Microsoft moves Copilot Business pay-as-you-go default to 1 December

Microsoft moves Copilot Business pay-as-you-go default to 1 December

14 October 2026: Microsoft has pushed back by a month the date on which new Microsoft 365 Copilot Business licences sold through its Cloud Solution Provider programme come with usage-based billing switched on. The change was announced to partners on 1 October for 2 November; an update posted on 14 October moves it to 1 December 2026 and adds a default spending limit of 4,000 Copilot Credits per user per month.

Not yet independently verified. Single source: Microsoft's Partner Center announcement, which it edits in place; the date has already moved once. It does not give the price per Copilot Credit. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

What switches on by default

From 1 December, pay-as-you-go becomes the default billing setting on new Copilot Business purchases in CSP, both the standalone offers and bundles. Microsoft says each new licence will include the Azure subscription setup that usage billing needs, so customers can use metered features without configuring billing first. It names three such features: Copilot Cowork, the Work IQ APIs and GitHub Copilot Harness.

The default limit works per user. Microsoft's own example is a customer with 100 Copilot Business users, who could consume up to 400,000 Copilot Credits a month before the limit stops further use, with charges based on actual consumption. Admins can change the limit.

Partner Center sandbox environments for testing the setup open on 2 November, the original go-live date.

Where it will not apply at first

The update states that the default will initially not be available in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Italy, Korea, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain, and that Microsoft will say more as availability expands. Customers buying in those countries keep the current setup for now. Licences bought before 1 December are not covered by the change, which applies to new purchases.

Settings to review before December

For a business buying through a reseller, the practical question is who sets the spending limit and who sees the bill. With usage billing on by default, metered charges arrive through the reseller's invoice rather than as a separate Azure bill the customer set up itself, and the 4,000-credit ceiling is generous for a small team. Microsoft's announcement puts the burden on partners to explain the preset limit to customers before activation; a customer that wants a lower ceiling, or no metered use at all, should ask for it to be set at purchase.

Microsoft also lists end of sale in CSP for add-on Copilot SKUs on 1 December in the same set of announcements, so the date lines up with a broader change in how Copilot is sold through partners. It does not state the price of a Copilot Credit in the announcement.

We covered the Copilot Credits model when Microsoft introduced usage limits in September. Our licence management software category lists 13 products for teams tracking what each user consumes.

Sources

• Microsoft Partner Center announcements, October 2026: Usage-based billing is default on for new Microsoft 365 Copilot Business licenses starting December 1, 2026 (updated 14 October), 14 October 2026