom agents are disabled. Conversations in progress finish, then users see a message that the agent is unavailable. Agent flows are stricter: new flow runs are blocked as soon as prepaid capacity is used up.
You can avoid this by linking a pay-as-you-go Azure meter to the environment, so overage bills to Azure instead. You can also set monthly credit limits per agent in the Power Platform admin center.
A worked example for a small business
These volumes are an illustration, not a benchmark.
Customer-facing website agent. A 15-person property management company puts an agent on its website to answer tenant questions. Each conversation averages 2 classic answers, 3 generative answers, and 2 agent actions:
- (2 x 1) + (3 x 2) + (2 x 5) = 18 credits per conversation
- 30 conversations a day x 30 days = 900 conversations
- 900 x 18 = 16,200 credits a month
On pay-as-you-go that's $162 a month. One capacity pack ($200) covers it with room to spare. Pay-as-you-go wins until usage passes 20,000 credits a month, where the pack becomes cheaper.
Internal agent for licensed staff. If 10 employees with Microsoft 365 Copilot use an internal policy-lookup agent, the credit cost is zero under the inclusion rules above. The real cost is the license: 10 x $30 = $300 a month, paid yearly. You're likely buying that license for its other Copilot features anyway, so the agent rides along.
Microsoft's larger example. The billing docs describe a support agent handling 900 customers a day at 8 credits each, or 7,200 credits a day. Over 30 days that's 216,000 credits: about $2,160 on pay-as-you-go, or 9 packs ($1,800) on prepaid capacity.
Hidden costs beyond credits
- Building and testing. Copilot Studio is a low-code builder. Someone has to design topics, connect knowledge sources, and test answers before customers see them.
- Licensing homework. Which users are licensed, which triggers are included, and which environment draws from which pool all affect the bill. Microsoft's licensing guide is long for a reason.
- Upkeep. Knowledge sources change, flows break, and someone has to watch consumption reports in the Power Platform admin center.
- The Microsoft 365 assumption. Copilot Studio fits best when your business already runs on Microsoft 365. If your email and files live in Google Workspace, much of the license value doesn't apply.
When Copilot Studio is the right buy
Copilot Studio is a good fit when:
- Your company runs on Microsoft 365 and already pays for Microsoft 365 Copilot, so internal agents are close to free.
- You have someone in IT or operations who can build and maintain agents.
- You want a customer-facing chat agent and can predict volume well enough to size packs.
- You need Microsoft's admin, identity, and governance controls.
It's a weaker fit for a small business without a builder on staff, or one that mostly works in Gmail, QuickBooks, and other non-Microsoft tools.
Alternatives to consider
- Automation tools. Zapier, Make, and n8n are cheaper for rule-based work between apps, though you still build and maintain everything.
- A done-for-you team. TeamShift is a hosted team of nine AI workers, including Support, Sales, and Finance. There is no builder: you hand off work in a sentence, and the right worker does it in the apps you already use, such as Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, and QuickBooks. Workers draft replies, follow-ups, and invoice reminders, and anything that sends to a customer, moves money, publishes, deletes, or commits your calendar goes out only after you approve it. Support can also answer live calls on your business line, and bookings or changes asked for on a call wait for your approval. Pricing is usage-based: a free workspace, work billed at 3x its compute cost, a quoted maximum before each job, and spend caps (pricing).
Pick Copilot Studio if you're a Microsoft shop with a builder and want agents inside that ecosystem. A done-for-you team makes more sense when you want the work handled without designing agents yourself.
FAQ
How much does Microsoft Copilot Studio cost?
As of October 2026, a capacity pack is $200 a month for 25,000 Copilot Credits, and pay-as-you-go is $0.01 a credit billed through Azure. A pre-purchase plan offers up to 20% savings for committing up front.
Is Copilot Studio included with Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Partly. Licensed users can build and use internal agents in Microsoft 365, and their employee-facing agent usage carries no credit charge within fair-use limits. Agents for customers, external channels, or autonomous runs need paid credits.
What is a Copilot Credit?
It's the unit Copilot Studio uses to meter agent usage. A classic answer costs 1 credit, a generative answer 2, an agent action 5, and tenant graph grounding 10.
What happens if I use more credits than I bought?
Microsoft allows some overage, but at 125% of prepaid capacity your custom agents are disabled until you add capacity. Linking a pay-as-you-go meter to the environment bills overage to Azure instead.
Is pay-as-you-go or a capacity pack cheaper?
A full pack works out to $0.008 a credit versus $0.01 on pay-as-you-go. Below about 20,000 credits a month, pay-as-you-go costs less because you don't pay for unused pack capacity.