“Copilot” pricing confuses everyone, because Microsoft sells at least four different things under the name: a chat tool bundled into Microsoft 365, a flagship add-on licence for businesses, bundled plans that include it, and GitHub’s separate developer tiers.
The good news is that the structure underneath is simple. You pay for how deeply Copilot can reach into your work. The deeper the access to your mail, files and meetings, the higher the tier, and the prices below are Microsoft’s US list figures, per user per month.
Start free: Copilot Chat
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is included at no extra cost for users on eligible Microsoft 365 plans. It offers AI chat grounded in the web and in files you give it, with enterprise data protection, but it does not roam freely across your mailbox, SharePoint or meeting history.
For individuals outside work plans, the consumer side is simpler: Copilot features come bundled with Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions, with usage limits rather than full workplace grounding. If your needs are drafting, summaries and questions, this free and bundled layer may be all you ever need.
The workplace add-ons: Business and Enterprise
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business is the small and mid-sized company tier, listed at $21 per user per month on annual billing, with promotional pricing of $18 seen through much of 2026. It requires an eligible Microsoft 365 Business plan underneath and unlocks Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams, grounded in your work data.
Microsoft also sells it pre-bundled: Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot lists at $23.50 per user per month and Business Premium with Copilot at $32.00, each paid yearly. For new customers the bundles are often the cleaner purchase, since the base suite is included.
The enterprise tier, Microsoft 365 Copilot as an add-on to plans like E3 and E5, lists at $30 per user per month with an annual commitment. The price jump buys the same core assistant, but with the enterprise control, compliance and analytics layer large organisations require. On top of any tier, building custom agents in Copilot Studio bills separately through credit packs and pay-as-you-go usage.
The developer branch: GitHub Copilot
Developers buy separately. GitHub Copilot has a free tier, with Business at $19 and Enterprise at $39 per user per month, the higher tier adding management, policy and audit features. If your team only needs coding help, this is the whole bill; the Microsoft 365 licences are a different purchase for a different job.
Which plan do you actually need?
Use Chat if you want a safe assistant for questions and drafts. Pay for the Business or Enterprise add-on when the value you want is Copilot working from your company’s own material, inside the apps, because that grounding is precisely what the money buys.
Do not forget the hidden line items.
The licence is rarely the whole bill. The workplace add-on requires a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan underneath it, so the true cost per seat is the suite price plus the Copilot price, a sum that surprises buyers who read the headline figure in isolation.
Bundles blur this in the other direction. A Business Premium with Copilot seat at $32.00 looks expensive next to the $21.00 add-on, until you notice the bundle includes the entire Business Premium suite. Compare totals for the whole seat, never the add-on alone.
Agent usage is the other watch-out. Copilot Studio capacity packs and pay-as-you-go credits sit outside the seat licences, so a successful agent rollout grows a second, metered bill. Finance teams should ask for the credit price list before the pilot, not after it.
Finally, the prices on Microsoft’s pages are list prices before tax, quoted for annual billing. Monthly billing costs more, promotional prices expire, and regional pricing varies. The structure in this article is the stable part; the exact figure on your invoice deserves a fresh check at purchase time.
A final rule of thumb: price the outcome, not the logo. If the paid tier removes one weekly hour of drudgery per seat, it is cheap at any of these prices. If it does not, it is expensive at all of them.
The common mistake is licensing everyone at the top tier on day one. Start with the teams whose work is most document- and meeting-heavy, measure whether the seats get used, and expand from evidence. With per-seat AI, the unused licence is the most expensive plan of all.
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