Guide to Microsoft Copilot Pricing & Licensing
Table of Contents
Quick Answer
Microsoft Copilot pricing starts at $18 per user/month for Copilot Business (organizations under 300 users, promotional rate through December 2026, standard $21) and $30 per user/month for the enterprise add-on, both layered on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 subscription you likely already have. Individuals get Copilot with Microsoft 365 Premium ($19.99/month) or Microsoft 365 Pro ($99.99/month) to access the highest usage limits. Copilot Chat is included at no extra cost with eligible Microsoft 365 plans, and Copilot Studio for building custom agents runs $200/month per 25,000 credits.
Introduction
Copilot’s pricing has gotten more layered, not simpler. Separate rates for SMB vs. enterprise, a restructured consumer lineup, and bundles that can beat the standalone add-on.
Picking the wrong tier is an easy way to overpay: buying the standalone add-on when a bundle is cheaper, or licensing enterprise seats for users who’d be covered by the Business tier. Getting the tier right matters more than the headline price.
This guide breaks down every current Copilot price point, what’s actually included at each tier, where bundling saves money, and how to sanity-check the ROI before you buy.
What Does Microsoft Copilot Cost in 2026?
Price alone doesn’t tell you what you’re buying. It depends on whether you’re licensing a small business, an enterprise, or a single user; each has its own SKU and rate.
Here’s what each Copilot plan actually includes:
Copilot Pricing Plans for Individuals:
1. Microsoft 365 Personal:
Microsoft 365 Personal is the cheapest way to get Copilot, bundled into Microsoft’s standard single-user productivity subscription rather than sold as an add-on.
Copilot access here is capped well below the paid AI tiers, enough for occasional use in Word, Excel, and Outlook, not for daily heavy Copilot Chat or research work.
- Price: $9.99/month
- Users: 1 person, up to 5 devices
- Copilot usage: Higher than the free tier, but the lowest of any paid M365 plan
- Storage: 1 TB cloud storage
2. Microsoft 365 Family:
Family extends the same base plan to a household, but the AI features stay locked to one person.
Copilot usage limits are identical to Personal; the extra price buys more accounts and storage, not more AI.
- Price: $12.99/month
- Users: 1–6 people (Copilot access limited to the subscription owner only)
- Copilot usage: Same tier as Personal
- Storage: Up to 6 TB (1 TB per person)
3. Microsoft 365 Premium:
Microsoft 365 Premium replaced the old standalone “Copilot Pro” add-on; it’s now bundled with the full Family app suite rather than sold as a separate $20/month AI layer.
At $19.99/month, it’s the entry point for individuals who want more Copilot usage than Personal or Family includes.
- Price: $19.99/month
- Includes: Extensive Copilot chat, extensive AI image generation, limited agentic AI (research and analytics), plus everything in Microsoft 365 Family
- Best for: Freelancers and individual professionals, not teams.
4. Microsoft 365 Pro:
Pro is Microsoft’s newest and most expensive consumer tier, built for individuals who hit usage caps on Premium.
It’s billed monthly only, there’s no annual discount option, which makes it a deliberately premium, uncommitted plan rather than a default recommendation.
- Price: $99.99/month, monthly billing only
- Includes: Highest Copilot usage limits, highest agentic AI usage, and everything in Microsoft 365 Premium
- Best for: Power users whose usage regularly exceeds Premium’s caps
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Request a ConsultationCopilot Pricing Plans for Businesses:
1. Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot:
This is Microsoft’s top SMB bundle: full Business Premium security and device management, with Copilot built in rather than added on separately.
Pricing splits by whether you need Teams included, which matters if your organization already has Teams through a different license.
- With Teams: $32.00/user/month
- Without Teams: $28.80/user/month
- Eligibility: Up to 300 users
- Includes: Advanced identity and access management, 1 TB storage, enhanced threat protection, plus Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams
2. Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot:
Standard with Copilot is the mid-tier SMB bundle; core productivity apps plus Copilot, without Premium’s advanced security layer.
Like Business Premium, it’s priced separately depending on whether Teams is included.
- With Teams: $23.50/user/month
- Without Teams: $20.30/user/month
- Eligibility: Up to 300 users
- Includes: Core Microsoft 365 apps, 1 TB storage, and the same Copilot capabilities as the Business Premium bundle
3. Microsoft 365 Copilot Business (standalone add-on):
This is Copilot sold as an add-on rather than bundled, for organizations that already have Business Basic, Standard, or Premium and just want to add Copilot on top.
Unlike the bundled options above, the price doesn’t change based on whether you have Teams.
- Price: $18.00/user/month promotional through December 2026 (standard $21.00/user/month), same price with or without Teams
- Requirement: An existing Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard, or Premium subscription
- Includes: Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams; Copilot agents and Notebooks
- Cheaper alternative: If you don’t already have a Business plan, the bundled options above may cost less than buying the base plan and this add-on separately
Copilot Pricing Plans for Enterprises:
1. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat (Enterprise):
Copilot Chat is the free tier available to eligible Microsoft 365 enterprise subscribers, no additional license required, and pricing is identical whether you’re an existing or new Microsoft customer.
It’s meaningfully lighter than a paid Copilot license: standard (not priority) model access and metered, rather than included, agent usage.
- Price: Included at no extra cost
- Includes: Web-grounded AI chat, Copilot in Outlook, access to Word/Excel/PowerPoint agents via chat
- Missing vs. a paid license: Work IQ grounding, model choice, Copilot in Teams, unmetered agent usage
2. Microsoft 365 Copilot (Enterprise add-on):
The enterprise add-on has no seat cap and is built for organizations already running E3 or E5, where Copilot Business’s 300-user limit doesn’t apply. Pricing is the same for existing and new Microsoft 365 customers.
At $30/user/month, it’s the most expensive per-seat Copilot license, but it’s also the only tier with full Copilot Studio agent-building rights.
- Price: $30.00/user/month, annual commitment
- Requirement: A qualifying Microsoft 365 enterprise plan (typically E3 or E5)
- Includes: Everything in Copilot Business, plus Copilot Studio access, pre-built Microsoft agents, and no user cap
- Billed separately: Copilot Cowork usage, metered through Copilot Credits
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Request a ConsultationMicrosoft Copilot Studio Pricing Plans:
Copilot Studio is for building and publishing custom agents to external channels, such as websites, apps, and social platforms, which a standard Copilot license can’t do on its own.
It’s licensed and billed separately from any Microsoft 365 Copilot seat, on a tenant-wide basis rather than per user, with two billing options.
- Pre-purchase plan: $200/month per 25,000-credit pack, prepaid, up to 20% savings for committing upfront
- Pay-as-you-go: No upfront commitment; pay only for credits consumed at month’s end
- Requirement: An Azure subscription to use agents
Note: A Microsoft 365 Copilot Enterprise license ($30/user/month) already includes internal agent-building through the Copilot Chat, and Standard Studio is only needed for external publishing
GitHub Copilot Pricing Plans:
Copilot Studio is for building and publishing custom agents to external channels, such as websites, apps, and social platforms, which a standard Copilot license can’t do on its own.
It’s licensed and billed separately from any Microsoft 365 Copilot seat, on a tenant-wide basis rather than per user, with two billing options.
- Pre-purchase plan: $200/month per 25,000-credit pack, prepaid, up to 20% savings for committing upfront
- Pay-as-you-go: No upfront commitment; pay only for credits consumed at month’s end
- Requirement: An Azure subscription to use agents
Note: A Microsoft 365 Copilot Enterprise license ($30/user/month) already includes internal agent-building through the Copilot Chat, and Standard Studio is only needed for external publishing
1. GitHub Copilot Prices for Individuals:
GitHub Copilot’s individual plans are priced and licensed entirely separately from Microsoft 365 Copilot; it’s a developer tool, not part of the M365 suite, despite the shared branding.
There are four tiers, scaling by model access and premium request volume rather than seat count.
- Free: $0/month — 2,000 code completions/month, limited chat and agent access
- Pro: $10/user/month — unlimited completions, 300 premium model requests/month
- Pro+: $39/user/month — access to the most capable models, 1,500 premium requests/month
- Max: $100/user/month — highest usage tier for heavy agent workflows
2. GitHub Copilot for Business & Enterprise:
Team pricing is per seat rather than the flat individual tiers above, with Enterprise adding fine-tuning and knowledge base features that Business doesn’t have.
Enterprise also requires an active GitHub Enterprise Cloud subscription (roughly $21/user/month) in addition to the seat price, which brings the effective Enterprise cost closer to $60/user/month.
- Business: $19/user/month — org policy management, audit logs, IP indemnity, SSO
- Enterprise: $39/user/month — adds fine-tuning on your codebase, knowledge bases; requires GitHub Enterprise Cloud
Security Copilot Pricing Plans:
Security Copilot is billed by consumption, Security Compute Units (SCUs) per hour, rather than a flat per-user rate, which makes cost dependent on usage volume, not headcount.
It’s included at no extra cost for Microsoft 365 E5 and E7 customers, which makes it easy to accidentally double-pay if your organization still has a standalone line item for it.
- Provisioned rate: $4 USD per SCU/hour
- Overage rate: $6 USD per SCU/hour
- Included with E5/E7: 400 SCUs per 1,000 licenses/month, capped at 10,000
Action item: If you’re on E5 and still paying separately for Security Copilot, check your entitlement before renewing
Microsoft Copilot Pricing Overview:
| Product | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
|
Microsoft 365 Personal |
$9.99/mo |
Lowest Copilot usage tier, 1 person |
|
Microsoft 365 Family |
$12.99/mo |
Same Copilot tier as Personal, up to 6 people |
|
Microsoft 365 Premium |
$19.99/mo |
Successor to the old “Copilot Pro” add-on |
|
Microsoft 365 Pro |
$99.99/mo |
Highest consumer usage tier, monthly billing only |
|
Business Premium with Copilot |
$32.00/user/mo (with Teams), $28.80/user/mo (without) |
Bundled SMB plan, up to 300 users |
|
Business Standard with Copilot |
$23.50/user/mo (with Teams), $20.30/user/mo (without) |
Bundled SMB plan, up to 300 users |
|
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business (add-on) |
$18.00/user/mo promotional, $21.00 standard |
Same price with or without Teams |
|
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat (Enterprise) |
Included |
Free tier, same for existing/new customers |
|
Microsoft 365 Copilot (Enterprise add-on) |
$30.00/user/mo |
No seat cap, same for existing/new customers |
|
Copilot Studio (pre-purchase) |
$200/mo per 25,000 credits |
Up to 20% savings vs. pay-as-you-go |
|
Copilot Studio (pay-as-you-go) |
Usage-based |
No upfront commitment |
|
GitHub Copilot Free |
$0 |
2,000 completions/mo |
|
GitHub Copilot Pro |
$10/user/mo |
Unlimited completions |
|
GitHub Copilot Pro+ |
$39/user/mo |
Most capable models |
|
GitHub Copilot Max |
$100/user/mo |
Highest usage tier |
|
GitHub Copilot Business |
$19/user/mo |
Org policy, audit logs, IP indemnity |
|
GitHub Copilot Enterprise |
$39/user/mo |
Requires GitHub Enterprise Cloud (~$21/user/mo extra) |
|
Security Copilot (provisioned) |
$4/SCU/hour |
Included free with E5/E7 |
|
Security Copilot (overage) |
$6/SCU/hour |
Consumption-based |
Is Copilot Worth the Price?
At $18–$30/user/month on top of your base Microsoft 365 plan, the case for Copilot rests on what a single license actually replaces and enables, not the sticker price alone.
- Meeting prep and document drafting: Copilot Cowork and in-app Copilot in Word/Excel take on the manual gathering, drafting, and first-pass work that otherwise falls to skilled staff, freeing that time for higher-value work. Measure it with a pilot group rather than a vendor average, since the payback varies widely by role.
- Model access without stacking subscriptions: A single Copilot license includes Work IQ grounding and a choice between Claude and OpenAI models, a capability that would otherwise mean licensing multiple separate AI tools.
- Security response (E5 customers): Security Copilot helps teams investigate incidents faster, and it’s now included free with E5, a real added capability at zero incremental license cost if you’re not already paying for it separately.
- Seat right-sizing: Copilot is priced per user with no volume discount below enterprise scale, so the return only materializes on seats that are actually used; right-size before you scale up.
Wave 3, announced on March 9, 2026, marks the shift from Copilot as an assistant that answers questions to Copilot as an agent that executes work. This is not an incremental update, it fundamentally changes the value proposition of a Copilot license.
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Plan My Copilot RolloutConclusion:
Microsoft Copilot’s price tag is no longer a single number; it’s a matrix of consumer tiers, bundled SMB plans with and without Teams, an uncapped enterprise add-on, and separate security and development products that share the Copilot name.
The right choice depends less on which plan sounds most capable and more on your actual user count, whether you already hold a qualifying base plan, and whether a bundle beats the standalone add-on for your situation.
Before signing anything, confirm your eligibility tier, check whether Security Copilot or Cowork usage is already included in what you’re about to buy, and price out the bundle against the add-on. Getting that sequence right is what turns a Copilot license from a line-item cost into something your teams actually use.
FAQs
It depends on the plan. Copilot Business and consumer tiers include a one-month free trial. The enterprise add-on does not.
Yes. Once you exceed 300 users, you need a qualifying enterprise Microsoft 365 plan plus the $30/user Enterprise add-on.
Yes. Actual pricing varies by country, currency, and regional pricing. Your exact rate is confirmed at checkout.
You can cancel through the Microsoft 365 admin center, but annual plans may have cancellation fees. Copilot Business offers a 7-day prorated refund window.
Yes. Verified students, teachers, and maintainers of popular open-source projects can get GitHub Copilot at no cost.
