# Copilot Credits

> The unit Microsoft uses to bill Copilot Studio usage, measuring the effort an agent or flow spends retrieving information, answering and running actions.

**Category:** Copilot

**Copilot Credits replaced the older "messages" unit in September 2025**, without changing the quantity per prepaid pack or the pay-as-you-go rate. The more work a run does, the more it costs: a flow with several actions and an AI step uses more credits than a one-line lookup. Capacity is enforced monthly and unused credits do not roll over.

Not everything is metered. Agents in Copilot Chat, Teams or SharePoint that rely only on classic answers, generative answers or standard [Microsoft Graph](/glossary#microsoft-graph) grounding are **zero-rated**. For the rest, a tenant pays through a prepaid subscription, pay-as-you-go via an Azure subscription, or a one-year prepurchase plan. Test runs of an agent flow in the designer are free, but agents built on the GitHub Copilot harness are billed from build and test onward.

## At work

Before attaching a flow to a busy Teams agent that fires on every relevant message, an admin checks Microsoft's agent usage estimator so the monthly credit pack does not run out early.

## Often confused with

The [Microsoft 365 Copilot](/glossary#microsoft-365-copilot) licence. That licence gives a person Copilot in their apps and lets them extend it with agents; Copilot Credits are the separate, metered capacity that Studio-built agents and flows draw down.

## Related terms

- Copilot Studio
- Agent flow
- Microsoft 365 Copilot

## See it in a lesson

[Copilot Studio: build and automate](/en/learn/copilot/advanced/copilot-studio)

## Further reading

- [Copilot Studio billing and licensing (Microsoft Learn)](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/billing-licensing): Licensing paths, Copilot Credits and the three ways a tenant can pay.
- [Billing for agents powered by the GitHub Copilot harness (Microsoft Learn)](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/agents-experience/billing-credit-overview): Why these agents are billed from build and test onward.

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Last updated: 14/10/2026  
Source: Rollo Academy glossary