Microsoft have updated the Copilot Studio Licensing Guide (twice!) for August 2026.

“Harness” is a newly introduced term taking the spotlight this month. Think of a harness as the bridge between your instructions and an AI model, feeding it context, providing its tools, and guiding it through tasks. You can choose from three harness options in Copilot Studio depending on your requirements, with each option affecting Copilot Credits consumption differently. The Overview section now breaks down what a harness is, the available types, and how they consume Copilot Credits. The mid-month update promoted the (paid-for!) GitHub Copilot harness to the top of the list of options to match the default option that’s chosen when you’re creating a new Agent.

Other changes include added clarity and details on the Copilot Studio Author role requirements and Azure Prepayment eligibility. Rounding off this month’s changes, as part of recent rebranding, “Microsoft 365 Copilot” has been renamed throughout to simply “Microsoft Copilot”.

Quickly discover what’s new (and what’s wrong!) across the Microsoft licensing resources that we collect by exploring our subscriber-exclusive Licensing Guides Gallery. Use the one-click “Copilot” filter to view this guide and the full breakdown: https://bit.ly/GuidesGallery. You can also grab the latest guide directly here: https://bit.ly/4gi1y4t.