Microsoft Copilot Pricing: Free, Personal, Business and Enterprise Plans
GuidesSunday, 02 August 2026 at 21:57
Microsoft Copilot is free for basic personal use, but that is only the beginning of the price list. Microsoft sells consumer AI through Microsoft 365 Personal, Family and Premium; workplace AI through Copilot Chat, Microsoft 365 Copilot and business bundles; custom agents through Copilot Studio; coding assistance through GitHub Copilot; and security AI through consumption capacity.
Those products cannot be compared as if they were four tiers of one chatbot. They solve different jobs, use different accounts and can have different base-license requirements. A company that sees “Copilot Chat at no additional cost” should not assume it has bought work-grounded Microsoft 365 Copilot. A family that buys a six-person storage subscription should not assume six people receive the AI entitlement.
This guide owns the exact pricing intent for the entire cluster. For the product map before choosing a plan, read the complete Microsoft Copilot guide.
Microsoft Copilot prices at a glance
The figures below are published US list prices checked on July 27, 2026, before applicable tax. Currency, tax, channel, contract, regional availability and promotions can change the amount a customer actually pays.
| Product or plan | Published price | Billing basis | Main purpose |
| Microsoft Copilot Free | $0 | No subscription required for baseline use | Personal chat, search, writing, files, images, voice and selected features |
| Microsoft 365 Personal | $9.99/month or $99.99/year | One subscriber | Office apps, 1 TB storage and selected Copilot benefits |
| Microsoft 365 Family | $12.99/month or $129.99/year | Up to six people for apps and storage | Shared Microsoft 365 benefits; AI entitlement belongs to the subscription owner |
| Microsoft 365 Premium | $19.99/month or $199.99/year | One subscription, shareable app and storage benefits | Highest consumer Copilot limits and premium agents for the owner |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat | No additional Copilot charge for eligible users | Requires qualifying work identity and Microsoft 365 access | Secure work chat, web grounding, files and approved agents |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Business add-on | $21/user/month annually | Up to 300 users; qualifying business plan required | Work-grounded Copilot, Office integration and agents |
| Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot | $23.50/user/month annually | Up to 300 users | Business Standard plus Copilot in one bundle |
| Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot | $32/user/month annually | Up to 300 users | Business Premium plus Copilot in one bundle |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot enterprise add-on | $30/user/month, paid annually | Qualifying enterprise base license required | Work-grounded Copilot, apps, agents and enterprise controls |
| Copilot Studio capacity pack | $200/tenant/month | 25,000 Copilot Credits pooled in the tenant | Build and operate agents beyond included entitlements |
| Copilot Studio pay as you go | Usage based | Azure subscription | Agent consumption without buying capacity first |
| GitHub Copilot Free | $0 | Individual account | Limited completions, chat and agent access |
| GitHub Copilot Pro | $10/month | Individual account | Paid developer use with 1,500 monthly AI credits |
| GitHub Copilot Pro+ | $39/month | Individual account | Wider model and feature access with 7,000 credits |
| GitHub Copilot Max | $100/month | Individual account | Heavy individual use with 20,000 credits |
| GitHub Copilot Business | $19/user/month | Organization or enterprise account | Managed developer access and policy controls |
| GitHub Copilot Enterprise | $39/user/month | GitHub Enterprise Cloud | Enterprise coding AI with 3,900 pooled credits per licensed user |
| Microsoft Security Copilot | From $4 per SCU per hour provisioned | Capacity based | Security and IT operations |
The table is a map, not a final quote. Some products require a base subscription. Some benefits are included only for the subscription owner. Some agent actions consume credits. A temporary promotion can make a number look lower than the long-term price.
Is Microsoft Copilot free?
Yes. The standalone personal assistant has a free baseline at copilot.microsoft.com and in supported apps. It can handle general conversation, current web questions, writing, images, files, voice and selected multimodal features, although availability and usage limits vary.
Free is the right place to test Copilot for personal work. Use tasks that resemble the work you might later pay for:
- summarize a non-sensitive document;
- compare two products and inspect the sources;
- turn notes into a structured first draft;
- explain an unfamiliar subject at a chosen level;
- analyze a small table;
- or create an image from a detailed brief.
The free product is not an unlimited service-level commitment. Features, priority and allowances can tighten with demand. It also does not unlock paid Copilot inside every Microsoft 365 application.
Unsigned use versus a free signed-in account
Copilot can work without sign-in in eligible markets, but signing in unlocks more of the product, including saved history and features that depend on identity. A free Microsoft account is still a consumer account; it does not create enterprise data protection or company administration.
Copilot Chat at no added cost is a different “free”
Eligible people signed in with a work or school identity can receive Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat without an additional Copilot license. It provides enterprise data protection and primarily web-grounded chat. Users can provide permitted work files and use available agents.
This is not the same product as consumer Copilot Free, and it is not identical to paid Microsoft 365 Copilot. Paid Copilot adds fuller grounding in organizational email, meetings, chats, files and people, deeper Microsoft 365 application integration, and additional agents and management features. Agent use in Copilot Chat can also be metered.
Microsoft 365 Personal pricing
Microsoft 365 Personal costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year in the United States.
The annual option saves $19.89 compared with paying monthly for twelve months:
- monthly for one year: $9.99 × 12 = $119.88;
- annual payment: $99.99;
- difference: $19.89.
The subscription combines desktop and mobile Microsoft 365 applications, 1 TB of cloud storage and selected Copilot benefits for the subscriber. It is not merely a chatbot plan, so its value depends on whether the buyer also uses Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneDrive.
Microsoft publishes changing monthly allowances for selected consumer AI features. As of July 2026, Personal includes 60 image-generation credits each month, up to 10 minutes of Copilot Vision per day and up to 30 minutes of Copilot Voice per day, subject to availability and service limits. These operational limits can change faster than the subscription price.
Choose Personal when one person already wants Microsoft 365 and uses AI regularly but does not need the highest consumer limits or Premium-only agents.
Microsoft 365 Family pricing
Microsoft 365 Family costs $12.99 per month or $129.99 per year in the United States.
It can share applications and storage with up to six people. The central Copilot caveat is easy to miss: Microsoft’s consumer AI benefits belong to the subscription owner. The other family members do not each receive an equivalent full AI allowance merely because the applications and storage are shared.
That means Family can be excellent value for storage and productivity software while being the wrong answer for a household that wants six independent paid AI accounts.
Annual Family saves $25.89 against twelve monthly payments:
- monthly for one year: $12.99 × 12 = $155.88;
- annual payment: $129.99;
- difference: $25.89.
Choose Family when shared applications and cloud storage drive the purchase and one owner needs the included Copilot benefits. Do not choose it solely because the “up to six people” line appears next to an AI feature list.
Microsoft 365 Premium pricing
Microsoft 365 Premium costs $19.99 per month or $199.99 per year in the United States.
Premium is Microsoft’s top current consumer Microsoft 365 subscription. It provides the owner with the highest consumer Copilot limits and access to premium AI experiences, while maintaining the applications, security and storage proposition of Microsoft 365.
As of July 2026, Microsoft lists extensive image generation, up to 15 minutes of Copilot Vision per day, up to 60 minutes of Copilot Voice per day and 25 agent tasks per month shared among eligible premium agents. “Extensive” should not be interpreted as a contractual promise of infinite use; fair-use and service safeguards still apply.
The annual option saves $40.89 against monthly billing:
- monthly for one year: $19.99 × 12 = $239.88;
- annual payment: $199.99;
- difference: $40.89.
Premium is the most sensible consumer upgrade when the buyer uses Microsoft 365, regularly reaches Personal-level AI constraints, or specifically values premium agents. It is poor value when a person wants only occasional chat and does not use the productivity subscription.
What happened to Copilot Pro?
Microsoft stopped selling Copilot Pro to new customers on October 1, 2025 and introduced Microsoft 365 Premium as the new top consumer offer. Existing Copilot Pro customers can remain on legacy arrangements and may still encounter the name in billing or support.
New comparison articles should not present Copilot Pro as the current default $20 plan. That would send a reader toward a product Microsoft no longer sells to new buyers.
Which consumer Copilot plan is best?
| Situation | Best starting point | Why |
| Occasional chat, search or drafting | Copilot Free | Test real tasks without a subscription |
| One person already needs Office apps and storage | Microsoft 365 Personal | AI is part of a broader productivity bundle |
| A household needs shared apps and storage | Microsoft 365 Family | Strong shared value, with AI mainly for the owner |
| One heavy AI user wants the highest consumer limits | Microsoft 365 Premium | Current top consumer Copilot tier |
| Several people each need managed work AI | Business or enterprise licensing | Consumer sharing does not create organizational licenses |
Do not upgrade because one impressive feature exists in a product demo. Track how often the free or current plan blocks work, whether the paid capability solves that exact constraint, and how much review time remains.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business pricing
Microsoft sells Copilot to organizations with up to 300 users through business add-ons and combined bundles. Its current business pricing lists these standard US prices with annual commitment:
- Microsoft 365 Copilot Business add-on: $21 per user per month, requiring a qualifying Microsoft 365 business plan;
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot: $23.50 per user per month;
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot: $32 per user per month.
Microsoft announced a temporary Copilot Business promotion for qualifying new customers from July 1 through September 30, 2026. The add-on is $18 per user per month for the first year with annual commitment. The regular $21 list price applies after the promotional term unless Microsoft changes the offer.
This distinction belongs directly beside the advertised price. A buyer should never build a three-year cost model as if a first-year promotion were permanent.
Monthly-commitment pricing can also differ. Microsoft lists the Copilot Business add-on at $25.20 per user per month with a monthly commitment, before tax. Annual commitment lowers the unit price but reduces flexibility.
Bundle or add-on?
The answer depends on the base license already owned.
- A company that already has a qualifying Business Standard or Business Premium subscription may need only the Copilot add-on.
- A company buying productivity and AI together can compare the bundles.
- A company with Enterprise plans should use the enterprise add-on and eligibility rules instead.
Subtract the cost of licenses the organization already needs before comparing bundle prices. Otherwise, the calculation can make a combined package look artificially expensive or artificially cheap.
Read the Microsoft 365 Copilot guide before buying seats; it separates Copilot Chat, paid grounding, agents, rollout and governance.
Microsoft 365 Copilot enterprise pricing
The enterprise Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on has a published US list price of $30 per user per month, paid annually, and requires a qualifying Microsoft 365 base plan.
At list price:
- 100 licensed users cost $36,000 per year for the Copilot add-on;
- 1,000 licensed users cost $360,000 per year;
- base Microsoft 365 licensing, implementation, training, governance and agent consumption are additional.
An organization does not necessarily need to license every employee on day one. Role-based deployment is often more rational: identify work with sufficient document, meeting, analysis or search volume, establish a baseline, license a cohort and compare the complete result.
The correct return-on-investment calculation is:
time saved after review + quality or risk improvement − license, implementation, governance and failure costs
“Prompts sent” and “summaries created” are usage metrics, not business value.
Copilot Studio pricing
Microsoft Copilot Studio has three relevant cost routes:
- included creation and use for defined internal employee-agent scenarios under eligible Microsoft 365 Copilot entitlements;
- a standalone capacity pack at $200 per tenant per month for 25,000 Copilot Credits;
- pay-as-you-go billing through an Azure subscription.
Microsoft renamed “messages” to Copilot Credits in September 2025. One user exchange is not always one credit. The amount depends on the capability used.
Current published examples include:
| Agent activity | Indicative Copilot Credits |
| Classic answer | 1 |
| Generative answer | 2 |
| Agent action | 5 |
| Tenant graph grounding | 10 |
| 100 flow actions | 13 |
Advanced tools can use token-based metering. Rates and zero-rated scenarios require the current Copilot Studio consumption documentation, not a simple “cost per conversation” shortcut.
Estimate agent cost with an observed pilot
Do not forecast from sessions alone. Build a representative agent, run real workflows, inspect its credit consumption and model:
- conversations per month;
- turns per conversation;
- generative answers;
- actions and flows;
- grounding calls;
- advanced model or tool use;
- retries and failed runs;
- seasonal peaks;
- and environments used for testing.
An internal FAQ agent and an autonomous operations agent can have radically different consumption even if both serve the same number of users.
The complete Copilot Studio guide explains what can be built and where governance enters. This page remains the owner of the exact pricing and credit table.
GitHub Copilot pricing
GitHub changed individual Copilot billing on June 1, 2026 to an AI-credit model. Current individual plans are:
| GitHub Copilot plan | Price | Included monthly allowance |
| Free | $0 | 2,000 completions plus limited chat and agent access |
| Pro | $10/month | 1,500 AI credits |
| Pro+ | $39/month | 7,000 AI credits |
| Max | $100/month | 20,000 AI credits |
GitHub values one AI credit at $0.01 for billing, but a task can consume a varying number of credits based on the model, tokens and service. Therefore, “20,000 credits” is not the same as “20,000 prompts.”
GitHub Copilot Business costs $19 per user per month and currently contributes 1,900 AI Credits per licensed user to the organization’s pool. GitHub Copilot Enterprise costs $39 per user per month, includes 3,900 credits per licensed user and requires GitHub Enterprise Cloud. On April 22, 2026, GitHub temporarily paused new self-service Copilot Business purchases for organizations on GitHub Free and Team, so current purchase eligibility should be checked before planning a rollout. Check GitHub’s organization billing guide for current eligibility and promotional allowances.
Buying Microsoft 365 Copilot does not include GitHub Copilot. The GitHub Copilot guide covers features, model choice, security and developer workflow without duplicating this price table.
Microsoft Security Copilot pricing
Microsoft Security Copilot is capacity based rather than an ordinary per-user chatbot subscription.
Microsoft lists:
- $4 per Security Compute Unit per hour for provisioned capacity, with at least one SCU;
- $6 per SCU per hour for on-demand overage.
A continuously provisioned single SCU at $4 per hour would cost about $2,880 in a 30-day month before overage:
$4 × 24 hours × 30 days = $2,880
That is a capacity illustration, not a recommended deployment size. Workload complexity, concurrency and product integrations determine the required capacity.
Eligible Microsoft 365 E5 and E7 customers can receive a benefit of 400 SCU per month per 1,000 paid licenses, up to 10,000 SCU per month. It is a defined capacity benefit, not unlimited Security Copilot use.
Use the official Security Copilot pricing page for current calculator inputs and regional availability.
Costs that the subscription table does not show
Base licenses
Paid workplace Copilot can require Microsoft 365, Azure, GitHub or security products underneath it. Compare the incremental Copilot cost and the complete platform cost separately.
Implementation and data cleanup
Microsoft 365 Copilot inherits permitted organizational context. Cleaning overshared sites, obsolete files and unclear ownership is real rollout work.
Training and adoption
Employees need task selection, prompting, review and escalation guidance. A license sitting unused is not free simply because no implementation project was recorded.
Agent and connector consumption
Copilot Studio, metered agents, flows, premium connectors and external systems can add variable charges.
Human review
A draft produced in thirty seconds can still take twenty minutes to verify. Measure the end-to-end task, not generation time.
Failed or unsafe output
An inaccurate spreadsheet, code change, external message or agent action can cost more to repair than the original task. High-consequence workflows need stronger review and rollback.
Duplicate AI subscriptions
Teams often accumulate Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and specialist tools. Overlap can be useful during evaluation and wasteful after a standard is chosen. Review subscriptions by role and workflow.
How to choose a Copilot plan
- Name the product. Personal Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Studio, GitHub and Security Copilot are not interchangeable.
- Define the task. List recurring work with a measurable current baseline.
- Check the account and base license. Confirm eligibility before comparing an advertised add-on price.
- Start with the lowest suitable entitlement. Free personal Copilot or Copilot Chat may answer whether the interface fits.
- Pilot representative work. Include long files, imperfect data and difficult cases.
- Measure complete cost per accepted result. Include review, corrections, credits and implementation.
- Check the data contract. Consumer convenience is not enterprise governance.
- Separate temporary promotions. Model the renewal price.
- License roles, not enthusiasm. Give paid access where recurring value is demonstrable.
- Reassess quarterly. Microsoft changes packaging, limits and features quickly.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Microsoft Copilot cost?
The standalone personal assistant has a free baseline. Consumer Microsoft 365 plans with AI start at $9.99 per month in the United States. Paid Microsoft 365 Copilot for work uses per-user licensing, while Studio and Security Copilot use consumption or capacity.
Is Microsoft Copilot completely free?
No. General personal use has a free tier, and Copilot Chat can be available to eligible organizational users without an extra Copilot charge. Microsoft 365 application integration, higher consumer limits, full work grounding, coding, agents and security products can require paid plans.
How much is Microsoft 365 Premium?
Microsoft 365 Premium costs $19.99 per month or $199.99 per year in the United States before tax.
Is Copilot Pro still available?
Microsoft stopped selling Copilot Pro to new customers in October 2025. Microsoft 365 Premium is the current top consumer plan. Existing subscribers may remain on legacy arrangements.
Does Microsoft 365 Family give Copilot to six people?
No. Applications and storage can be shared with up to six people, but Microsoft states that the AI entitlement belongs to the subscription owner.
Is Copilot Chat the same as paid Microsoft 365 Copilot?
No. Copilot Chat provides protected, primarily web-grounded work chat for eligible users. Paid Microsoft 365 Copilot adds fuller organizational grounding, deeper app integration and advanced agents and controls.
How much is Microsoft 365 Copilot for business?
The regular Copilot Business add-on list price is $21 per user per month with annual commitment. A temporary $18 first-year promotion runs for qualifying new customers from July 1 through September 30, 2026. Bundles with Business Standard and Business Premium have separate prices.
Is Microsoft 365 Copilot $30 per month?
The enterprise add-on has a published list price of $30 per user per month, paid annually, and requires a qualifying base plan. Business packages for up to 300 users use different pricing.
Are Copilot agents free?
Some internal employee-agent creation and use can be included under eligible Microsoft 365 Copilot entitlements. Other scenarios consume Copilot Credits through a capacity pack or pay-as-you-go billing. “Included” does not mean every action in every channel is unmetered.
Is GitHub Copilot included with Microsoft 365 Copilot?
No. GitHub Copilot is separately licensed.
Can Microsoft change these prices?
Yes. Prices, promotions, credits, plan names and limits can change. Verify Microsoft’s or GitHub’s official checkout and documentation before purchasing.
Bottom line
Microsoft Copilot pricing becomes manageable once the products are separated.
- Use Copilot Free to test personal tasks.
- Choose Personal, Family or Premium for a consumer Microsoft 365 bundle, remembering that the AI entitlement belongs to the owner.
- Begin organizational evaluation with eligible Copilot Chat, then add paid Microsoft 365 Copilot where work grounding and app integration produce measured value.
- Model Studio agents by observed credit consumption.
- Buy GitHub Copilot for developers and Security Copilot for security capacity; neither is included automatically with the general Copilot brand.
The lowest sticker price is not always the cheapest implementation. Compare the full cost per accepted result, include renewal pricing and pay only for the specific Copilot that owns the task.
byDavid Porter
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