Microsoft is changing the way you pay for Copilot. In addition to a fixed license per user, you will increasingly pay per use, in Copilot Credits. On December 1, 2026, an important step will be added for organizations that purchase through a partner (CSP). This article explains what is changing and what you need to arrange now.

What are Copilot Credits?

Copilot Credits are the unit with which Microsoft bills the usage of AI work. In a pay-as-you-go model, one credit costs $0.01. You can also purchase a bundle of credits upfront at a discount.

You pay with credits for, among others:

  • Copilot Cowork, which performs complete tasks for you. Read what Copilot Cowork is.
  • Copilot Code and Autopilot, the new components of the Copilot app.
  • Agents you build with Copilot Studio.
  • The use of the most intensive AI models.

Chatting with Copilot in Word, Excel, Outlook, and Teams remains under the fixed license.

What changes on December 1, 2026?

Microsoft informed partners in October about these changes in CSP:

  • Usage-based billing is enabled by default for new Microsoft 365 Copilot Business licenses. This step was initially planned for November 2 and has been moved to December 1.
  • Standard limit of 4,000 credits per user per month. This is up to $40 per user per month on top of the license. With 100 users, this can total $4,000 per month.
  • No base subscription needed anymore. You can purchase the new Copilot offerings without a Microsoft 365 base subscription, at the same price.
  • New names. Existing offerings have been called "(add-on)" since October 16. These will no longer be available for new purchase from December 1. Existing subscriptions will continue with the same price and terms.

What does this mean for you?

Do you already have Copilot licenses? Then nothing changes for your existing subscription. If you purchase new Copilot Business licenses after December 1, users can immediately consume credits up to the standard limit. Without an internal budget, the bill may be higher than expected.

For enterprise tenants, it's different. Features with usage-based billing remain off until an admin creates a spending policy.

How to keep costs under control

  1. Open cost management. Go to Copilot in the Microsoft 365 admin center and then to Cost management.
  2. Create a spending policy per group. For example, give a pilot group a higher budget and the rest a low budget. You can go lower than the 4,000 credits.
  3. Enable notifications. You’ll receive alerts when a group has used a certain percentage of the budget.
  4. Check what falls under the policy. Consider Cowork, features in SharePoint and OneDrive, and agents from Copilot Studio.
  5. Review your scripts. Do you use product names in scripts or your procurement system? Switch to product and SKU IDs, as the names are changing.

What does a task actually cost?

That depends on the model, the amount of information, the number of connections, and the duration. A light task roughly costs 100 to 300 credits. A heavy task, such as a detailed report, 700 credits or more. In Copilot Cowork in practice, we provide examples.

Review again after Ignite

Microsoft Ignite takes place from November 17 to 20, 2026. Cost management for AI and agents is an important theme there. Keep in mind that Microsoft can adjust details. We will update this article if anything changes.

Do you want to know what the changes mean for your licenses? 365 Angels is happy to assist you in setting the right budgets. Also, view our overview what Microsoft 365 Copilot costs in 2026.

Prices in dollars are Microsoft's recommended retail prices, excluding VAT. You will hear the price in euros from your partner.