Copilot Studio
Copilot Studio is for agents you will operate: topics, tools, channels, ALM — and a bill measured in Copilot Credits.
What it is
Copilot Studio is Microsoft’s maker platform for conversational and autonomous agents that need more than Agent Builder: orchestration, connectors, channels (including Teams), and governance via Power Platform environments. Usage is measured in Copilot Credits (prepaid packs and/or pay-as-you-go), managed in the Power Platform admin centre. Rates differ by feature (classic/generative answers, actions, tenant graph grounding, flows, AI tools). Microsoft 365 Copilot-licensed end users may not be charged for some agent interactions — verify the current billing rates table on Learn.
Where it sits in the stack
Above Agent Builder and SharePoint agents when you need tools and channels. Beside Foundry when low-code SaaS is enough; move to Foundry for custom models and pro-code hosted agents.
Key features / capabilities
- Topics, generative answers, agent actions and flows.
- Knowledge from SharePoint, Dataverse, connectors and uploaded content.
- Publish to Teams, Copilot and other channels with admin approval paths.
- Environment capacity allocation, overage management, per-agent monthly limits.
- Purview DSPM and audit integration for Studio interactions where configured.
Who it is for / when to use
Fusion teams with a billing owner. Prefer lighter builders for FAQ-over-library. Use Studio when the agent must call systems of record or run outside a single site.
Credits, sessions and estimation
Older plans talked about billed sessions; current guidance centres on Copilot Credits with feature-specific rates. Unused prepaid capacity does not carry over month to month. Test chat in the designer typically does not bill the same way as production — but harness choices can change when billing starts. Use Microsoft’s agent usage estimator and Power Platform admin centre reports before you promise a fleet of agents to a steering group.
Cost layer
Consumption-first. Assign Credits to environments before go-live. Use the agent usage estimator on Microsoft’s sites before you promise a fleet. See Managing cost and the feature matrix.
Risk and governance
Environments, DLP policies and connector classifications are mandatory. Turn off unused agents. More: Managing risk.
Adoption tip
Every Studio agent needs an ops owner and a monthly credit review invite. Habits: Adoption.
Related Ideas
Agent Builder · Foundry · Connectors · Production grade
Source note: check Microsoft Learn and Product Terms before you brief finance or legal. Products, names and meters change. This site is independent commentary, not Microsoft official documentation.