Licensing clarification for Microsoft 365 Copilot Agent Builder (knowledge‑based chatbot)

Question

We are planning to build an internal chatbot using SharePoint content with Agent Builder in Microsoft 365 Copilot, based on this feature: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/extensibility/agent-builder

Our intended setup:

• 1 (or few) users have Microsoft 365 Copilot premium to create and manage the agent
• The agent uses SharePoint sites and documents as its knowledge base
• The agent is shared with many internal users
• End users only have basic Microsoft 365 licenses (for example E3)
• The business does not agree to assign Copilot premium to everyone

We would like to clarify that is it supported that only the agent creator needs Microsoft 365 Copilot premium and end users need Copilot Chat enough so that we could build an agent to ask for knowledge base information?

We are looking for the lowest supported and compliant licensing model. Because of that any confirmation from Microsoft documentation or real tenant experience would help.

Answer 1

Based on the provided documentation, using Agent Builder with SharePoint and other tenant data requires that users interacting with those agents have either:

1. A Microsoft 365 Copilot add‑on license ("Microsoft 365 Copilot" / premium), or
2. Be in a tenant with Copilot usage‑based billing (pay‑as‑you‑go) enabled, where their usage of agents grounded in tenant data is billed per consumption.

Key points from the context:

1. Agent capabilities and licensing
   • Licensed users (Microsoft 365 + Copilot add‑on) "receive full access to Copilot Chat and agent experiences" and this license "also enables usage of agents grounded in tenant data (SharePoint, Microsoft Graph)" and is "required for authoring agents in Copilot Studio."
   • For usage‑based billing tenants, users "can access Copilot Chat and agents without a full Copilot license. Usage billing applies to agents grounded in tenant data, while agents grounded in public data or instructions are free to use."
   • Microsoft 365 subscribers without a Copilot add‑on license "might see Copilot Chat entry points" but "do not have access to agent authoring or advanced agent experiences."
2. Capability matrix for agents
   • For declarative agents, access to tenant data such as "Custom knowledge: SharePoint data" is only available for:
     • Copilot Chat (usage‑based billing)
     • Microsoft 365 Copilot (licensed)
   • Copilot Chat with no usage‑based billing has SharePoint, connectors, embedded file content, Dataverse, email, people, Teams messages/meetings all marked as not available.
3. Agent Builder and SharePoint agents
   • Agent Builder "is available to users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license or in tenants with pay‑as‑you‑go enabled for Copilot Studio. Agent capabilities vary depending on the organization's billing model."
   • For SharePoint agents, "Members of your organization can build SharePoint agents if they have access to SharePoint and the tenant has been enabled as pay‑as‑you‑go for SharePoint, or they have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license."
   • Agents created with Agent Builder can be grounded in "enterprise data such as SharePoint, Teams, and Outlook; public websites; and external data indexed via Microsoft 365 Copilot connectors" but availability of these knowledge sources "differs based on the user's license" and is governed by the same licensing model table.
4. Cost and usage
   • For declarative agents: "Requires Microsoft 365 Copilot add‑on license or Copilot Chat with eligible Microsoft 365 license."
   • For users without licenses: "No charges for agents with instructions only or grounded only in public data. Usage‑based billing charges for shared tenant data usage (for example, SharePoint, Copilot connectors)."

Implications for the described scenario:

• An agent built in Agent Builder that uses SharePoint as a knowledge source is an agent "grounded in tenant data."
• Access to such an agent for end users is only supported in two ways according to the context:
  • End users have a Microsoft 365 Copilot add‑on license; or
  • The tenant has Copilot usage‑based billing enabled, and those users are allowed to use agents grounded in tenant data under that billing model.
• Having only the creator licensed with Microsoft 365 Copilot premium while end users have only basic Microsoft 365 (for example, E3) and no usage‑based billing is not listed as a supported configuration for using SharePoint‑grounded agents.
• End users with only Copilot Chat (no usage‑based billing) can use declarative agents only when they are grounded in instructions and public web data; they cannot use SharePoint‑grounded knowledge according to the capability matrix.

Therefore, for a compliant, lowest‑cost model for many internal users consuming a SharePoint‑based Agent Builder chatbot, the documented options are:

1. Give all consuming users a Microsoft 365 Copilot add‑on license; or
2. Enable Copilot usage‑based billing (pay‑as‑you‑go) in the tenant and allow those basic‑licensed users to access the agent, with their SharePoint‑grounded usage billed per consumption.

A model where only the agent creator has Microsoft 365 Copilot premium and all other users have only basic Microsoft 365 (no Copilot license and no usage‑based billing) is not supported for agents that use SharePoint as a knowledge base.

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References:

• Agent Builder in Microsoft 365 Copilot
• Choose between Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio to build your agent
• Set up your development environment for Microsoft 365 Copilot
• Licensing and cost considerations for Copilot extensibility options
• Agents admin guide for Microsoft 365