Is Copilot Studio Free? Pricing, Credits & PAYG Explained
↗ 'is Copilot Studio free?' — yes, no, and it depends (here's the line)
On this page
The short version: You can build and test Copilot Studio agents for free — there’s a trial, and the in-context Agent Builder is included with Microsoft 365 Copilot. You start paying when you publish and run agents at scale, billed in Copilot Credits — either pay-as-you-go ($0.01/credit) or prepaid ($200 per 25,000 credits/month). For Microsoft 365 Copilot users, internal employee-facing agents are largely zero-rated.
One 2026 caveat before you read on: this “free to build, pay to publish” model is the standard harness. The newer GitHub Copilot harness (production-ready preview) bills differently — usage-based from the moment you start building. Jump to harnesses ↓
🏗️ Choosing which tool to build with (Agent Builder vs Copilot Studio vs Azure AI Foundry) is a different question — this guide is only about Copilot Studio pricing. For the build-tool comparison, see Agent Builder vs Copilot Studio vs Foundry.
🧩 Quick disambiguation: Copilot Credits are not Copilot Pro, Microsoft 365 Premium, or Microsoft 365 Copilot — those are user subscriptions. Copilot Credits are the runtime meter for Copilot Studio agents. This page is about the credits.
Free vs paid — the boundary at a glance
| Scenario | Pay Copilot Credits? |
|---|---|
| Building & testing in the Copilot Studio trial | No (you just can’t publish on the trial) |
| Agent used by authenticated, Microsoft 365 Copilot–licensed users inside Microsoft 365 Copilot / Teams / SharePoint | Generally included / zero-rated (fair-use limits) |
| The same agent exposed outside those Microsoft 365 surfaces | Yes |
| External / customer-facing / anonymous users, or users without a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence | Yes |
| Autonomous / scheduled / triggered agent runs | Yes |
| Premium connectors, Dataverse, Power Automate, Azure services the agent calls | Separate costs (not Copilot Credits) |
The phrase to remember: it’s included only when usage is internal, authenticated, licensed, and on a Microsoft 365 Copilot surface. Anything past that, the meter runs.
When do you actually start paying?
This is the real question. Work down the list — the first “yes” tells you roughly where you stand:
- Just experimenting / building / testing? → Free. The Copilot Studio trial lets you create and test agents (you just can’t publish them under the trial).
- Agent used only by licensed Microsoft 365 Copilot users, inside Microsoft 365 (Copilot, Teams, SharePoint)? → Largely included / zero-rated, within fair-use limits.
- Published more broadly — external/customer-facing, unlicensed users, or its own channel (web, phone, WhatsApp)? → Expect Copilot Credit consumption. This is where costs appear.
- Usage predictable and steady? → A prepaid capacity pack ($200 / 25,000 credits/month) is usually cheaper.
- Usage variable or pilot-stage? → Pay-as-you-go ($0.01/credit via Azure) avoids committing.
Is Copilot Studio free?
Three different “free” stories get muddled together — here’s each one straight:
- Free to build & test: The Copilot Studio trial lets you create agents and try them in the test panel. The catch: you can’t publish an agent on the trial.
- Free for internal M365 Copilot agents: If your users are Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed, employee-facing agents they use inside Microsoft 365 are zero-rated (more on the boundary below).
- A “free” Copilot Studio licence — with a condition: Microsoft offers a Copilot Studio user licence at no charge, but it requires your tenant to have a prepaid Copilot Credit pack in place first. So the licence is free; the running still consumes credits.
So “is it free?” → free to try and build; you pay once real usage consumes credits.
The pricing models
Copilot Studio has three ways to pay (Microsoft labels them Licence, Pre-purchase plan, Pay-as-you-go):
| Model | What it is | Headline rate (US, Jun 2026) | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay-as-you-go | Bills actual Copilot Credits used, monthly, via an Azure subscription | $0.01 per Copilot Credit | Variable / pilot usage, no commitment |
| Prepaid capacity pack | A monthly subscription block of credits | $200 per 25,000 credits / month (≈$0.008/credit if fully used) | Predictable, steady usage |
| Pre-purchase plan | Bulk Copilot Credit Commit Units (CCCUs) bought up front | Volume/agreement pricing | Larger, committed rollouts |
⚠️ Prepaid credits don’t roll over — unused credits in a month are lost, and capacity can be enforced if you go over. Pay-as-you-go isn’t bounded by a prepaid pack, but no discount either.
Which should you choose? Use pay-as-you-go for pilots and unpredictable or low volume; prepaid capacity once usage is steady and consistently near or above 25,000 credits/month; and the pre-purchase plan (CCCUs) for larger committed rollouts your procurement prefers to handle up front.
Which harness are you building on?
New in 2026: every Copilot Studio agent now runs on a harness — the runtime that sits between your design and the model. Everything else on this page describes the standard harness (rule-based agents and agent flows), which is where the Copilot Credit rate card and the Microsoft 365 Copilot zero-rating apply. There are now three:
- Standard harness — rule-based agents and structured workflows. Billed exactly as this guide describes: free to build and test, credits once you publish and run at scale.
- GitHub Copilot harness (production-ready preview) — the reasoning-heavy option for multi-step agents and workflows. It uses a different, usage-based billing model: credits are charged for LLM tokens, tools (including knowledge and MCP), and the harness itself — and billing starts the moment you start building. Creating, previewing, testing and evaluating an agent all consume credits, unlike the standard harness, which only bills after publish. → Full walkthrough: The GitHub Copilot harness, explained.
- Copilot chat harness — for extending Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat with your own knowledge; consumption-based or included in the Microsoft 365 Copilot licence.
⚠️ The “free to build and test” rule only holds on the standard harness. If you pick the GitHub Copilot harness, assume the meter is running from your first build action. See Microsoft’s Choose a harness and the usage-based billing overview.
What’s a Copilot Credit? (and why it’s not “one message”)
Since 1 September 2025, Copilot Studio is metered in Copilot Credits — they replaced the old “messages” unit (the pack sizes and pay-as-you-go rate didn’t change; the common currency did). The important part: credits are consumed at feature-specific rates, so one user turn can burn several credits depending on what the agent does.
Published per-action rates (the headline ones):
| Action | Copilot Credits |
|---|---|
| Classic answer | 1 |
| Generative answer | 2 |
| Agent action | 5 |
| Tenant graph grounding (Microsoft 365 data) | 10 |
The full denomination table — voice, AI tools, content processing, agent flows and reasoning models — lives in the Copilot Credits rate card.
What’s included with Microsoft 365 Copilot
If you have Microsoft 365 Copilot, a lot of Copilot Studio usage is zero-rated — but the boundary matters:
Included (no extra charge), within fair-use limits:
- Agents used by authenticated Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed users
- Running inside Microsoft 365 Copilot, Teams, or SharePoint
- Microsoft headlines classic answers, generative answers, and Microsoft Graph tenant grounding — and the billing rate card also shows agent actions, eligible agent-flow actions, and AI tools / content processing as no charge for these licensed users
- ⚠️ Two exceptions still cost credits even for licensed users: computer use (CUA), and agent flows triggered by anything other than “when an agent calls the flow.”
Not included (consumes paid credits):
- External / customer-facing agents
- Unlicensed users (no Microsoft 365 Copilot licence)
- Standalone / external channels (public web, phone, messaging apps)
So the mental model: internal + licensed + Microsoft 365 surface = mostly free; everything past that = metered.
→ Wondering specifically whether a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence covers credits? See Does Microsoft 365 Copilot include Copilot Credits?
What changes your cost?
Copilot Studio cost is driven by usage, not a flat fee. The dials that move your bill:
- How many people use the agent
- How often they interact (conversations per user)
- What the agent does — generative answers, actions, and graph grounding cost more than classic answers
- Internal vs external audience (external = paid)
- Autonomous / triggered runs (agents acting on their own)
- Adjacent services — Power Automate flows, Dataverse, connectors and Azure resources can add their own costs
A simple way to estimate
Monthly credits ≈ users × interactions per user × credits per interaction then × $0.01 (pay-as-you-go) or compare against $200 / 25,000-credit packs.
Worked example (a paid scenario — say a customer-facing agent, or users without a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence): 200 users × 20 interactions/month × ~8 credits each ≈ 32,000 credits/month → about $320 pay-as-you-go, or two prepaid packs ($400 for 50,000) if you want headroom. (If those were licensed employees using the agent inside Microsoft 365 Copilot, much of this would be zero-rated instead.) Always validate with Microsoft’s usage reports once you’re live — real credit burn depends on what your agents actually do.
How to keep the bill predictable
- Watch Copilot Studio analytics and the Power Platform admin centre capacity reports.
- Use Azure Cost Management for pay-as-you-go spend.
- Keep dev / test / production in separate environments.
- Start on pay-as-you-go for a pilot, then move to prepaid once usage is predictable.
- Review the high-credit actions — generative answers, graph grounding, voice and autonomous triggers add up fastest.
Prerequisites & adjacent costs
Before you switch on paid usage, know the dependencies:
- Pay-as-you-go needs an Azure subscription — you link a Power Platform environment to it with a billing policy in the Power Platform admin centre.
- Power Platform governance matters — environments, data loss prevention, and admin controls should be set before a broad rollout.
- Dataverse, connectors, Power Automate and Azure resources your agent calls can create their own charges, separate from Copilot Credits.
Where to go next
- Microsoft Copilot Pricing & Tiers Explained — the hub: every Copilot plan on one page
- Agent Builder vs Copilot Studio vs Foundry — which build tool to choose (the capability comparison)
- Token Calculator — model the cost of AI usage