Understand and manage Copilot Credits
Copilot Credits are the unit of consumption for usage-based AI in Microsoft 365. They give organizations a common way to track consumption across eligible AI services and translate that usage into costs for budgeting and planning.
How Copilot Credits work
When Copilot Cowork or an eligible agent performs work, it consumes credits. To plan for that consumption, you need to understand where credits are used, how they are shared across your organization and how they translate into cost:
- One currency across several services. Copilot Credits are the shared consumption currency for several Microsoft services, such as Copilot Cowork and agents built in Microsoft Copilot Studio. Each service has its own way of measuring consumption and its own management guidance, so plan each service separately.
- One shared pool for the organization. Credits are pooled at the organization (tenant) level. Usage across supported services draws from the same pool.
- A published reference rate. On pay-as-you-go billing, the reference rate might be USD 0.01 per credit, so 100 credits would equal USD 1. Prepurchase discounts, agreement terms, currency and taxes can change the amount an organization actually pays.
Plan for Copilot Credit consumption
Copilot Credits are metered, pooled, and governed:
Metered. People, agents, and services consume credits only for the work they run, so a capability no one uses costs nothing.
Pooled. The organization shares one balance, instead of a fixed allowance tied to each user's license.
Governed. Admins review usage and set limits, so no consumption goes unmonitored.
The Microsoft 365 Copilot license remains the foundation, with everyday AI, security, and governance at a predictable per-user cost. Delegated work and agents build on that foundation and consume credits only when someone uses them.
What consumes Copilot Credits
Copilot Credits are one metered currency across eligible Microsoft AI experiences, including:
| Experience | What consumes credits |
|---|---|
| Copilot Cowork | Agentic tasks in Microsoft 365. |
| Agents built in Microsoft Copilot Studio | Billing depends on the agent scenario, how the agent is used, and the capabilities it invokes. |
| Work IQ APIs | Consumption is measured for each query. Usage of APIs can consume Copilot Credits. |
| Copilot Chat and agents in SharePoint | Consumption applies only to users who don't have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. |
| Dynamics 365 agents | Prebuilt and custom agents. |
| Power Platform AI | AI features in Power Apps and Power Automate. |
What stays on the license
Experiences included with the Microsoft 365 Copilot license stay in the per-user subscription and don't consume credits. These include Copilot Chat; Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams; and the Researcher, Analyst, and Facilitator agents.
Caldova decision
Caldova's finance team notes that Copilot Credit usage across supported services is deducted from a shared organizational pool. They agree that the pilot needs its own spending controls, such as limits and alerts, so that one department's usage stays visible and within budget.
Note
If several departments consumed credits from the same organizational pool, how would you track your pilot's share? What limits and alerts would help keep its usage within budget?