Microsoft Rolls Out Pay-As-You-Go Copilot Solution for Businesses

Microsoft has introduced a flexible pay-as-you-go plan for its enterprise clients, which combines several of the company's existing AI-driven productivity tools within Microsoft 365.

The new offering, dubbed Copilot Chat (not to be confused with Microsoft’s Copilot Business Chat or GitHub Copilot Chat), leverages OpenAI’s GPT-4o model. It allows users to pose business-focused inquiries, automate workflows, generate images, and perform a range of other tasks.

These features were initially included in Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft's extensive AI-powered suite for enterprise users. However, the pricing for Microsoft 365 Copilot is more rigid, set at $30 per user per month.

The features of Copilot Chat are integrated within the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, a rebranded version of the original Microsoft 365 app.

Through this app, users can leverage Copilot, Microsoft’s chatbot powered by GPT-4o, to summarize key insights from uploaded documents, draft work-related content, or generate AI-created images. Additionally, users can collaborate with colleagues and AI on projects using the integrated Copilot Pages tool.

Microsoft is placing significant emphasis on Copilot Chat’s task automation capabilities, which it characterizes as "agentic."

Through the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, users of Copilot Chat can initiate "agents" designed to automate routine tasks, such as providing account information before a sales meeting or offering instructions to a field service worker. IT administrators can create organization-wide agents, oversee their deployment, and manage both access and security for individual agents.

These agents will be priced on a "metered basis," according to Microsoft’s statement to TechCrunch. Specific pricing details remain undisclosed, and we anticipate receiving further clarification from Microsoft around this soon.

The Copilot Chat plan excludes several features found in Microsoft 365 Copilot, such as prebuilt agents and AI-powered functionalities for Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Additionally, Copilot Chat users do not have access to the personalization options available to Microsoft 365 Copilot subscribers, nor do they benefit from Microsoft’s newly introduced Copilot Analytics tool, which tracks AI usage across the organization.

It appears evident that Copilot Chat represents Microsoft’s strategy to entice those hesitant to adopt Microsoft 365 Copilot by offering metered, agent-driven features, while simultaneously generating additional revenue from customers who have more basic AI needs.

In a recent internal communication, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella outlined the company’s 2025 focus on "AI model-forward applications" that are set to transform all application categories.

“We have a lot of work to do and a tremendous opportunity ahead,” Nadella wrote. “The good news is that we have been working at this for more than two years, and have learned a lot in terms of the systems, app platform, and tools required for the AI era."