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The Microsoft 365 Copilot pay-as-you-go plan offers a flexible and cost-effective way for organizations to access Copilot services. This plan allows administrators to enable consumption-based billing for specific Copilot scenarios, providing users with the ability to use Copilot features without committing to a full license.
This article provides an overview of the pay-as-you-go plan, its benefits, and pricing details.
Why pay-as-you-go?
The Microsoft 365 Copilot pay-as-you-go plan offers a flexible and scalable solution for organizations looking to use AI capabilities without the commitment of a full license. When you enable consumption-based billing, administrators can better manage costs and provide users with access to Copilot features as needed.
The following services are available for pay-as-you-go billing:
- Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat
- SharePoint agents
More services will be added in the future. No ETA.
Common use cases
- Establish usage patterns - Understand adoption patterns for new apps to determine if prepaid licenses make financial sense for your business.
- Scalability - Organizations can scale their usage based on demand, paying only for the consumption.
How does it work?
The pay-as-you-go plan allows administrators to set up billing and enable users to access declarative agents on a consumption basis. You can manage billing, view costs, and turn off services as needed.
The following administrator roles in the Microsoft 365 admin center can view and manage pay-as-you-go:
- Global administrator
- AI administrator
- Global reader (read-only access)
Billing process
The billing process requires two steps:
- Add a billing policy
- Connect billing policy to Copilot services
Add a billing policy
The billing policy acts as a distinct billing identifier that can be associated with a group responsible for the incurred cost. The main objectives of a pay-as-you-go billing policy are:
- To allocate billing responsibilities across departments
- To facilitate the reuse of billing configurations across various pay-as-you-go scenarios
- To enable administrators to enforce governance
- To link users to a policy, establishing billing rules for a group of users
For the steps to add or update a billing policy, see Set up pay-as-you-go for Microsoft 365 Copilot.
What you need to know
Creating a billing policy defines the billing infrastructure for pay-as-you-go that consists of an Azure subscription and a set of users. Creating a billing policy doesn't complete the billing setup. The billing policy must be connected to the Copilot service to complete the setup.
Deleting a billing policy removes the billing infrastructure. Any connected services are disconnected from pay-as-you-go billing.
Connect billing policy to Copilot services
After you create a billing policy, the admin must link it to a Copilot service, such as Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat or SharePoint agents. This connection enables all users covered by the billing policy to access the Copilot service.
Admins can disconnect a billing policy when it's no longer needed for the service. Upon disconnection, users linked to that billing policy lose access to the metered agents in the Copilot service.
The following conditions apply when managing billing policies:
- Admins can connect or disconnect a billing policy one at a time.
- Disconnect an existing "all users" billing policy before connecting to a user-specific billing policy.
Process for new feature releases
In the future, new features using pay-as-you-go billing are announced in a message center post. When the features become available, users in your organization can take advantage of those capabilities. Pay-as-you-go billing is disabled by default. A global admin or owner to the subscription can enable or disable Microsoft 365 pay-as-you-go features in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Pricing details
When you use a Microsoft pay-as-you-go service linked to an Azure subscription, the service gets billed using the Azure subscription that you specified when you set up pay-as-you-go billing. The Azure subscription uses the Azure meter set up for the service.
To learn more about meters, see Meters for Microsoft 365 pay-as-you-go.
Monitoring and billing
The organization's consumption of the pay-as-you-go service can be monitored in the Microsoft 365 admin center > Cost Management page for each Microsoft 365 pay-as-you-go service that you use.
Administrators can also view the cost breakdown and analysis in Microsoft Cost Management.
To learn more, see View costs and billing for Microsoft 365 Copilot pay-as-you-go.