Microsoft has unveiled a pay-as-you-go tier of its AI-powered business tools with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat that allows companies to access everything from chatbots to agents.
The announcement means businesses can get started using AI without signing up for Copilot's monthly subscription fees that start from £25/$30 per person. That platform doesn't have a free trial, and the company told The Verge it has no plans to introduce one.
The move follows earlier announcements of agents in Copilot, as well as rival Google this week beginning to integrate Gemini into its Workspace platform for businesses.
Calling it "Copilot for all", Microsoft's latest offering means companies using the free chat tools to serve their customers can add-on pay-as-you-go AI agents.
While the company stresses that the paid-for Microsoft 365 Copilot remains "our best in class personal AI assistant for work", the new pay-as-you-go tier means companies can start using the technology without signing up for a subscription.
"Copilot Chat enables your entire workforce — from customer service representatives to marketing leads to frontline technicians — to start using Copilot and agents today," said Jared Spataro, Chief Marketing Officer for AI at Work at Microsoft, in a blog post.
Copilot Chat vs Copilot
Microsoft laid out the differences between the two products in that blog post. Copilot Chat is paid per use, but lacks the personal assistant and productivity tools of paid-for Copilot.
On the chatbot front, both offerings include a web-based, GPT-4o-powered chat tool with support for file uploads, image generation and code interpreter, Microsoft said.
However, the paid-for Copilot can also pull in corporate data to that chatbot for further customization.
"You can use it to do market research, write a strategy document, or prepare for a meeting," says File uploads allow you to add any document to the chat and ask Copilot to do things like summarize key points in a Word document, analyze data in an Excel spreadsheet, and suggest improvements to a PowerPoint presentation," Spataro explained.
"With Copilot Pages, you can collaborate on content with people and AI in real time — adding content from Copilot, your files, and now from the web as well. And you can quickly create AI-generated images for campaigns, product launches, and social media posts."
When it comes to agents, the "pay-as-you-go" version offers all the same features of the business process automation tools as the paid-for edition, but there are metered charges to include "work data" or to use agents that can take autonomous action.
"Using natural language, now anyone can easily create agents to automate repetitive tasks and business processes — directly in Copilot Chat," Spataro noted.
"A customer service representative can ask a customer relationship management (CRM) agent for account details before a customer meeting, while field service agents can access step-by-step instructions and real-time product knowledge stored in SharePoint."
When it comes to the Copilot Control System, the free Chat tier doesn't include access to SharePoint Advanced Management, Copilot analytics, or other reporting tools, but it does include core management tools and enterprise data protection.
Similarly, the free versions don't include any access to what Microsoft refers to as the "personal assistant" tools that are included in Teams, Outlook, Word and the like — those are only available in the paid-for Copilot.
How much will it cost?
The charges are a bit confusing — the standard version of Copilot may feel expensive at £25 a month, but at least you know what you're paying.
"Usage of agents is measured in 'messages' and total cost is calculated based on the sum of messages used by your organization," said Richard Riley, General Manager of Power Platform at Microsoft in a blog post.
Microsoft has a couple of ways for companies to access the "pay-as-you-go" version of Copilot: simply tracking each "message" sent to the AI, and letting that add up in a monthly bill; or by pre-buying a pack of messages to use each month, sort of like a mobile phone plan.
In the former, messages will cost $0.01 each, while prepaid packs are $200 for 25,000 a month.
Answers that don't require generative AI cost less than those that do. A web-based answer is free, a "classic answer" will cost one message, and generative answers cost two messages, Riley explained. Those that pull in data from the company's own systems, such as SharePoint, will cost 30 messages.
"This paid capability is optional and you can decide whether to turn it ‘on’ or ‘off’ in Copilot Studio," Riley added.
Beyond chatbot answers, Microsoft is also offering pay-as-you-go autonomous agents, which will cost 25 messages each time they act.
"To enable autonomous agents, we are introducing the concept of autonomous actions," Riley said.
"Autonomous actions are generatively orchestrated triggers, topics, data connectors, and workflows and are visible in the activity map displayed in generative orchestration mode."
Riley gave a few hypothetical examples: an agent answering customer questions online used 500 classic answers and 2,000 generative ones, costing $45 for those 4,500 messages; another used Microsoft Graph data to answer HR questions internally, with 200 generative and 200 tenant Graph messages costing 6,400 messages or $64 for the day.
The system could let businesses fine-tune their AI usage to exactly what they need, addressing some of the debate around the high-costs of rolling out these tools across enterprises.
