🚨 Mission 12: Understanding Licensing¶

🕵️‍♂️ CODENAME: `OPERATION KNOW WHAT YOU OWE`¶

⏱️ Operation Time Window: ~15 minutes

🎯 Mission Brief¶

Welcome, Recruit. Before you deploy your agents into the field, you need to know how usage is measured, licensed, and billed. This mission breaks down the message-based billing model, explains what Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses include, and shows you how to plan with your estimator.

🎯 Objective: Grasp the Message-Based Model¶

Copilot Studio doesn’t charge per user or per feature—it bills you based on how many messages your agents consume. A “message” is an interaction between your agent and the user (or a system).

💬 Every user interaction with your agent counts as at least 1 message
🔄 Complex interactions (like grounding, generative AI, or flows) consume multiple messages
💼 You pay for messages either via prepaid packs or pay-as-you-go (PAYGO)

Licensing Options¶

1. Copilot Studio Message Packs¶

Prepaid tick-box: 25,000 messages/month for $200
Best for predictable usage — capacity is pooled across the tenant

2. Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO)¶

Post-paid: $0.01 per message
No upfront commitment; usage is billed at month-end via Azure

What if you have M365 Copilot Licenses?¶

If your team has Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses, your agents can run without additional billing for key scenarios:

Classic answers, generative responses, graph-grounded messages, and basic agent actions are zero-rated for authenticated M365 Copilot users in apps like Teams and Outlook
However: if you enable advanced features like autonomous triggers, agent flows beyond basic actions, or use external channels/APIs, those consume billable messages

Scenario	Additional Messages Billed?
M365 Copilot user asking agent in Teams	❌ Not billed
Agent calling external API or flow	✅ Billed (5 + messages)
Agent using autonomous trigger or grounding	✅ Billed

🧮 Plan with Precision: Use the Estimator¶

Before launching your agent, use our Copilot Studio Usage Estimator to forecast message consumption under realistic scenarios:

👉 Use the Copilot Studio Usage Estimator

It lets you:

🔢 Specify your user count
⚙️ Select agent features (grounding, actions, flows, memory)
📈 Estimate total messages per agent per month
🧠 Optimize design and avoid billing surprises

Tip

✅ Run it early — and again after building — to compare expected vs. actual usage.

💼 Sample Scenario¶

Environment: IT Help Desk agent with grounding + one Power Automate flow
Sessions: 5 user turns per session
Assumptions: grounding (10 msgs) + action (5 msgs) + 5 generative responses (10 msgs)
Total: ~25 messages per session
Scale: 500 sessions/month = ~12,500 messages (½ message pack)

🧠 Pro Tips for Cost Control¶

Monitor usage via Power Platform Admin Center
Start in dev/test before going live
Disable unused actions and connectors
Use Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses when possible for internal use
Use message packs when scale becomes predictable
Use the Copilot Studio Usage Estimator to forecast usage

🏁 Mission Complete¶

You now understand:

How usage is calculated and billed
When M365 Copilot covers usage — and when it doesn’t
How to forecast and manage your message consumption

🎓 With this knowledge, you're cleared to advance and deploy your agents efficiently and smartly

📚 Tactical Resources¶

Learn more about licensing and billing in Copilot Studio

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