Microsoft Copilot Studio Licensing Guide – October 2026

The Microsoft Copilot Studio Licensing Guide is updated for October 2026.

After three versions in September, this revision only features minor wording adjustments relating to the Copilot Managed Runtime host and runtime usage.

How do you stay on top of the multiple versions of Microsoft Licensing Guides? We keep track so you don’t have to! Subscribers will find this guide, alongside our full collection, in the Licensing Guides Gallery: https://bit.ly/4r1jSEb, with details of what’s new (and what’s wrong!), to help you avoid any stumbling blocks. If you’re not yet a subscriber, grab this latest guide here: https://bit.ly/4AK14xC.

Copilot Credits Guide – September 2026

Microsoft have updated the Copilot Credits Guide (four times!) for September 2026.

App building is the focus this month, with a key update covering Apps in Copilot Cowork, a feature that’s part of the early-access Microsoft Frontier Program. The guide covers details of App creation using natural language, billing, and hosting, and includes a useful illustration of its estimated Copilot Credits usage. The third update of the month adds a new section on Apps in Microsoft Copilot Studio, a feature in Paid Public Preview, covering usage-based billing for building, hosting, running, and managing Apps, its inclusion in the Power Apps Premium licence, and cost estimation. The fourth version features an updated term for the Microsoft-hosted cloud infrastructure, renaming “Microsoft-managed host” to “Copilot Managed Runtime Host”, along with an added section providing further details.

A flurry of other changes includes added terms, prerequisites, and useful links throughout.

Don’t forget the “What’s New” feature in our Licensing Guides Gallery, where we provide an overview of all the important changes. Subscribers can find all versions of the PDF guide here: https://bit.ly/4xPrgVI, alongside the ever-popular Cautionary Notes to navigate the errors we’ve discovered. If you’re not yet a subscriber, you can access the latest guide here: https://bit.ly/3VfBoZp.

Power Platform licensing resources

The Power Platform licensing resources are updated for August 2026.

The Licensing Guide features only minor changes this month, with the removal of a lone reference to Project for the web. The Licensing Deck has a rather more dramatic update, with complete sections on Copilot Studio removed in favour of a link pointing to the Microsoft Copilot Studio Licensing Guide for the relevant information.

The one-click “Power Platform” filter in our subscriber-exclusive Licensing Guides Gallery gives you quick access to every version of the licensing resources: https://bit.ly/GuidesGallery. You’ll also find details of all the changes to be aware (and wary) of with our “What’s New” and “Cautionary Notes” labels. If you’re not yet a subscriber, grab a copy of the Licensing Guide here: https://bit.ly/4hgoAeu, and the Licensing Deck here: https://bit.ly/4wdWLY3.

Copilot Studio Pay-As-You-Go

Copilot Studio is available on a Pay-As-You-Go basis from 1 December, 2024. That means that you can now choose to buy either the original Capacity Pack of 25,000 messages for $200 a month, or pay for messages that you use at a cost of $0.01 per message. As you might expect, messages are paid for via an Azure Subscription at the end of the month. If you want to, you can combine the two options, with the messages from the Capacity Packs being consumed first.

Find the Microsoft announcement here: https://bit.ly/4fgt7J1, and the pricing page here: https://bit.ly/4gvpLTs.

Microsoft Copilot Studio

Microsoft announced Copilot Studio in November 2023, a conversational AI platform for users to create bots (copilots) using natural language or a graphical interface. It’s built on Power Virtual Agents, and to that end, the Power Virtual Agents brand is retired in favour of Copilot Studio. It’s licensed with a tenant capacity licence costing $200 per month allowing 25,000 messages and, as with Power Virtual Agents, a zero-cost Per User licence is required for every user who will create copilots.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3SCDiQd, and Microsoft’s Copilot Studio licensing page here: https://bit.ly/3SAEjbi.