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Possibility of buying Copilot licenses on new Developer Tenants

Miguel Lopes Isidoro 71 Reputation points
2026-04-16T17:12:57.0666667+00:00

Hi all,

I created a new Developer tenant on February 9th 2026 using my Visual Studio Professional Subscription´s benefits at the Microsoft 365 Developer Program page but I am unable to buy a Copilot license following the instructions at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/developer-program/purchase-copilot-licenses.

Steps that I followed, that were somewhat different from what is shown in the article (probably because I had already added a billing account to the tenant):

  1. I opened a incognito browser window and logged in with a Global Admin account

I went to Marketplace in Admin Center (https://admin.cloud.microsoft/#/catalog)

I selected Microsoft 365 Copilot

I accepted the new billing experience (I believe this is the transition from MOSA billing account type to a MCA billing account type)

In the screen that followed, I selected "Organization"    

But after, I get the following message:

“This isn't available yet. We're working to make additional products and services available for Microsoft 365 E5 developer subscriptions.”

The message is pretty clear but and says that in my Developer tenant I can’t buy additional products or services.

Hi,

I created a new Developer tenant on February 9th 2026 using my Visual Studio Professional Subscription´s benefits at the Microsoft 365 Developer Program page but I am unable to buy a Copilot license following the instructions at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/developer-program/purchase-copilot-licenses.

Steps that I followed, that were somewhat different from what is shown in the article (probably because I had already added a billing account to the tenant):

I opened a incognito browser window and logged in with a Global Admin account

I went to Marketplace in Admin Center (https://admin.cloud.microsoft/#/catalog)

I selected Microsoft 365 Copilot

  1. I accepted the new billing experience (I believe this is the transition from MOSA billing account type I got when the tenant was created to a MCA billing account type)

In the screen that followed, I selected "Organization"    

But after, I get the following message:

“This isn't available yet. We're working to make additional products and services available for Microsoft 365 E5 developer subscriptions.”

The message is pretty clear but and says that in my Developer tenant I can’t buy additional products or services.

The thing is the article at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/developer-program/purchase-copilot-licenses exists and says that developer tenants DO support the purchase of additional products or services, including Copilot licenses.

I explained this on my production Copilot and it said there is a tenant “Commercial Add-ons flag” set at the tenant level that basically defines if we can or cannot buy additional products or services, including Copilot licenses.

I believe that my developer tenant has this flag set to false.

What I can’t get is the reason why! I read that older Developer tenants were NOT commercially enabled but the newer tenants were and I read this a long time ago (more than 4 months ago for sure, if not more).

What are my options?

Thanks

[Moderator note: personal info removed] 

 

Microsoft 365 and Office | Development | Microsoft 365 Developer Program
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  1. Hin-V 14,765 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-04-16T19:44:55.5833333+00:00

    Please note that our forum is a public platform, and we will modify your question to hide your personal information in the description. Kindly ensure that you hide any personal or organizational information the next time you post an error or other details to protect personal data.  

    Hi @Miguel Lopes Isidoro

    Good day, I hope you are doing well.  

    First, I’d like to clarify that this is a user‑to‑user support forum. Moderators participating here do not have access to backend systems, nor can we directly intervene in Microsoft product functionality. Our role is limited to providing technical guidance and sharing best‑practice recommendations based on reported issues, requests, and scenarios.      

    Looks like this Microsoft 365 Developer tenant (created via Visual Studio Professional Subscription benefits) is not commercially enabled, and therefore cannot purchase additional products or services such as Microsoft 365 Copilot. That said, this does appear to be inconsistent with the current documentation, which states that developer tenants support the purchase of Copilot licenses.  

    Currently, I have not found any official article or public documentation that explains this specific limitation or clarifies the eligibility differences between developer tenants created via Visual Studio subscriptions and other developer tenants yet. 

    Because this capability is controlled at the backend tenant level and is not configurable by administrators through the portal, resolving or confirming this behavior will require involvement from Microsoft Support. A Microsoft support engineer can review the tenant’s backend configuration, validate its commercial eligibility, and determine whether the restriction is by design or the result of a provisioning issue. If necessary, they can also escalate the case to the appropriate internal team for further investigation. 

    Reference: Get support - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn 

    If you have any additional concerns, feel free to comment below. I would be more than happy to assist. 

    Note: Please follow the steps in [our documentation] to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread. 

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  1. Q&A Assist
    2026-04-16T17:13:24.6133333+00:00
    AI generated content. This question contains an answer created with AI from Q&A Assist. Learn more

    Microsoft 365 Developer Program tenants created through the program don’t support commerce for Microsoft 365 Copilot, even if they are E5 developer subscriptions.

    The documented behavior is:

    • Developer tenants can be used to build agents with limited capabilities grounded on web search.
    • Because Microsoft 365 Developer Program subscriptions don’t support commerce, Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses can’t be purchased and metering can’t be enabled in those tenants.

    From the prerequisites for Copilot extensibility:

    “Because Microsoft 365 Developer Program subscriptions don't support commerce, you can't purchase Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses or enable metering, so you can't use your subscription to build agents grounded on organizational data or add other capabilities.”

    This matches the message being shown in the admin center that additional products and services (including Copilot) aren’t available for E5 developer subscriptions.

    Available options based on the documented behavior:

    1. Use the Developer tenant only for:
      • Building and testing agents grounded on web search in Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat.
      • Other non‑commercial development and testing scenarios that don’t require Copilot licenses or metering.
    2. For Copilot scenarios that require licenses or organizational data grounding:
      • Use a non‑developer Microsoft 365 tenant where commerce is enabled, and:
        • Purchase Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses in the Microsoft 365 admin center under Billing → Purchase services.
        • Or purchase Copilot Studio tenant and user licenses as described in the Copilot Studio licensing documentation.
    3. If Copilot Studio is the main requirement:
      • Acquire a Copilot Studio tenant license and Copilot Studio user licenses in a commercial tenant via Billing → Purchase services, then assign the user licenses under Users → Active users → Manage product licenses.

    The “Commercial Add-ons flag” behavior described by another Copilot is not documented in the provided material. The supported, documented explanation is simply that Microsoft 365 Developer Program subscriptions don’t support commerce for Copilot, so Copilot licenses can’t be purchased in that tenant.

    References:

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