“Do I need a Copilot license?” and “When do I need Copilot Studio?” are two of the most common questions from makers and IT decision-makers. There are three tiers, plus Agent Builder as the light way to build an agent. The line that matters most is retrieving data versus taking action.

Zuletzt geprüft: 2026-10-08 (last checked against Microsoft Learn).

TL;DR: Use Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat (included with Microsoft 365, no extra license) to chat over the web. Add a Microsoft 365 Copilot license to reason over your work data (Microsoft Graph) inside Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams. Build in Agent Builder for a simple Q&A agent for yourself or a small team. Build in Copilot Studio when you need a custom agent that does things for a department, the organization or customers: calls connectors, tools and MCP servers, and grounds on your own knowledge.

🆕 Update, September 26, 2026. Microsoft added three more capabilities inside the Copilot app on September 25 — not a replacement for the three tiers below, no change announced for Copilot Studio itself:

	Home	Code	Autopilot
What it is	Chat + Cowork in one place, Office built in	Describe an app/dashboard/workflow in plain language, Copilot builds it	A persistent agent: give it a name, role and goal, it works on its own
Billing	Subscription (USL)	Usage-based (UBB)	Usage-based (UBB)

🔸 Still undocumented by Microsoft: how this new USL/UBB split interacts with the Copilot Credits model further down this page, and how Copilot Studio agents fit in — cost-management support for them is only “planned for October.” This page gets a full rewrite once that’s clarified. Source: Microsoft’s announcement.

The tiers at a glance

	Copilot Chat	M365 Copilot	Agent Builder	Copilot Studio
What it is	Chat for work, web-grounded	Copilot in M365 apps	Light agent builder inside M365 Copilot	Build custom agents
Grounding	Web; work data only via upload, open content or pay-as-you-go agents	Web + Microsoft Graph	Microsoft 365 content (SharePoint, Copilot connectors) or web only	Your own knowledge, connectors
Takes actions?	No	Limited, in-app	No external actions	Yes, connectors, MCP
Audience	Individual	Individual	Yourself or a small team	Department, organization, external
License	Included in M365	Paid add-on	Included with M365 Copilot; free for web-only agents	Subscription / Credits

1. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat: included with Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is an AI chat experience grounded in the web and powered by large language models. It’s automatically included for organizations that have an eligible Microsoft 365 subscription, no separate Copilot license required.

🔸 Good for drafting, summarizing pasted or uploaded content, brainstorming, and answering questions from public web knowledge.

🔸 The limit: without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, Copilot Chat doesn’t automatically reason over your organization’s data in Microsoft Graph. You can bring work content in yourself: upload a file or paste content, use Copilot Chat in Outlook and Teams with the item you have open, or use a pay-as-you-go agent that has access to organizational content.

🔸 Microsoft also describes optional pay-as-you-go access to work-based chat for Copilot Chat users. If your organization enables metering, users can reach agents with focused grounding on specific SharePoint sites, shared tenant files or third-party data, billed via Copilot Credits.

2. Microsoft 365 Copilot: licensed, reasons over your work data

Microsoft 365 Copilot is licensed per user by your organization. On top of everything Chat does, it reasons over both web and work data through Microsoft Graph, and it works inside the M365 apps: Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams.

🔸 This is the tier you pay for when you want Copilot to summarize your actual meetings, draft from your real documents, or answer what your team decided last week.

🔸 Tiers 1 and 2 retrieve and assemble information. They collect, summarize and reason, but they don’t run your business processes.

3. Agent Builder: a quick agent for yourself or your team

Agent Builder lives inside the Microsoft 365 Copilot app. You describe the agent in natural language, point it at content such as SharePoint sites or Copilot connectors, and share it with colleagues. It respects each user’s existing Microsoft 365 permissions.

🔸 Good for project FAQ bots, product documentation assistants and onboarding agents.

🔸 The limit: Agent Builder doesn’t support actions that integrate external services. For connectors or workflows, copy the agent to Copilot Studio.

4. Copilot Studio: build agents that take action

When you need to do something, not just retrieve data, you move to Copilot Studio. Here you build custom agents that you can ground on your own knowledge sources (SharePoint document libraries, Dataverse, public websites, uploaded files) and give actions and tools:

🔸 Connectors: call the prebuilt Power Platform connectors (Microsoft lists over 1,000 across Logic Apps, Power Automate, Power Apps and Copilot Studio) and custom connectors to read and write in line-of-business systems.

🔸 Tools and flows: trigger Power Automate flows, Power Fx, and custom tools so the agent performs real operations such as creating a ticket, updating a record or sending an approval.

🔸 MCP (Model Context Protocol): connect the agent to MCP servers to expose external tools and data in a standardized way.

🔸 Publish agents to Teams, a website, or into Microsoft 365 Copilot / Copilot Chat.

Billing is via a Copilot Studio subscription or pay-as-you-go Copilot Credits (usage-based).

🔸 To create and manage agents, a maker needs access to Copilot Studio: typically the Copilot Studio User License (assigned by the tenant admin, free of charge but it requires the tenant’s Copilot Studio subscription), membership in the Copilot Studio authors group, a Microsoft 365 Copilot license or a trial. A maker never needs the Office Copilot add-on just to build. Users of a published agent need no special license.

Agent Builder vs Copilot Studio: which one for your agent?

Microsoft’s own guidance in Choose between Agent Builder and Copilot Studio boils down to four questions: who uses the agent, how widely you share it, what it needs to do, and how much lifecycle governance you need.

	Agent Builder	Copilot Studio
Access point	Microsoft 365 Copilot app	copilotstudio.microsoft.com
Who builds	Information workers	Makers and developers
Audience	Individuals or small teams	Department, organization, external customers
Agent type	Lightweight Q&A over organizational knowledge	Multi-step workflows, approvals, business system integration, autonomous capabilities
Data and actions	Microsoft 365 content via Graph; no external actions	Prebuilt and custom connectors, MCP, flows
Governance	Microsoft 365 admin center	Power Platform admin center, ALM with dev/test/prod, DLP, versioning
License	Included with the Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on; free for web-grounded agents	Copilot Studio subscription, pay-as-you-go Credits, or Microsoft 365 Copilot for extending Copilot

Start in Agent Builder if a team just needs answers from its own documents. If the agent later needs connectors or a wider audience, use Copy to Copilot Studio: the core configuration and instructions are preserved. For the full picture of build options, see Ways to Build an Agent in Microsoft 365.

The decision that matters: retrieve vs act

flowchart TD
    A["What do you need?"] --> B{"Just find, summarize<br/>or collect information?"}
    B -->|"Public web knowledge"| C["Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat<br/>included, no extra license"]
    B -->|"Your own work data"| D["Microsoft 365 Copilot<br/>licensed add-on"]
    B -->|"Simple agent for me or my team"| F["Agent Builder<br/>no external actions"]
    B -->|"No, it must take action:<br/>write back, run a flow, call APIs"| E["Copilot Studio agent<br/>subscription or Copilot Credits"]

If you just need to find, summarize or collect information, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat (public web) or a Microsoft 365 Copilot license (your work data) is usually enough. If you need the assistant to perform actions, write back to systems, run a flow, follow multi-step logic against your data, that’s Copilot Studio.

Your goal	Best fit
Chat over public web knowledge, no license budget	Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat
Summarize/draft from your emails, files, meetings	Microsoft 365 Copilot (licensed)
A Q&A agent on your team’s SharePoint files	Agent Builder
A branded assistant grounded on your SharePoint/Dataverse for a whole department	Copilot Studio agent
Trigger flows, write to systems, call APIs/MCP	Copilot Studio agent

💡 The pay-as-you-go bypass. This is the strongest cost argument for Copilot Studio in an organization that can’t license everyone for Microsoft 365 Copilot. Ground an agent on the SharePoint sites or files those users actually need, then publish it into Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat instead of Word/Excel/Teams. Those users keep the free Copilot Chat they already have, no per-user Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on required, and the whole thing is billed tenant-wide through Copilot Credits, consumption-based, only when the agent is actually asked something. Microsoft’s own documentation confirms the mechanism directly: users “benefit from the agents you build, without requiring separate licenses.”

Before you roll any of this out, run through the Agent- & Copilot-ready tenant checklist.

Copilot Credits in short

✅ With a paid Microsoft 365 Copilot license, most Standard-harness agent usage is included, no credits. Per Microsoft’s Copilot Credits billing table, Classic and Generative answers, Agent actions and Agent flow actions are “No charge” when the agent runs under an authenticated, Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed user’s identity.

🔸 Credits come into play when: (1) the user has no paid Microsoft 365 Copilot license (free Copilot Chat doesn’t count), (2) the interaction is a Computer-Using Agent, (3) an agent flow is triggered by anything other than “When an agent calls the flow” (for example a schedule), or (4) usage exceeds fair-use limits.

🔸 Pay-as-you-go is billed at $0.01 per Copilot Credit, and consumption resets monthly. Unused prepaid credits don’t roll over. Cover your predictable baseline with a prepaid pack and let pay-as-you-go absorb the spikes.

🔸 Seeded AI Builder credits: from November 1, 2026, new or renewed Power Platform and Dynamics 365 licenses no longer include them. Existing seeded credits stay usable until the end of the contract term, and there is no conversion to Copilot Credits. AI Builder features then run on Copilot Credits. See End of AI Builder credits and check consumption in the Power Platform admin center.

🛠️ FAQ

What is the difference between Copilot Studio and Microsoft 365 Copilot? Microsoft 365 Copilot is the licensed in-app assistant in Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams that reasons over your work data. Copilot Studio is where you build custom agents that call connectors, flows and MCP servers and take action.

Do I need both Copilot Studio and Microsoft 365 Copilot? No, they’re separate products with separate licensing. They combine well, though: a Copilot Studio agent can be published into Microsoft 365 Copilot, and users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license use such agents without extra credit charges for standard usage.

Agent Builder or Copilot Studio: which should I choose? Agent Builder for a simple, content-focused agent for yourself or a small team. Copilot Studio for a wider audience, multi-step workflows, connectors, or lifecycle governance. You can copy an Agent Builder agent to Copilot Studio later.

Is Copilot Chat really free? It’s included with an eligible Microsoft 365 subscription, there’s no separate Copilot license fee. It stays web-grounded unless you add a Microsoft 365 Copilot license or enable pay-as-you-go access to work-based chat and agents.

Can I get to my SharePoint/Teams data without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license? Not through Copilot Chat’s automatic Graph reasoning. You can upload files, use Copilot Chat on the Outlook or Teams item you have open, or build an agent grounded on specific SharePoint sites and surface it in Copilot Chat, billed via Copilot Credits.

Do I need Microsoft 365 Copilot to use Copilot Studio? No. Copilot Studio is its own product with its own licensing (subscription or pay-as-you-go Copilot Credits). It’s the place to build agents that take action.

Does Copilot Studio replace Microsoft 365 Copilot? No. Microsoft 365 Copilot is the in-app assistant across Office, Copilot Studio is where you build custom agents. They complement each other.

Which license does a Copilot Studio maker actually need? Typically a Copilot Studio User License, assigned per maker by an admin (it needs the tenant’s Copilot Studio subscription), or membership in the Copilot Studio authors group, or a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. You don’t need the Office Copilot add-on just to build agents. People who only use a published agent need no special license.

Does a Standard-harness agent that sends an email or posts to Teams cost Copilot Credits? Not for a user with a paid Microsoft 365 Copilot license, running under their authenticated identity. Credits apply if the user has no paid license, the interaction is a Computer-Using Agent, the agent flow uses another trigger (e.g. scheduled), or usage exceeds fair-use limits.

What happens to my AI Builder credits in November 2026? From November 1, 2026, new or renewed licenses no longer include seeded AI Builder credits. Existing seeded credits are honored until the end of the contract term, with no conversion. AI Builder features then consume Copilot Credits.

Does my renewal date decide how long the seeded credits last? Yes, the purchase or renewal date counts, not the end date. Take 5 Power Automate Premium licenses, which seed 5,000 AI Builder credits each, so 25,000 per month. Renewed on September 1, 2026 for 12 months, they keep those credits until the contract ends on August 31, 2027. Renewed on December 1, 2026, they come without seeded credits from the start.

Which credits does an AI Builder action use first? In apps and flows, AI Builder credits are consumed first, then Copilot Credits. Consumption resets on the first of each month, so AI Builder credits are used again from the start of the next month. Agents and agent flows only consume Copilot Credits. If both pools are empty, the AI Builder action is blocked.

Can I convert my AI Builder credits into Copilot Credits? No, there is no conversion, and the rates differ per capability. Before you buy Copilot Credits, check your actual AI Builder consumption in the Power Platform admin center and compare it with the rate table in Overview of licensing. AI Builder capacity add-ons (1,000,000 credits each) run until their contract expires, but new customers can no longer buy them.

🔗 Related

🔸 Ways to Build an Agent in Microsoft 365

🔸 Get Your Tenant Agent- & Copilot-Ready: A 10-Point Checklist

🔸 All AI & Copilot tips

🔸 Knowledge base overview

Product names and licensing reflect Microsoft Learn, last checked 2026-10-08. Always confirm current entitlements in the Microsoft Power Platform / Microsoft 365 licensing guides.