What does Microsoft Copilot cost? Free vs paid, explained

What a small team pays

Copilot Business seats at Microsoft’s first-year promotional price ($21 a person a month after that), on top of what you already pay for Microsoft 365. You only buy seats for the people who need them; everyone else keeps the free Copilot Chat.

• 1 person: $18 a month ($216 a year)
• 3 people: $54 a month ($648 a year)
• 5 people: $90 a month ($1,080 a year)
• 10 people: $180 a month ($2,160 a year)
• 25 people: $450 a month ($5,400 a year)

The cheapest way to start: use the free Copilot Chat for everyone, then buy one to three seats for the people with the most email, meetings and documents, using Microsoft’s free trial month to see whether it saves them time. The Copilot worth-it calculator shows how many minutes a seat has to save to pay for itself. Planning agents and automations too? See AI automation cost.

Which Copilot license do you need?

A Copilot “license” is just the paid seat, assigned to one person in your Microsoft 365 admin center. Your choices:

• No license: Copilot Chat is free for everyone with a Microsoft 365 work account. Nothing to buy.
• Copilot Business license (up to 300 people): $18 per person per month for the first year if you buy by December 31, 2026 (a Microsoft promotion), then $21. It’s an add-on, so each person also needs Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard or Premium. You can buy it for just one or two people.
• A bundle: Business Standard with Copilot ($23.50) or Business Premium with Copilot ($32) per person per month, billed yearly. Worth it only when everyone gets Copilot. For a few seats, keep your plan and add Copilot Business for those people.
• Enterprise license (over 300 people): $30 per person per month, same features.

Microsoft 365 Copilot price

“Microsoft 365 Copilot” is the old name. Since August 2026 it’s called Microsoft Copilot, and the version for businesses with up to 300 people is Copilot Business. So the Microsoft 365 Copilot price for a small business is the Copilot Business price: $18 per person per month for the first year if you buy by December 31, 2026 (a Microsoft promotion), then $21.

Copilot Pro vs Copilot Business

Copilot Pro was Microsoft’s paid plan for individuals. Microsoft stopped selling it in October 2025 and ended support on August 1, 2026. Its features moved into Microsoft 365 Premium, a personal plan at $19.99 a month.

• Microsoft 365 Premium (which replaced Copilot Pro) is bought by one person, on a personal account. The business can’t assign it, manage it or take it back when someone leaves.
• Copilot Business is bought and managed by the business. You assign it to a person, move it when someone leaves, and it works from that person’s company email, meetings, chats and files.

For a business, Copilot Business is the one to buy.

What a Cowork task costs

Microsoft doesn’t publish an exact price per task. It depends on how long the task runs. Rough estimates from Microsoft’s own examples:

• Light, like a weekly status update: about $2 each time.
• Medium, like preparing for a client meeting from past emails and files: about $5.
• Heavy, like analyzing months of data: $7 or more.

A light task every week comes to about $9 a month. You can cap spending per person or for the whole business. New to credits? See What are Copilot Credits?

Cowork needs a paid Copilot seat. Microsoft says Copilot Business has the same capabilities as its enterprise seat, but it hasn’t yet said outright that this includes Cowork. An admin also has to turn on Cowork and pay-as-you-go billing. Cowork uses Anthropic’s models, which are on by default for US businesses.

Which Copilot plan do I need?

• Start with the free Copilot Chat. If you have Microsoft 365, you already have it.
• Add paid seats for a few people, not everyone. The people with the most email, meetings and documents get the most out of it. A pilot of one to three seats, reviewed after two or three months, is usually the smart first step.
• Add Cowork later, for the specific chores you want done for you, with a spending cap.

Answer four quick questions in our free Which Copilot do I need?picker on sierrix.ai to see what fits your business.

Wondering whether the paid seat is worth it for your team? See Is Microsoft Copilot worth it?for the break-even math, and the Copilot readiness checklist before you start a trial.

Staff without a paid seat can still use company agents your team sets up, paying per answer: about $0.12 for an answer that searches your company files.

Copilot Chat “basic” vs the paid seat: what’s the difference?

You may see Copilot labelled “Basic” in your apps. That is the free Copilot Chat that comes with Microsoft 365. The paid version is the Copilot Business seat. The difference in one line: the free one works with what you paste or upload, while the paid one works from your own email, meetings, chats and files on its own.

• Free (basic): drafting, summarizing what you paste in, web answers with sources, and your own inbox and calendar in Outlook.
• Paid seat: everything above, plus searching your company files and Teams meetings, Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Teams, and Microsoft’s Researcher and Analyst agents. Paid seats also get priority when Microsoft is busy.

Still deciding? Is Microsoft Copilot worth it? shows how much time the seat has to save to pay for itself.

Is there a contract?

• Copilot Chat: no. It comes free with Microsoft 365.
• Copilot Business: yes, for one year. There is no month-to-month plan. You can pay for the year up front, or pay each month, but paying each month costs more ($25.20 instead of $21 per person) and you are still signed up for the full year.
• Copilot Cowork: no. You pay each month only for the tasks it runs, up to a limit you set.

Free trial: Microsoft lets you try Copilot Business free for one month. When the month ends, it turns into the paid one-year plan unless you cancel first. If you change your mind after that, you have 7 days to cancel and get back what you paid for the unused time.

Common questions

How much is Microsoft Copilot for a business?

Copilot Chat is free with Microsoft 365 Business plans. The paid seat, Copilot Business, is $18 per person per month for the first year if you buy by December 31, 2026 (a Microsoft promotion), then $21, on top of your Microsoft 365 plan, and you sign up for one year. You can buy it for just the people who need it.

How much does Copilot cost for a team of 10?

Ten Copilot Business seats cost $180 a month, or $2,160 a year at the promotional price. Most small businesses start with one to three seats for their heaviest email and document users and give everyone else the free Copilot Chat.

Is there a free version of Copilot for business?

Yes. Copilot Chat is included with Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard and Premium. It drafts, summarizes and researches the web with enterprise data protection, but it can’t search your company files on its own.

Can I buy Copilot month to month?

No. Copilot Business is a one-year plan. You can pay monthly, but it costs $25.20 instead of $21 per person and you are still signed up for the year. Microsoft offers a one-month free trial first.

Good to know

• Microsoft adds and renames Copilot features every month. We track the ones that matter to small businesses in What’s new in Microsoft Copilot.
• Microsoft renamed things in August 2026. “Microsoft 365 Copilot” is now Microsoft Copilot, and “Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat” is now Copilot Chat. You’ll still see the old names around.
• Larger organizations pay $30 per person per month for the same features as Copilot Business.
• Copilot only sees what’s in Microsoft 365. Files kept on personal laptops, Dropbox or Google Drive are invisible to it.
• No Microsoft 365? The free consumer Copilot app isn’t meant for business data. Your assessment will tell you whether switching is worth it.

Want the bigger picture, from free chat to agents that do the work? Read the five levels of Copilot. Comparing Copilot with other AI tools? See ChatGPT vs Copilot vs Claude, or browse all our guides.