Microsoft is today relaunching its free Copilot for businesses as Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, complete with the ability to use AI agents. Copilot Chat is Microsoft’s latest effort to teach people to use AI at work, and it’s relying on it enough to tempt them to pay $30 a month to get the full Microsoft 365 Copilot.
“It’s a free and secure conversation with AI that’s powered by GPT,” explains Jared Spataro, Microsoft’s chief marketing officer for AI at work, in an interview with threshold. “You can upload files so it’s very comparable to the competition, in fact we think it bests the competition even at this level.” Spataro wouldn’t name the competition, but it’s clearly ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is essentially a rebranding of what used to be Bing Chat Enterprise before Microsoft rebranded it to just Copilot. Crucially it now includes access to Copilot AI agents directly within the chat interface – previously only available in the full Microsoft 365 Copilot experience – requiring a subscription of $30 per user per month. These agents are designed to work as virtual colleagues and can do things like monitor email inboxes or automate a variety of tasks.
You’ll be able to create and deploy agents using Copilot Studio, deploy agents that rely on web data, and even deploy data-driven agents working through Microsoft Graph. Agent usage with Copilot Chat will be measured through the Copilot Studio meter on Azure or through a pay option.
“The first question people ask me is ‘am I writing you a blank check?'” Spataro says, but Microsoft has built controls into how people pay for AI agent access. “The way you can control the rotation of the meters is by paying in different ways. One way is pay-as-you-go, which is basically an open account or tab that you’re burning, but the other way to do it is through consumer packages, and when the package runs out, you’re done.”
However, prices and consumption rates are a bit complicated. Microsoft measures agent usage in messages, so classic responses that don’t touch large language patterns count as one message, while generative responses cost two messages, and anything that goes into the Microsoft Graph (including files stored in SharePoint) will cost 30 messages.
“A message is equal to 1 cent, so you can basically convert it to 1 cent, 2 cents and 30 cents,” Spataro explains. “It spins an Azure meter and burns a customer’s MACC (Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment).”
Microsoft provides some examples of cost calculations for businesses that may be tempted to use AI agents through Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat:
A hypothetical agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat uses data stored in the Microsoft Graph to answer employee questions about HR policies. Yesterday, the agent consumed 200 generating responses and 200 grounding Graph for messages. Therefore, it would cost 6,400 messages or $64 for the day.
The current chat experience in Copilot Chat is largely unchanged and uses GPT-4o for queries. You can also upload files to Copilot Chat and have it summarize Word documents or even analyze data in Excel spreadsheets. You can do the same thing directly within Word or Excel if you pay for the full Microsoft 365 Copilot, instead of uploading files manually. Spataro says Microsoft has no plans to enable a trial mode of Microsoft 365 Copilot, but it’s clear that Copilot Chat is designed to tempt businesses to pay to embed Copilot within Office apps.
Copilot Chat is already popular among businesses that rely on Microsoft software and services. “We had Bing Chat Enterprise that we rebranded, and despite the fact that the naming journey has been hard to track and the product is hard to find, we have a tremendous number of users on it,” says Spataro. “What we find is that once you start using it, you learn and appreciate the value it can bring to work.”
With an ongoing debate over the value of a $30 per user per month subscription to Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft will be hoping that Copilot Chat can help convert many more businesses to its AI way of thinking.
