Microsoft 365 Copilot Cowork is billed two ways at once - a fixed seat plus metered Copilot Credits per task. Mix and match your user types to model the likely monthly and annual cost, and see what drives it.
Beyond the estimate
We'll turn Cowork on safely and keep the spend predictable.
One alert per policy. Limits are stored in credits - plan in either unit and override any field. The admin center wants the credit figures, which the worksheet below emits.
Show limits in
1,000 credits = $15 AUD
=
All Users policy
All Users policy
Tenant-wide. Sets the ceiling for the whole organisation and applies to everyone not covered by a group tier below.
Default · all users
Monthly tenant limit
= 394,737 cr / mo
Users to divide
From calculator: 50
Avg / user
7,895cr
$120 / mo
Email alert at= 355,263 cr
Group tiers
Group monthly limit
No monthly cap
Per-user monthly limit
= 29,605 cr / mo
Ceiling148,026 cr$2,25038% of tenantper-user binds
Per-user cap binds: up to 148,026 cr ($2,250) / mo if everyone maxes out.
Email alert at= 133,224 cr
Group monthly limit
No monthly cap
Per-user monthly limit
= 11,842 cr / mo
Ceiling142,105 cr$2,16036% of tenantper-user binds
Per-user cap binds: up to 142,105 cr ($2,160) / mo if everyone maxes out.
Email alert at= 113,684 cr
Allocation check
17
Users in tiers
33
On the All Users default
290,132
Allocated ceiling (cr / mo)
Headcount mismatch: tiers cover17vs50dividing across
33 users aren't in any tier and fall on the All Users default.
A planning aid, not a live control. Set the real caps in the Microsoft 365 admin center under Copilot then Cost Management, where spending policies are scoped to security groups. Credits are a shared pool across eligible Microsoft AI services, so a tenant cap protects the whole budget, not Cowork alone.
Estimate snapshotEverything in one view
AUD / mo · all-in (seats + credits)
$12,479
$149,742
per year
Key figures
Cowork users
50
Total licences
50
Credits / mo
712,500
at $0.0152 / credit
Seats / mo
$1,649
Usage / mo
$10,830
All-in / mo
$12,479
Avg variable / user
$217
per Cowork user
Meter vs seat
6.6×
usage ÷ seat cost
Seats vs usage
Seats · fixed
$1,649
13% of all-in
Usage · variable
$10,830
87% of all-in
Credits by user type
Cowork users× 50712,500 cr100%
14,250 cr / user$10,830 usage
Assumptions & rate
Copilot seat
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business · $32.97 / seat / mo
Get this breakdown and your spending policy plan in your inbox, with the assumptions. No gate on the calculator - this is optional, and we’ll follow up to help if you want it.
How to read it
What every number means.
The calculator builds your cost the way Microsoft's own estimator does: per persona, from a count of users and the mix of tasks they run. Here is each field, step by step.
Steps 1-2
Who uses Cowork, and how much
Persona
A type of worker. The preset tabs fill the grid from Microsoft's measured Frontier usage; edit any cell, or start from Light, Heavy or Power adopters.
Users
How many people in each persona will have Cowork switched on.
Light / Medium / Heavy
How many tasks of each weight a typical person runs per month. Light is a quick brief or reply; heavy is a workbook plus deck, or a long multi-tool run.
Cr / user
Credits one person in that row burns per month - their task counts times the credits each task costs. We calculate it for you.
Licensed users not using Cowork
People who have a Copilot seat but won't run Cowork. They add to the licence cost but use no credits, so the seat bill covers them and the usage bill does not.
Total Copilot licences
The Cowork users (summed across personas) plus the licensed non-users - every seat you pay for.
Step 3
Credits per prompt, and the rate
Credits per prompt
How many Copilot Credits a light, medium or heavy task consumes. Defaults are Microsoft's (125 / 500 / 1,200); raise Heavy if your tasks run bigger.
Pay-as-you-go vs capacity pack
The price per credit. Pay-as-you-go is $0.01; a prepaid capacity pack is about $0.008.
Licence & term (advanced)
Which Copilot seat each person needs ($30 enterprise or $21 Business) and annual vs monthly. This sets the per-seat cost.
Your results
What the headline numbers mean
Per month / per year
The all-in cost: seats plus metered usage.
Seats vs usage
The split between the fixed licence cost (every seat you pay for) and the variable credit cost (Cowork users only).
Avg variable / user
The metered credit cost per Cowork user, on top of their seat.
Meter vs seat
How many times bigger the usage bill is than the seat bill. This is the number that surprises people.
How the estimate works
Two costs in one bill, and how to keep the variable one in check.
The seat (fixed)
Everyone using Cowork needs a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, the $30/user/month add-on. That part is predictable and the same every month.
The credits (variable)
Cowork is billed per task in metered Copilot Credits at $0.01 each. A heavy task can run over a thousand credits, so usage can quietly dwarf the seat cost.
Keeping it capped
Cost Management spending policies set hard monthly limits, org-wide and per user. The spending policy planner below the calculator models those caps - a tenant budget plus group tiers - and we help you set the ones that hold it there.
What drives the cost
Cowork is billed per task, and tasks are not all equal.
Microsoft prices each task on four inputs. The same request costs very differently depending on how heavy it is, and usage tends to drift heavier over time.
01
Which model runs it
Premium reasoning models cost more per task than the leaner ones. Cowork defaults to Anthropic Opus 4.8.
02
How much context it pulls
A week of email and several documents is far more than a one-line reply. More retrieval, more credits.
03
How many tools it calls
Each action - create a doc, search email, pull SharePoint files, post to Teams - adds to the task's bill.
04
How long it runs
Long, multi-step, unattended runs consume the most. Real usage drifts heavier over time, so plan for it.
The same heavy task, at different cadences
One heavy Cowork run is fine. The cost creeps in when “go do this for me” becomes the default way to make a deck that regular Copilot already includes in the fixed seat. Take a heavy task at roughly $25:
Illustrative, in USD. If the job is “research it, summarise it, turn it into a doc and let me edit”, that is already in the seat via Researcher, Analyst and the Office agents. Save Cowork for work that genuinely needs unattended runtime and multi-tool follow-through.
We already pay for Microsoft 365 Copilot. Do we still pay for Cowork?
Yes. The Microsoft 365 Copilot seat (Copilot Business is about AU$33 per user per month on a yearly commitment paid monthly) gates access; Cowork's agentic work is metered separately in Copilot Credits on top of that seat.
What is a Copilot Credit, and why show both credits and dollars?
Credits are Microsoft's metering unit, shown in the admin dashboards. At pay-as-you-go rates one credit is $0.01 USD, so dollars are simply credits times $0.01. We show both so the number matches what you will see in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
What is the difference between a light, medium and heavy task?
Roughly: light tasks use about 125 credits (a quick brief or reply), medium about 500 (a cited research memo), and heavy 1,200 or more (a workbook plus deck, or a long multi-tool run). The exact cost depends on the model, context, tools and runtime, so the calculator lets you adjust all of these.
Should we use pay-as-you-go or a capacity pack?
Pay-as-you-go at $0.01 per credit suits pilots and unpredictable usage. Prepaid capacity packs are bought as whole blocks (25,000 credits for about $200, an effective $0.008 per credit) and the P3 pre-purchase plan discounts steady, predictable volume. The catch is the minimum spend: because you buy whole packs, low usage rounds up to a full pack and can cost more than pay-as-you-go would. The calculator flags this - switch the billing toggle to Capacity pack and it shows the packs bought and warns when a pack costs more than metered usage. Overage on prepaid rolls back to pay-as-you-go automatically.
How do we stop runaway spend?
In the Microsoft 365 admin center under Copilot then Cost Management, set a limited monthly spending policy (a hard cap), a per-user limit, and alert thresholds. Unlike the legacy pay-as-you-go budget, which only sends alerts, a Cost Management cap actually stops spend when it is hit.
What does the spending policy planner do?
It models the caps top-down, the way Cost Management actually works. You set an All Users policy (the tenant-wide limit, which divided by your headcount gives an average credit budget per user) and then group tiers, each with a group limit and an optional per-user ceiling. The planner shows which cap binds each group, the most each tier can spend, and whether your tiers add up to more than the tenant cap allows. It is a planning aid for what to type into the admin center, not a live control.
Should I enter limits in credits or dollars?
Either. A master toggle at the top of the planner sets the unit for every field at once, and you can still override any single field (an overridden field is highlighted so the exception is obvious). The Microsoft 365 admin center stores limits in Copilot Credits, so credits match what you will type there; the planner shows the dollar equivalent alongside at the rate you have selected. Enter dollars instead if you are working to a budget figure, and the planner converts it back to credits.
Can other Microsoft AI services drain our Cowork budget?
Yes. Copilot Credits are a shared pool across eligible Microsoft AI experiences, not Cowork alone. Scope which services each spending policy can use, and monitor consumption, so other agents do not quietly consume your Cowork budget.
We trialled Cowork in Frontier. When does billing start?
Frontier usage between 30 March and 16 June 2026 was free, but billing for those tenants begins 1 July 2026. If a billing method is not set up by then, Cowork stops working for those users. This is separate from the Australian Microsoft 365 price change on the same date.
Is this Microsoft's official pricing?
The model is calibrated to Microsoft's published guidance and its own Customer Cowork Estimator, but it is a directional budgeting tool, not an official quote. The calculator defaults to AUD - seats at partner pricing (yearly commitment, paid monthly) and Copilot Credits converted from Microsoft's USD metering at the live exchange rate shown on the tool - and toggles to USD.
Is anything I enter here sent to you or stored?
Not unless you ask. The calculator and planner run entirely in your browser - your headcounts, usage and limits are never transmitted as you work. The only thing that submits data is the optional 'email me this estimate' form: if you use it, we send the report to your address, keep the submission so we can follow up, and (only if you tick the box) start a double opt-in to our newsletter. Don't use the form and nothing leaves your browser.
