Microsoft adds ‘pay-as-you-go’ access for AI agents with M365 Copilot Chat

Microsoft has added a “pay-as-you-go” option to access AI agents alongside its free M365 Copilot Chat plan. 

M365 Copilot Chat is a chat interface powered by OpenAI’s GPT4o that serves up responses based on web data (rather than information held in the Microsoft Graph, as per the paid M365 Copilot subscription). It also includes features such as Copilot Pages and image generation, as well as data protection and IT admin controls at no cost to users. 

Businesses using M365 Copilot Chat can also now deploy Microsoft’s Copilot AI agents, the company announced Wednesday, with metered pricing based on the number of times agents are used.

As with many software vendors, Microsoft began a major push around its M365 Copilot agents towards the end of 2024. These range from chatbots that can answer questions about specific documents to autonomous software agents that can complete more complex tasks such as client onboarding or customer support. 

M365 Copilot Chat provides an “on-ramp” for business to access Copilot and AI agents, Microsoft said.

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat now has a “pay-as-you-go” option that allows access to agents.
MIcrosoft

“M365 Copilot Chat reflects a broader change in the world of generative AI happening in 2025: The rise of agents to complement personal AI assistants like Copilot,” said J.P. Gownder, vice president and principal analyst on Forrester’s Future of Work team.

The plan lacks many of the core features available in the main M365 Copilot subscription service — which costs $30 per user a month — notably the AI personal assistant embedded in apps such as Outlook, Teams, Word, and Excel. Microsoft has struggled to convince large numbers of customers to adopt its M365 Copilot broadly since the service launched in November 2023. 

Microsoft said it expects customers will have “a mix of Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot — our best-in-class offering — to drive AI transformation at scale.”

“On the one hand, having access to a basic LLM is becoming table stakes, so it makes sense for Microsoft to offer a secure and managed Copilot Chat as part of the broader Microsoft 365 offering,” said Gownder. “On the other hand, this Copilot Chat can act as a conduit to agents, which will soon proliferate throughout enterprises.”

M365 Copilot Chat agent usage is measured in “message” credits. These are charged either with a pay-as-you-go model at 1 cent per message, or with pre-paid message bundles priced at $200 for 25,000 messages, Microsoft said in a blog post.

Microsoft sets out four types of agent “answers,” or responses, that each consume a different number of message credits. For example, “classic” answers, used for pre-written responses that are manually authored when an agent is created, cost 1 message, while autonomous agent responses cost 25 messages.

Consumption-based licensing provides a low-cost alternative for customers that want to get started with Copilot services grounded in M365 content, said Larry Cannell, research director at Gartner’s Technical Professionals Digital Workplace service. 

“CIOs often prefer it to flat-based licensing of new products because they can better align value delivered to the cost of the product,” he said. “It is much easier to sell a solution based on demonstrated use rather than expected demand.”