Copilot Agents licensing usage update

Things have changed recently when it comes to licensing Coilot Agents. Here is the latest information I can find. In short, every user that needs access to tenant information for use with Copilot, requires a license.

🔒 Confirmed Licensing Requirements

1. No Included Message Capacity with a Single M365 Copilot License

Confirmation: Correct. Your individual Microsoft 365 Copilot license does not include a pool of Copilot Studio message capacity that can be used by other users in the tenant who are unlicensed.

Your License Rights: Your M365 Copilot license grants you the right to:
- Create and manage Copilot Studio agents for internal workflows at no extra charge for your own usage.
- Access and use those agents yourself without incurring additional usage costs.
The Consumption: The consumption of your unlicensed colleagues is considered an organizational-level cost that must be covered by a separate organizational subscription for Copilot Studio.

2. Unlicensed Users Cannot Use Tenant-Grounded Agents Without Organizational Metering

Confirmation: Correct. Unlicensed users will not be able to use an agent that grounds its answers in shared tenant data (like SharePoint or OneDrive) unless the organization has set up a Copilot Studio billing subscription.

Agents that Access Tenant Data (SharePoint/OneDrive):
- These agents access Graph-grounded data, which is considered a premium function and is billed on a metered basis (using “Copilot Credits”).
- This metered consumption must be paid for by the organization.
The Required Organizational Licensing: To enable the unlicensed users to chat with your agent, the tenant administrator must set up one of the following Copilot Studio subscriptions:
- Copilot Studio Message Pack (Pre-paid Capacity): Purchase packs of Copilot Credits (e.g., 25,000 credits per pack/month). The unlicensed users’ interactions are consumed from this central pool.
- Copilot Studio Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG): Link a Copilot Studio environment to an Azure subscription. The interactions from the unlicensed users are billed monthly based on actual consumption (credits used) through Azure.

Official Licensing References

SharePoint / OneDrive Agent — Licensing & Usage Summary

Quick reference table describing what licenses and costs are required for users to access an agent that integrates with SharePoint or OneDrive.

Scenario	User’s License	Licensing Requirement to Access SharePoint/OneDrive Agent	Usage Cost
Licensed User (You)	Microsoft 365 Copilot (Add-on License)	No additional license required.	No additional charges for using the agent you created.
Unlicensed User (Colleague)	Eligible M365 Plan (e.g., E3/E5) WITHOUT M365 Copilot	Organizational Copilot Studio subscription (Pay‑As‑You‑Go or Message Pack) must be enabled in the tenant.	Metered charges (Copilot Credits) are incurred against the organizational capacity / Azure subscription.

Key Reference: Microsoft documentation explicitly states: “If a user doesn’t have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license… if their organization enables metering through Copilot Studio, users can access agents in Copilot Chat that provide focused grounding on specific SharePoint sites, shared tenant files, or third-party data.” This confirms the unlicensed users’ access is contingent on the organizational metering being active.

Summary of Action Required

To make your agent available to your unlicensed colleagues, you need to inform your IT/licensing administrator that they must procure and enable Copilot Studio capacity (either Message Packs or Pay-As-You-Go metering) in your tenant. Your personal M365 Copilot license covers your creation and use, but not the consumption of others who are accessing premium, tenant-grounded data.

Microsoft agent usage estimator

The organizational consumption for agents created in Copilot Studio is measured in Copilot Credits.

💰 Copilot Studio Organizational Pricing (USD)

Microsoft offers two main ways for the organization to purchase the capacity consumed by unlicensed users accessing tenant-grounded data:

Copilot Credits — Pricing

Pricing Model	Cost	Capacity Provided	Best For
Prepaid Capacity Pack	USD $200.00 per month (per pack)	25,000 Copilot Credits per month (tenant-wide pool)	Stable/predictable, moderate usage, budget control (lower cost per credit).
Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG)	USD $0.01 per Copilot Credit	No upfront commitment. Billed monthly based on actual usage.	Pilots, highly variable usage, or as an overage safety net for the Prepaid Packs.

Note: All prices are Estimated Retail Price (ERP) in USD and are subject to change. Your final price will depend on your specific Microsoft agreement (e.g., Enterprise Agreement) and local currency conversion.

📊 Copilot Credit Consumption Rates

The cost is based on the complexity of the agent’s response, not just the number of messages. Since your agent uses SharePoint/OneDrive data, the key consumption rate to note is for Tenant Graph grounding.

Copilot credit consumption per agent action / scenario
Agent Action/Scenario	Copilot Credits Consumed (Per Event)
Tenant Graph Grounding (Accessing SharePoint/OneDrive data)	10 Copilot Credits
Generative Answer (Using an LLM to form a non-grounded answer)	2 Copilot Credits
Classic Answer (Scripted topic response)	1 Copilot Credit
Agent Action (Invoking tools/steps, e.g., a Power Automate flow)	5 Copilot Credits

Example Cost Calculation

Let’s assume an unlicensed user asks the agent a question that requires it to search your SharePoint knowledge source (Tenant Graph Grounding) and generate a summary answer (Generative Answer)The Prepaid Pack option is more economical for this level of steady, high usage. Your IT team will need to monitor usage and choose the appropriate mix of Prepaid Packs and PAYG overage protection.

Total Credits = (Credits for Grounding) + (Credits for Generative Answer)
Total Credits = 10 + 2 = 12 Credits per conversation

If 100 unlicensed users each have 5 conversations per day:

Daily Conversations: 100 users × 5 conversations = 500
Daily Credits: 500 conversations × 12 credits/conversation = 6,000 credits

Monthly Credits (approx): 6,000 credits/day × 30 days = 180,000 credits

Monthly Cost Estimate:

Using Prepaid Packs:
180,000 credits / 25,000 credits per pack ≈ 7.2 packs
The organization would need to buy 8 packs per month.

Monthly Cost: 8 packs × $200 = USD $1,600

Using Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG):
Monthly Cost: 180,000 credits × $0.01/credit = USD $1,800

The Prepaid Pack option is more economical for this level of steady, high usage. Your IT team will need to monitor usage and choose the appropriate mix of Prepaid Packs and PAYG overage protection.

Here are the sources that were used to compile the information, each with a direct hyperlink:

Copilot Studio licensing – Microsoft Learn
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/billing-licensing
Billing rates and management – Microsoft Copilot Studio
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/requirements-messages-management
Microsoft 365 Copilot Pricing – AI Agents | Copilot Studio
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/microsoft-365-copilot/pricing/copilot-studio
Copilot Studio pricing & licensing (2025): packs and credits
- https://msadvance.com/en/copilot-studio-pricing-licensing-plans/
Copilot Credits consumption – LicenseVerse – Licensing School
- https://www.licensingschool.co.uk/licenseverse/copilot-studio/message-consumption/
Get access to Copilot Studio – Microsoft Learn
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/requirements-licensing-subscriptions
Manage Copilot Studio credits and capacity – Power Platform | Microsoft Learn
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/manage-copilot-studio-messages-capacity

Defender for Endpoint server licensing

I will preface this with the ‘standard’ disclosure here that:

1. I am not a licensing expert

2. You should speak with a licensing expert to obtain clarification and verification of anything here

3. I have done my best in regards the information presented here but it may change over time, so again see point 2.

With that out of the way, a very common question I receive is around the licensing of servers with Defender for Endpoint. The summary I have found, taken from a reply from Microsoft licensing I found is the following:

In order to be eligible to purchase Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Server SKU, you must have already purchased a combined minimum of any of the following, Windows E5/A5, Microsoft 365 E5/A5 or Microsoft 365 E5 Security subscription licenses. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Server is an add-on for customers with a combined minimum of 50 licenses of eligible Microsoft Defender for Endpoint SKUs.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (Server)

When you have acquired a separate Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (Server) license, you cannot assign them to a specific server or whatsoever. You need to make sure you own the number of licenses with the amount of Windows Servers you want to provision with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (Server). If you don’t have the right amount of licenses in your Microsoft 365 tenant, then you can still roll out MDE for Server because there is no technical limitation to it, you are just not compliant at that moment in an audit.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

If you do have not enough licenses of the products from above, you cannot license your Windows Serves with a separate MDE for Server license. Then you have to use Microsoft Defender for Cloud.

When your Windows Servers are already running within Azure, it’s just enabling the Defender Standard license and enabling your server protection. When your Windows Servers are running On-Premise (e.x. VMware ESXi/Hyper-V) you have to install the Arc Agent on your servers and then they are visible as Virtual Machines in your Microsoft Azure Portal.

Conclusion

You got two ways of licensing your Windows Servers with MDE for Servers. Through Microsoft Defender for Cloud, then you do not have to acquire at minimum 50 Windows E5/A5, Microsoft 365 E5/A5, and Microsoft 365 E5 Security User SLs licenses. Or acquire a separate MDE for Server license when you have at least 50 Windows E5/A5, Microsoft 365 E5/A5, and Microsoft 365 E5 Security User SLs licenses.

More info:

For most, this boils down to the fact that if you don’t have at least 50 x Microsoft 365 E5 (and I also assume, or Defender for Endpoint P2), then you need to purchase Microsoft Defender for Cloud using the Azure portal to cover any servers for Defender for Endpoint.

This would seem to imply that if you implement Defender for Business, when it becomes fully available, you’ll need to use Defender for Cloud even if you have 50 or more licenses. That may of course change when Defender for Business goes GA but my guess at this stage would be it won’t.

Now, even if you have 50 or more licenses of Microsoft E5 (or again I assume, or Defender for Endpoint P2), then you’ll need to purchase the Defender for Endpoint (Server) license for each server you wish to cover. That license is available in 2 versions, monthly and annually:

Monthly Billing

MS SKU = 350158A2-F253-4EA3-988E-EEF9D1B828CF
MICROSOFT CSP MICROSOFT DEFENDER FOR ENDPOINT SVR MTH SUB – AU$7.10 ex

Annual Billing

MICROSOFT CSP MICROSOFT DEFENDER FOR ENDPOINT SVR ANL SUB – AU$85.20 ex

As I also understand it, this Defender for Endpoint (Server) SKU can also only be purchased via CSP not direct. That means, it has to be purchased through a reseller not via the Microsoft 365 administration portal using just a credit card.

The more common option I suspect, given the limitations, is going to be Microsoft Defender for Cloud, which is purchased via Azure.

Which means you fire up the Azure pricing calculator and plug in the details to obtain a price. That should result in the above result of around A$21 per month, per server.

Hopefully, all this answers most questions and I’ve done my best to ensure it is correct but as always, please check for yourself. For most, the solution to licensing servers for Defender for Endpoint will mean obtaining Microsoft Defender for Cloud and the cost for that will be about A$21 per server per month.

Need to Know podcast–Episode 267

I speak with Aaron Dinnage from Microsoft who is the author of the great licensing resource Microsoft 365 maps. Aaron shares the history of this project and it takes to update it every month. We also get some great insights and suggestions when it comes to Microsoft 365 licensing.

This episode was recorded using Microsoft Teams and produced with Camtasia 2020.

Brought to you by www.ciaopspatron.com

Take a listen and let us know what you think – feedback@needtoknow.cloud

You can listen directly to this episode at:

https://ciaops.podbean.com/e/episode-267-aaron-dinnage/

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https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/ciaops-need-to-know-podcasts/id406891445?mt=2

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http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/ciaops/need-to-know-podcast?refid=stpr

Don’t forget to give the show a rating as well as send us any feedback or suggestions you may have for the show.

Resources

Aaron Dinnage – Linkedin, Twitter