Manage Copilot Cowork for your organization

  • Applies to: Microsoft Copilot

Learn how to manage plugins, models, browser use, security and compliance, and usage-based billing in Copilot Cowork.

Note

Copilot Cowork is now generally available and is no longer managed in the Microsoft 365 admin center by selecting All Agents > Cowork in the left navigation menu. The agent-based access control that was available in the Preview version isn't used to manage user access.

Cowork is now an agentic system (different from an agent). You can access it in the Microsoft 365 admin center by selecting Agents > All Agents, and then selecting Cowork from the dropdown menu to the right.

Allow access to Cowork

To allow users to access Cowork, admins must enable usage-based billing. To learn how to set up and enable usage-based billing, see Managing AI experiences enabled by usage-based billing.

Make Cowork discoverable to end users

IT admins can control Cowork's discoverability for end users. To learn more, see Discovery setting for AI experiences enabled by usage-based billing.

If an admin makes Cowork discoverable to end users but doesn't enable usage-based billing, end users can request to access Cowork directly in the app. Admins need to review and approve requests based on policy, cost, and compliance.

Manage plugins

Cowork supports plugins from the Microsoft 365 App Store that add skills and connectors to extend what Cowork can do. As an admin, you control which plugins are available, how they're deployed, and who can use them.

For the full admin guide on plugin deployment, availability controls, connector authentication, and monitoring, see Manage plugins for Cowork and Manage plugins in Microsoft 365 admin center.

Manage models

Cowork ships with several models: Claude Opus and Sonnet variants from Anthropic, Claude Fable 5 (Preview), the Sonnet+Opus Advisor pairing, GPT 5.5, and ChatGPT Images 2.0 for image generation. Claude Fable 5 (Preview) is off by default; turn it on in the Microsoft 365 admin center under Copilot settings if you want to make it available. Some models, such as Claude Fable 5, require data retention, which means a user's prompts and responses for that model are retained by the model provider. Learn about preview models, including their limitations, in Manage preview AI models in Microsoft Online Services.

As an admin, you can turn off the Anthropic model family in the Microsoft 365 admin center under Copilot settings.

Microsoft might deploy other AI models for Microsoft Copilot to use that are hosted and operated by Microsoft. These models are governed by the same contractual and data protection commitments already in place, including that no data leaves Microsoft. For more information about the use of Azure-hosted GPT models in Microsoft Copilot, visit Understanding AI functionality and models in Microsoft Online Services, or for information about the use of Anthropic models, visit Anthropic as a subprocessor for Microsoft Online Services.

Learn about each model and how end users pick them in Choose a model for Cowork.

Browser use

Cowork can complete web tasks for users in Microsoft Edge on their device, using their existing sign-ins and your organization's policies. Because the browser tab runs on the user's machine, browser tasks inherit the same conditional access, DLP, and tenant browsing policies you already apply to your users.

As an admin, you control:

  • Whether browser use is available to users—The Cowork Browsing tenant setting in the Microsoft 365 admin center turns the capability on or off for your organization.
  • Which sites users can reach through Cowork—Cowork respects any allowlist, blocklist, and view-only policies your organization applies to web browsing in Microsoft Edge.
  • Audit visibility—Each browser task Cowork starts on behalf of a user is recorded in the unified audit log alongside other Cowork activity.

For the end-user experience, see Use the local browser with Cowork.

Usage-based billing

Cowork uses a usage-based billing model. Activities such as model responses, tool and skill calls, image generation, and browser tasks count toward your organization's consumption. Admins see usage in the Microsoft 365 admin center and can set per-user or per-group limits. Learn more about usage-based billing in Microsoft 365 pay-as-you-go services.

Learn more about usage-based billing in the following links:

Automated tasks

Users can create automated tasks that run without a person present: scheduled prompts that run at a set time, and event-driven tasks that run when a matching email or Teams message arrives. Cowork applies the same governance to these tasks that it applies to interactive conversations, with additional safeguards:

  • Runs with the user's permissions—Each automated task runs as the user who created it. It sees only the data that user can see and acts only through the same governed, enterprise-compliant tools available in an interactive conversation.
  • Approval before shared actions—By default, when a task would send an email, post a message, or change a shared system, Cowork prepares the action and asks the user for approval before it happens. For a more seamless experience that requires no user intervention for the task to be triggered, you can pre-authorize Cowork to complete the task for you. This pre-authorization is given to that current chat session, and doesn't pre-authorize Cowork to complete actions in any net new chat sessions that require approval. If a scheduled or event triggered task starts a new chat session, it inherits permissions given in the initial creation.
  • Rate limits and loop protection—Automated tasks have limits on how often they can run, and Cowork guards against tasks that trigger themselves in a loop.
  • Audit visibility—Automated task activity is recorded in the unified audit log alongside other Cowork activity, and Microsoft Purview data security and compliance policies apply.

Security and compliance

Microsoft Purview is available to secure and govern Cowork. Learn more in Use Microsoft Purview to manage data security & compliance for Microsoft Copilot Cowork.

Data residency

Copilot Cowork follows the same data residency model as Copilot. For more details, see Data residency for Microsoft Copilot.

How Cowork processes your data during a task

When Cowork runs a task, it processes your files in a temporary, isolated environment inside the Microsoft 365 service boundary. The process uses those files only for the length of the task. This temporary environment is removed when the task finishes—it doesn't display and you can't access it.

The Microsoft 365 service boundary is the security and data-processing boundary of your Microsoft 365 tenant. Learn more in Microsoft Copilot architecture and how it works .

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