People with the free work helper can use some helpers made by their company for free. Helpers that read company files cost a little each time someone without the paid version uses them.
Copilot Chat users can use agents their organisation builds. Simple agents that only use instructions and public websites are included. Agents that search shared company data, like SharePoint, are paid per use in Copilot Credits when the user doesn't have a Copilot licence.
For Copilot Chat users, instruction-only and public-web declarative agents are included; agents grounded in shared tenant data (SharePoint, Copilot connectors) are metered in Copilot Credits through Copilot Studio billing. Licensed users don't incur these charges for employee-facing use under their identity. Design and license accordingly.
The short version
Microsoft's documentation draws the line like this. Declarative agents grounded in instructions and public websites are included with Copilot Chat. Agents that use shared tenant data, such as SharePoint content or Copilot connectors, are charged through usage-based billing in Copilot Credits when the person using them has Copilot Chat only.
People with a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence don't incur those charges for employee-facing agents that run under their own identity, according to Microsoft's Copilot Studio billing page.
Why the line is there
An agent with only instructions and public websites is mostly a saved way of prompting. An agent grounded in your SharePoint sites searches and reads organisational content for each answer, and that's the work the licence normally pays for. For people without the licence, the metering stands in for it.
How the meter counts
Copilot Studio's billing page lists the rates. Two matter most for agents in Copilot Chat: a generative answer is 2 credits and tenant graph grounding is 10 credits. Microsoft's own example of a sales agent grounded in the tenant graph counts four generative answers and four grounding events per run, or 48 credits, for each unlicensed user, while the licensed users in the same example aren't charged.
There's one more exception worth knowing. Microsoft says agents created in Agent Builder don't incur the generative answer charge when the response doesn't use tenant graph grounding.
A worked example
These numbers are illustrative.
An organisation builds two agents for its 1,000 staff, of whom 300 have Copilot licences.
| Agent | Grounding | Uses a month by unlicensed staff | Credits each | Credits a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brand writing helper | Instructions and the public brand site | 3,000 | Included | 0 |
| HR policy agent | SharePoint HR site | 2,100 | 12 | 25,200 |
At $0.01 a credit, the HR agent costs about $252 a month for unlicensed use. The brand helper costs nothing extra. If the HR agent's popularity doubled, so would its bill, which is why I'd give it a cap as in Budgets that follow teams and agents.
Checking before go-live
Before an agent is shared with Copilot Chat users, I'd ask three questions. Does it use any knowledge source beyond instructions and public websites? Roughly how often will unlicensed people use it? Who owns its budget? The first answer tells you whether it's metered at all, the second gives the cost, and the third makes someone responsible for it.
Metered agents also need billing in place. Microsoft's UK pricing page says an Azure subscription is required to use agents with Copilot Chat, and that prepaid Copilot Studio capacity packs are also available. If neither is set up, I wouldn't expect the agent to work for unlicensed users, so test with an unlicensed account before launch.
What I'm still checking
I haven't confirmed how a single agent that mixes public web content and SharePoint content is billed when an answer only uses the public part. Microsoft's rates are per event, so I'd expect only grounding events to be charged, but I'd test it in a pilot environment before promising anyone a figure.
Sources
- Microsoft Learn, Microsoft Copilot overview (agents included with Copilot Chat), accessed 11 October 2026.
- Microsoft Learn, Plan licensing and cost for Microsoft 365 Copilot extensibility, accessed 11 October 2026.
- Microsoft Learn, Billing rates and management, Copilot Studio, accessed 11 October 2026.
- Microsoft UK, Microsoft 365 Copilot plans and pricing for enterprise, accessed 11 October 2026.