Copilot Licensing
My previous blog post on Power Platform licensing got a good reaction and some really nice comments sharing that it helped a number of people better understand the different license types and where they may best be used - as an individual, in a team context, or at an Enterprise scale. One of the comments was from Abdelrahman Maher and he also asked if I could explain Copilot licensing too! I didn’t know as much as I’d like to about Copilot licensing so I thought…. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!! 😁
Back in January I’d shared a view of how I interpreted what ‘Power Platform Copilot’ might mean and how I saw some of the different Copilots fitting together. I always meant to come back to it and expand it and so this was a great opportunity to do just that!
In this post I look at what ‘Power Platform Copilot means to me… then the Copilot Studio licenses and how they relate to how it can be used, and finally how I then see these mapping against typical usage and the Scalable Governance Model.
So let’s start with ‘What is Power Platform Copilot?’
In this picture I’ve drawn how I see it. There’s a larger rectangle in black. This represents the Power Apps or Power Automate Maker Portal where you build your solutions.
In the Maker Portal Copilot is built IN the platform as a way to enhance the tools, lower the barrier to entry, and make it easier for all of us to develop Power App and Power Automate solutions using natural language.
Then we have a Copilot capability we can use in our Power Apps - The Copilot Control FOR Power Apps. This control provides Copilot capabilities that works on the data that we’ve connected to within our solution.
This is how I’ve interpretted the naming of the Copilot products throughout… I’m not sure if they all align to this format but it might give you a clue of how they are used, and that links to how the licensing works… If it’s IN and enhances how the platform is used… Then I think it’s included in any licensing for that application… I think? 😁
So let’s take that concept through into Copilot Studio… You can find the detailed information on this in the Licensing Guide - The most recent one is linked to from this Microsoft Learn item - Licensing overview for Microsoft Power Platform - Power Platform | Microsoft Learn
The licensing guide shows 3 parts to the Copilot Studio license - You can see these in the circles in my picture
Copilot Studio itself and the solutions you can build with that - Custom Standalone Copilots connected to internal and external data sources you define.
Extensions to Copilot FOR M365 through Plug Ins - The interestingly titled… ‘Copilot IN ‘Copilot FOR M365’ - A way for Copilot Studio to enhance the ‘Copilot FOR M365’ product. Those same plug ins can be used to extend other Microsoft Copilot solutions to use other data sources too.
Copilot Studio FOR Teams - To build chat bots in Teams on the data that you have made available in there.
Hopefully the IN and FOR definition has helped explain those a little more clearly?
I’ve also mentioned the ‘Copilot Agents’ that were announced at Build back in May 2024. I don’t have any information on where these fit in this model but I’ve marked where I could see them fitting and and idea of how that might align to the license model.
The final piece of the puzzle I’ve tried to identify is where I see some of these Copilot capabilities aligning against the Scalable Governance T-Shirt model to describe levels of risk / complexity of use cases.
Starting from the bottom of this picture you can see that the Copilot IN Power Platform functionality to make it easier for everyone to use the platform goes across all ‘sizes’ of use case as it’s available to everyone as part of the seeded licenses.
I’ve shown the Copilot Control FOR Power apps as being largely used in the Large / X-Large risk / complexity segments as I can see there being the need for increased governance around it’s use to ensure that the right data is exposed in the right way to the right people, and that there would be the additional license investment needed as it’s a premium capability so would need a level of financial oversight.
I’ve taken a similar viewpoint for Copilot Studio use cases.
Copilot FOR M365 Extensibility - There needs to be some governance over what extensions are implemented, to which data, and how it’s controlled so I would expect this to align to the L / XL risk levels. They’ll also be a need for the Copilot for M365 license ($30)
Standalone custom - Most likely to need a higher level of governance to ensure the right data is being connected to, it’s of the right quality, providing expected results, and used by the right people. Also that what additional licensing may be required depending on data sources connected to.
Basic Copilot chatbots can be used by anyone with a Copilot Studio User license which has a list price of $0 (zero)
Agents… Who knows? We’ll find out though. I’m guessing it’ll be similar licensing situation as either the Copilot for M365 extensibility or Standalone Copilot licensing depending on what they’re connecting to.
I hope that’s helped explained Copilot Studio a little more and the licensing - I’m learning along with everyone else so if you have a different perspective or better information I’d love to hear more.
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