Microsoft Copilot Pricing 2026: Every Business and Personal Plan

The short answer: Microsoft sells Copilot for work in four ways. Copilot Chat comes at no additional cost with eligible Microsoft 365 plans. Microsoft 365 Copilot Business is an add-on for companies with up to 300 users, listed at $21 per user per month paid yearly ($18 under a first-year promotion running July 1 to December 31, 2026) or $25.20 billed monthly. Microsoft 365 Copilot for larger organizations is listed at $30 per user per month paid yearly. Copilot Studio, for building agents that reach beyond Microsoft 365 or serve unlicensed users, is sold as $200 per month packs of 25,000 Copilot Credits, or pay-as-you-go. Every paid Copilot license sits on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan, and that prerequisite is the cost most buyers forget.

This guide lays out every Copilot price Microsoft publishes for organizations and individuals, what each tier adds, the prerequisites, and a formula to estimate your annual spend. Figures are the US list prices on Microsoft’s pricing pages at the time of writing. Microsoft changes offers often, so check current pricing before you commit.

Microsoft Copilot pricing at a glance

Offer	Who it is for	List price (US)	Billing notes
Copilot Chat	Anyone with an eligible Microsoft 365 work account	No additional cost	Web-grounded chat, Copilot in Outlook and the Copilot app; custom agents are metered
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business (add-on)	Businesses with up to 300 users	$21 per user per month paid yearly; $18 first-year promotional price; $25.20 billed monthly	Needs an eligible Microsoft 365 Business plan
Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot	Small businesses buying apps, email and Copilot together	$23.50 per user per month paid yearly; $28.20 monthly	Bundle, up to 300 users
Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot	Small businesses that also want advanced security	$32.00 per user per month paid yearly; $38.40 monthly	Bundle, up to 300 users
Microsoft 365 Copilot	Mid-market and enterprise organizations	$30 per user per month paid yearly	Add-on to a qualifying enterprise or business plan
Copilot Studio (standalone)	Teams building agents for external channels or unlicensed users	$200 per pack per month for 25,000 Copilot Credits	Also pay-as-you-go (Azure subscription) or a pre-purchase plan

How much does Microsoft Copilot cost for a business?

For companies with 300 or fewer users, the main option is the Microsoft 365 Copilot Business add-on. Microsoft’s page lists it at $21 per user per month on an annual commitment, $25.20 per user per month on monthly billing, and a promotional $18 per user per month. The promotion’s small print matters for budgeting:

• It runs from July 1 to December 31, 2026.
• It is only for existing Microsoft 365 customers with an eligible Business plan.
• It needs an annual commitment, and the promotional price applies to the first year only.
• It is not available on trial subscriptions, and the subscription renews automatically.

The add-on needs one of these base plans: Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard or Business Premium, Microsoft 365 Apps for Business, or Microsoft Teams Essentials. According to Microsoft’s plan table, Copilot Business includes Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams (Teams requires a Teams license), chat grounded in your work data through what Microsoft calls Work IQ, reasoning for research and analysis, prebuilt agents such as Researcher, Analyst and Facilitator, adoption analytics, and a choice of models.

If you are buying Microsoft 365 and Copilot at the same time, the bundles are simpler: Business Standard with Copilot at $23.50 per user per month paid yearly, or Business Premium with Copilot at $32.00, which adds identity and security tools such as Entra ID, Intune, Defender and Purview.

Microsoft 365 Copilot pricing for enterprises

Above 300 users, Microsoft lists Microsoft 365 Copilot at $30 per user per month, paid yearly. It is an add-on: Microsoft’s licensing documentation lists the qualifying base plans, which include Microsoft 365 E5, E3, F1 and F3, Business Premium, Standard and Basic, Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise and for Business, Office 365 E5, E3, E1 and F3, and several Teams, Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, Planner, Project and Visio plans. The same page lists Microsoft 365 E7 as a plan that includes Copilot. Copilot is also available as an add-on in the US government clouds (GCC, GCC High and DoD) for qualifying plans.

Large customers usually buy through an Enterprise Agreement, a Microsoft partner or the Cloud Solution Provider program, where discounts and terms are negotiated. The $30 list price is the starting point for that conversation.

Is Copilot free or paid?

Both. Microsoft Copilot Chat is included at no additional cost with eligible Microsoft 365 plans: employees sign in with a work account and get a web-grounded assistant, Copilot in Outlook, and the Copilot app. What they do not get without a paid license is Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Teams, grounding in their full work context through Work IQ, and Microsoft’s prebuilt agents. Chat users can use custom agents built by the organization, but that usage is metered.

That split gives IT a sensible rollout path: turn on Copilot Chat for everyone, watch who uses it, and buy paid licenses for the people and roles where in-app help pays off.

Copilot Studio pricing

Copilot Studio is Microsoft’s agent builder. Licensed Microsoft 365 Copilot users can already build and use internal agents inside Microsoft 365 at no additional cost. You need a standalone Copilot Studio license when agents must publish to outside channels (websites, apps, social platforms), when unlicensed users need to use them, or when you want other pricing options. Microsoft offers three ways to pay:

• Capacity packs: $200 per pack per month, each with 25,000 Copilot Credits, licensed tenant-wide.
• Pay-as-you-go: no upfront commitment; you pay for the credits consumed at the end of the billing period. It requires an Azure subscription linked to the environment.
• Pre-purchase plan: prepaid Copilot Credit Commit Units for organizations that want to set an amount upfront.

Every completed agent action or response consumes a varying number of credits depending on what it does, so the monthly bill tracks agent activity. Microsoft’s Copilot Credits licensing guide has the per-feature rates. For a side-by-side with Salesforce’s agent platform, see our Copilot Studio vs Agentforce comparison and our guide to Agentforce pricing.

What is Microsoft charging me $9.99 for?

If the charge is from a personal Microsoft account, the most likely match is Microsoft 365 Personal, which Microsoft lists at $9.99 per month, or $99.99 per year on annual billing. Microsoft markets Copilot as part of its Microsoft 365 plans for individuals. Check the subscriptions page of your Microsoft account to confirm what you are paying for and to cancel if you need to.

Plan for individuals	Monthly	Yearly
Microsoft 365 Personal	$9.99	$99.99
Microsoft 365 Family	$12.99	$129.99
Microsoft 365 Premium	$19.99	$199.99
Microsoft 365 Pro	$99.99 (monthly billing only)	Not offered

These are consumer plans. They do not give an employer admin control over data, so they are not a substitute for a work license.

How to estimate your Copilot cost

Annual Copilot cost = (licensed users x Copilot price x 12) + agent credits + any base-plan upgrades needed to qualify

Worked examples using list prices, for hypothetical organizations that already hold qualifying Microsoft 365 plans:

• 40 users on Copilot Business, annual, list price: 40 x $21 x 12 = $10,080 per year. At the $18 first-year promotional price: 40 x $18 x 12 = $8,640 for year one.
• 500 users on Microsoft 365 Copilot, annual list: 500 x $30 x 12 = $180,000 per year.
• One Copilot Studio capacity pack for a customer-facing agent: $200 x 12 = $2,400 per year for 25,000 credits a month.

Two adjustments usually change the picture. First, not everyone needs a paid license: many organizations license a subset of roles and leave the rest on Copilot Chat. Second, if some users sit on plans that do not qualify, add the cost of upgrading their base plan.

Is Copilot worth paying for?

It depends on how much of a person’s day happens inside Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Roles that live in meetings, email and documents get the most from in-app features such as meeting recaps, email drafting and document summaries. Roles that work mostly in other systems may get more from Copilot Chat alone or from a tool built for their function, such as AI meeting assistants or AI sales tools.

A fair test is a 60 to 90 day pilot with a defined group. Measure weekly active use, the tasks people use it for, and time saved on two or three repeatable tasks you choose in advance. Paid Copilot licenses include analytics to measure adoption, usage and business impact, so use them before you expand.

Security, privacy and admin controls

• Training: Microsoft’s privacy documentation says prompts, responses and data accessed through Microsoft Graph are not used to train foundation LLMs, including those used by Copilot.
• Data boundary and residency: Microsoft says Copilot is an EU Data Boundary service for EU customers, and that Copilot is a covered workload in the data residency commitments of its Product Terms, including Advanced Data Residency and Multi-Geo, since March 1, 2024. Customers outside the EU may have queries processed in the US, EU or other regions.
• Retention and audit: Copilot stores the prompt and response of each interaction; admins can find it with Content search or Microsoft Purview and set retention policies in Purview.
• Permissions: Copilot works over the data a user can already reach, so oversharing in SharePoint and OneDrive becomes visible fast. Microsoft’s Copilot plan comparison lists SharePoint Advanced Management under security and management; confirm your tier includes it and use it to clean up permissions before rollout.
• Model providers: Microsoft’s plan table lists priority access to the latest OpenAI models and model choice; its documentation also covers Anthropic and OpenAI models acting as subprocessors in some Copilot experiences. Ask your account team which models your tenant will use and under which terms.

How much is ChatGPT vs Copilot?

On published prices, the entry points are close: ChatGPT Business starts at $20 per user per month on annual billing, Copilot Business at $21 (with an $18 promotional first year), and enterprise Microsoft 365 Copilot at $30. The difference is what you already pay for. Copilot needs a Microsoft 365 base plan; ChatGPT does not. Our Copilot vs ChatGPT for business guide compares them feature by feature, and ChatGPT Enterprise pricing covers OpenAI’s plans.

What about GitHub Copilot?

GitHub Copilot is a separate product for software developers, with its own individual and organization plans on GitHub’s Copilot plans page. It is not included in Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Microsoft 365 Copilot is not included in GitHub Copilot.

How to choose

• Under 300 users on Microsoft 365 Business plans: Copilot Business add-on, or a bundle if you are also buying the apps.
• Over 300 users or on E3/E5: Microsoft 365 Copilot at $30 list, negotiated through your agreement.
• You want to try before buying: switch on Copilot Chat for everyone and license the heaviest users first.
• You are building customer-facing agents: budget Copilot Studio credits separately from seats.
• Your company does not run on Microsoft 365: compare standalone assistants such as Gemini Enterprise or Claude Enterprise.

Going beyond seats? See how enterprise AI agents are priced and secured, compare enterprise AI platforms by category, and set up AI governance before agents reach production.

Frequently asked questions