Microsoft now bills its most capable Copilot features by usage, and the language around it confuses even experienced IT teams like ours. This guide covers what’s free, what the $30 license includes, what Copilot Cowork and GitHub Copilot cost to run, and how to keep the meter under control.
Pricing checked September 24, 2026. All prices are in US dollars. Subscription terms, eligibility and promotional offers apply.
Why Copilot pricing confuses even IT teams
In a recent Cloudwell team meeting, our experienced technologists spent a good chunk of time debating Copilot terminology and pricing. It went a bit like this…
“AI credits are not tokens.”
“Where’s the formula from tokens to credits?”
“They don’t have a formula. It just says each token is priced based on model usage.”
“I went through $100 in the first week.”
“If you’re hitting that, you must be blasting it.”
“Or you’re using the built-in agents.”
These are people who work with Microsoft technology every day. If they need to stop and untangle it, your finance team probably deserves more than “it depends” when they ask how much it all costs.
Tokens vs. credits: what each one measures
Tokens measure what an AI model processes. For text, they’re chunks of words, punctuation or characters. A token is roughly three-quarters of an English word, although the actual count varies.
Your prompt uses tokens. So does the context sent to the model and the response it generates. A short answer can involve a lot of processing behind the scenes.
Credits are billing units. Microsoft Copilot Credits have a published pay-as-you-go price of $0.01 each. GitHub AI Credits also represent $0.01 each, but they’re a separate currency.
Each product calculates consumption in its own way:
- GitHub Copilot: Model-specific rates apply to input, output and cached tokens, and the resulting cost is converted into GitHub AI Credits.
- Copilot Cowork: Consumption reflects models, runtime, context and tools.
- Copilot Studio: Billing depends on the activities and capabilities an agent uses, including answers, actions and AI tools.
There’s no single token-to-credit conversion that works across all three. See GitHub’s billing explanation, Microsoft’s Copilot Credits guidance and Copilot Studio’s billing rates.
What Microsoft Copilot costs, product by product
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat
Eligible users with a qualifying Microsoft 365 subscription and a Microsoft Entra work or school account can use Copilot Chat at no additional cost.
Agents are a different matter. Agents that reach into organizational data can add metered usage for users without a paid Microsoft 365 Copilot license, so check the billing requirements for any agent you plan to enable.
Sources: Copilot Chat eligibility and Microsoft’s guidance on agents for users without a Copilot license.
Microsoft 365 Copilot
Microsoft’s enterprise add-on is listed at $30 per user per month, paid yearly, with an eligible underlying subscription required.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business has a standard price of $21 per user per month, paid yearly, for eligible business customers with up to 300 users. Microsoft currently advertises an $18 first-year promotional price for qualifying purchases through December 31, 2026.
The paid offering includes Copilot in the Microsoft 365 apps and agents such as Researcher and Analyst. Employee-facing Copilot Studio agent usage is also included when the user holds a Copilot license, within fair-use limits.
That last point needs care. A custom agent’s activity isn’t automatically free. Its capabilities, the identity it runs under and how it’s triggered all affect billing.
Sources: Enterprise pricing, Business pricing and offer terms and Copilot Studio licensing guidance.
Copilot Cowork
Cowork requires a qualifying Copilot license, with usage billed separately in Copilot Credits. Microsoft’s licensing guidance says the subscription includes no Cowork usage entitlement.
Microsoft’s June 2026 guide gives these illustrative planning examples:
These are planning examples, not fixed prices. The scope of the task will affect consumption.
Sources: Current Copilot Credits guidance and Microsoft’s June 2026 scenario estimates.
GitHub Copilot
GitHub Copilot uses its own AI Credits. Its business plans include:
Included business credits go into a shared pool. Usage beyond the pool is charged at $0.01 per credit.
Paid individual plans range from $10 per month for Pro to $100 for Max. Paid plans include unlimited code completions and next edit suggestions, while chat, the CLI and agents consume AI Credits.
Sources: GitHub Copilot plans and individual usage-based billing.
Microsoft Scout
Scout is Microsoft’s always-on personal agent, available through its Frontier preview program. Microsoft describes it as operating under its own governed Entra identity.
Current setup requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, a GitHub Copilot Business or Enterprise license and administrator configuration. We haven’t found a published price for Scout, so confirm the licensing and consumption terms with Microsoft before you enable it.
Sources: Microsoft’s Scout announcement and current setup requirements.
Pre-built vs. custom agents: comparing Copilot credit costs
It’s tempting to compare a pre-built agent with a custom one and pick whichever uses fewer credits.
First, check what those numbers include.
Did both agents complete the same task to the same standard? Did they use the same data? Was one covered by an existing license? Were there separate charges for a connected model or service?
Copilot Studio’s billing documentation excludes bring-your-own-model configurations from its standard rates, because those models are billed separately. A smaller credit total may tell only part of the story.
Run a small, repeatable test using real work. Compare total cost, output quality and the time someone spends checking or correcting the result.
How to keep Copilot Credit costs under control
Match the model to the work
A routine update and a difficult analysis don’t necessarily need the same model or reasoning effort.
Microsoft recommends leaving Cowork’s model picker on Auto for most work. Auto chooses from the models your organization allows, which won’t always be the cheapest option.
Higher reasoning effort uses more credits. Test whether it improves the result enough to justify the extra cost.
Estimate before you expand
Start with the number of users, the tasks they’ll run and how often they’ll run them.
Microsoft provides a Cowork credit estimator through its billing guidance and an agent usage estimator for Copilot Studio and Dynamics 365 agents.
Independent calculators help too. Jukka Niiranen’s Cowork cost calculator is built on Microsoft’s own estimator model. RoninForge’s GitHub AI Credits calculator shows whether your plan allowance covers your usage.
Use those estimates to set an initial budget, then refine it with actual usage from a small rollout.
Check consumption as you go
Type /cost in Cowork to see approximate consumption for the current session and your remaining monthly credit allowance.
It shows usage already incurred, not a quote before a task begins. For invoices and reconciliation, use your organization’s billing records.
Source: Check Cowork credit usage with /cost.
Set spending limits
For supported services, the Microsoft 365 admin center lets administrators control access, configure spending policies and set policy-level and user-level limits.
Today, these policies cover Cowork, apps built with Cowork and the Work IQ API. Copilot Studio capacity is managed in the Power Platform admin center, and GitHub has its own billing controls.
Give someone responsibility for reviewing consumption, too. A spending dashboard is more useful when somebody opens it.
Source: Microsoft’s usage-based billing and cost management guidance.
Is Copilot worth the cost? Measuring value per task
When we spoke with Sébastien Levert, Principal PM Architect for Copilot, Agents and Platform at Microsoft, he made the point plainly:
“AI productivity costs money, the same way hiring an intern or a new employee does.”
The useful question is whether the completed work justifies its cost. Include the time saved, the quality of the result and the oversight it still needs.
Read our full conversation with Sébastien about Copilot, Cowork and Scout.
Deciding whether a task needs an agent at all? Read our guide to the app-or-agent build decision.
Want help matching Copilot capabilities to your team’s work and setting up sensible governance? Explore Cloudwell’s Copilot Enablement Program or talk to Cloudwell.
Frequently asked questions
Is a Copilot Credit the same as a token?
No. Tokens measure what an AI model processes. Credits measure billable usage. How usage converts into credits depends on the product and capability, so there’s no universal conversion formula.
How much does a Copilot Cowork task cost?
Microsoft’s planning estimates range from 70–200 Copilot Credits (about $0.70–$2) for a light task to more than 1,500 credits ($15+) for heavy analysis. Actual usage depends on the model, context and tools involved.
Does my Microsoft 365 Copilot license cover Cowork usage?
No. Cowork requires a qualifying Copilot license, but its usage is billed separately in Copilot Credits. The subscription doesn’t include a Cowork usage allowance.
Can GitHub AI Credits pay for Microsoft 365 agents?
The credits included with your GitHub Copilot plan aren’t interchangeable with Microsoft Copilot Credits. A Microsoft Agent Prepurchase Plan can cover eligible usage across several services, including Copilot and GitHub, through a shared annual commitment. That purchasing arrangement doesn’t make the two credit currencies interchangeable.