Microsoft changes how Copilot is priced: usage limits on the per-user licence, and Copilot Credits for agent work

Microsoft changes how Copilot is priced: usage limits on the per-user licence, and Copilot Credits for agent work

25 September 2026: Microsoft set out a new pricing model for Microsoft 365 Copilot on 25 September 2026, in a Copilot Blog post by Nicole Herskowitz, updated on 28 September. It splits Copilot into "everyday AI", covered by the per-user licence, and "advanced AI", billed by use. The same day Microsoft introduced new Copilot capabilities called Cowork, Code and Autopilot, which fall on the metered side.

What stays on the per-user licence

The Copilot user subscription licence (USL) stays priced per user per month, and Microsoft says there are "no changes to the value you already have". It covers chat and Copilot in the Microsoft 365 apps, with a model picker: two current models from Microsoft's partner labs are included, and newer, larger models "will be included with limits".

What is new is an explicit usage limit. Microsoft says the licence has always come with fair use, and it is now "setting usage limits so that the vast majority of people never reach a limit". A user who reaches one gets a warning, then a choice: switch the model setting to Auto, which routes each request to a model chosen for cost and accuracy, at no extra charge, or move to credits.

What moves to usage-based billing

Cowork, Code, Autopilot, new advanced experiences in apps such as SharePoint, and frontier models run on usage-based billing (UBB) with Copilot Credits. UBB requires the USL. For enterprise customers, UBB "stays off until an admin creates a spending policy in the Microsoft 365 admin center, and nothing is billed before that". Admins set budgets at tenant and group level, user caps inside group policies and alerts at spend thresholds, and choose what users see near a limit. Cost management now covers Code and Managed Runtime as well as Cowork, with Copilot Studio agents following in October; policies can be managed through the Microsoft Graph API.

What Microsoft has not said

The posts give no numeric usage limits, no price per Copilot Credit and no date from which the licence limits apply.

What to do

• Decide before anyone asks whether your organisation will create a UBB spending policy at all; until it does, nothing is billed.
• If you enable it, start with group budgets, user caps and alerts, and route spend to the right cost centre.
• Tell heavy Copilot users that limits are coming and that Auto avoids them.
• Ask your Microsoft reseller for the credit price list and the limit figures before budgeting for 2027.

Not yet independently verified. This rests on Microsoft's own blog posts and Partner Center announcements; no independent report was checked. Microsoft has not published the usage-limit figures for the per-user licence or a credit price list. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

Update, 15 October 2026: Microsoft has since set a date for part of this. Usage-based billing will be switched on by default for new Microsoft 365 Copilot Business licences bought through CSP from 1 December 2026, with a default limit of 4,000 Copilot Credits per user a month, and not at first in eleven countries including Germany, France and India. Our report on the change has the detail.

Related on TrustList:

• Vendors gave a median 48 days' warning before changing what customers use
• CMA proposes special status for Microsoft in UK business software

Sources

• Microsoft Copilot Blog (Tech Community): Evolution of the Copilot pricing model, Nicole Herskowitz (updated 28 September) - 25 September 2026
• Official Microsoft Blog: Introducing the new Copilot with Home, Code and Autopilot - 25 September 2026
• Microsoft Partner Center announcements, October 2026: Usage-based billing is default on for new Microsoft 365 Copilot Business licenses starting December 1, 2026 - 14 October 2026