In a world where agentic solutions are moving from pilot projects to enterprise-wide deployments, understanding and controlling costs isn’t just a financial concern, it’s a key part of operational strategy. Without a clear approach, IT leaders risk losing visibility into agent spending, undermining ROI, and facing uncomfortable questions from finance teams and executives. 

Learn more about Copilot Studio licensing: https://learn.microsoft.com/microsoft-copilot-studio/billing-licensing 

Introducing Microsoft’s Agent Cost Management Approach 

To help organizations confidently scale AI adoption while staying in control of costs, Microsoft has introduced a comprehensive agent cost management framework. This solution empowers IT leaders, administrators, and business decision-makers to estimate, track, forecast, and actively control agent-related expenses across Microsoft Copilot Studio and supporting platforms. 

Whether you’re starting small with a few pilot agents or managing hundreds of agents across business units, this approach equips you with the tools and practices to align usage with budget, avoid surprises, and ensure every dollar spent on AI delivers value.  

To learn more, read the new launched Agent Cost Management eBook: https://aka.ms/AgentCostManagement_Ebook 

Watch the Cost Controls session 

To see this in action, watch this session on agent cost controls presented by Kendra Springer, Isha Sahni, and Amiya Patra. We will do an introduction to agent cost controls, then walk you through the cost control product experience in Microsoft 365 admin center, Power Platform admin center, and end with a demo of the Agent Usage Estimator. 

How It Works: Lifecycle Cost Management, from Estimation to Optimization 

Microsoft’s agent cost management approach is designed as an end-to-end lifecycle.

Step 1: Estimation 

To support this, Microsoft provides the Copilot Studio Agent Consumption Estimator (https://aka.ms/CopilotStudioEstimator). This tool allows organizations to forecast monthly message consumption, compare costs between Prepaid and PAYG billing models, and understand what messages might be covered under existing Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses. 

Step 2: Billing Setup 

Agents use “messages” as a common unit of usage across its capabilities. To meet varying needs, Microsoft offers three licensing options to give you flexibility based on your usage. 

• Pre-paid – for more predictable usage, there’s the Message Pack option. It’s US$200 per tenant per month for 25,000 messages. You can buy it directly in the Microsoft 365 admin center. The message pack is applied at the tenant level, and you can buy multiple packs as needed. Learn more about Prepaid capacity at Buy and manage prepaid capacity. 

• Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) – great for unpredictable or low-volume usage. You pay US$0.01 per message, and it’s billed through Azure. No upfront purchase is needed. To understand how the PAYG service works visit View costs and billing for Microsoft 365 Copilot pay-as-you-go and Setting up pay-as-you-go. 

• Microsoft 365 User License – Copilot Studio is also included in the Microsoft 365 Copilot license, which is US $30 per user per month. This gives each licensed user full access to build agents. It’s available via your Microsoft licensing provider or in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Agents built in Copilot Studio for Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and Microsoft 365 Copilot are included at no extra charge. Learn more about Microsoft Copilot Studio’s Billing rates and management 

Step 3: Tracking and Forecasting 

After deployment, you can view detailed reports that are available in the Copilot Control System (CCS) and Power Platform Admin Center (PPAC). Features include: 

• Message consumption reports with user-level and agent-level breakdowns. 

• Real-time alerts for high consumption, allowing proactive adjustments. 

• Historical data views to support budget planning and trend analysis. 

• Azure Cost Management integration for advanced analysis and automated governance workflows. 

Learn more about Microsoft 365 reports in the admin center – Message consumption – Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn 

Step 4: Active Management and Controls 

Admins can: 

• Manage who can create and use agents to prevent sprawl and reduce risk. 

• Implement per-user and per-agent message limits to enforce fairness and prevent runaway costs. 

• Use granular departmental billing to allocate costs to business units. 

• Block or deactivate agents as needed to maintain policy compliance. 

Additionally, organizations can switch between billing models as needs evolve. For example, they might move from PAYG to prepaid when usage grows, or adopt user licenses for teams with steady, predictable consumption. Future enhancements like per-agent consumption limits and budgeting controls within MAC will further strengthen financial governance. 

Learn how to Prepare your organization for Microsoft 365 Copilot. 

Conclusion 

Agents hold tremendous potential to transform business operations, but without disciplined cost management, that potential can be undermined by financial risks and governance gaps. By adopting a lifecycle approach to agent cost management, organizations can confidently accelerate their AI journeys, knowing they have the tools to forecast, control, and optimize spending. 

This proactive approach not only safeguards budgets but also strengthens trust with stakeholders, enabling broader and faster adoption of AI-driven solutions across the enterprise. It helps to ensure that every dollar invested in AI delivers measurable value, supports innovation, and drives competitive advantage. As organizations continue to expand their use of AI, having a clear strategy for cost management becomes a critical enabler of long-term success. By combining careful estimation, flexible billing models, continuous monitoring, and robust governance controls, businesses can create a scalable, sustainable foundation for AI growth. 

Next Steps: Take control of your agent costs 

Now is the time to take charge of your AI costs and turn potential risks into strategic opportunities for transformation. 

• Read the full Agent Cost Management eBook: https://aka.ms/AgentCostManagement_Ebook 

• Try the Copilot Studio Agent Consumption Estimator: https://aka.ms/CopilotStudioEstimator 
• Watch the Cost Controls session: Agent Cost Controls
• Listen to Cost Controls Podcast: https://thelowcodeapproach.podbean.com/e/episode-93-copilot-cost-controls-w-amiya-and-isha/ 

• Explore detailed cost management documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/power-platform/admin/manage-copilot-studio-messages-capacity 

• Learn more about the Microsoft 365 Copilot pay-as-you-go plan: https://learn.microsoft.com/copilot/microsoft-365/pay-as-you-go/overview 

• Manage Copilot agents in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center: 
  https://learn.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/admin/manage/manage-copilot-agents-integrated-apps?view=o365-worldwide 

The post Take Control of Agent Costs  appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Effective Dataverse capacity management is a key priority for IT and business administrators. With the latest updates to the Power Platform Admin Center,

1. Capacity management is now more streamlined and flexible, offering admins precise control over resource allocation
2. Pay-as-You-Go (PayGo) option is now available to enable scalability

Storage allocation

The foundation of the enhanced capacity management experience lies in granular allocation. Admins can now pre-allocate Dataverse capacity directly to specific environments, ensuring business units and teams operate with the resources they need while maintaining independence from other workloads. 

For example, in a tenant shared by multiple business units, you can now guarantee a specific amount of capacity being available to a given unit. This prevents resource conflicts and ensures that critical workloads receive priority. Admins no longer need to manually monitor or redistribute resources as demands evolve. Instead, capacity can automatically be drawn from the tenant pool for environments with higher demands. 

This precision-driven approach ensures optimal resource usage across the tenant, eliminating inefficiencies like overprovisioning and underutilization.

Overage management with PayGo  

While pre-allocation provides robust control, unexpected surges in demand can still occur. To address these situations, the Power Platform Admin Center now seamlessly integrates a Pay-as-You-Go (PayGo) option with the allocation experience. 

The new experience also supports Microsoft Copilot Studio, providing a streamlined approach to managing message capacity. This integration ensures that admins can efficiently manage messaging workloads alongside other capacity resources, further enhancing overall system flexibility. 

When environments approach their allocated capacity limits, admins receive proactive notifications and can choose how to address overages: 

• Switching to PayGo for Specific Workloads: Admins have the option to selectively enable PayGo metering for specific product to the PayGo Azure subscription, ensuring that only certain product usage in the designated environments incur charges for PayGo. This eliminates concerns about other workloads unintentionally impacting the PayGo budget. 

• Depleting Pre-Paid Capacity First: The flexibility to combine pre-paid capacity with PayGo in the same environment ensures that businesses can fully utilize their pre-purchased resources before incurring any additional costs. This approach avoids being billed at PayGo rates for all usage in the environment, maintaining cost efficiency. 

For admins needing stricter governance, options for programmatic hard limits on environment consuming capacity can prevent overages entirely, ensuring compliance and budget control. 

Set up PayGo with consumption experience

Setting up PayGo is now a seamless process, thanks to new user experience improvements in the Power Platform Admin Center. Admins can effortlessly: 

• Select the appropriate Azure subscription and resource groups to ensure alignment with organizational policies. 

• Configure selective metering with clarity, choosing only the workloads or environments that should transition to PayGo when needed. 

• The improved consumption dashboard offers real-time insights into usage patterns, billing trends, and capacity consumption, empowering admins to make data-driven decisions. Additionally, Admins can view billing details, allocate charges, and set spending alerts directly in the Azure portal. 

By combining granular allocation with the flexibility of Pay-as-You-Go and the transparency of detailed consumption reporting, the Power Platform Admin Center has the tools your need to: 

• Optimize resource utilization across all environments. 

• Scale seamlessly for unplanned surges while maintaining governance. 

• Eliminate inefficiencies, reduce manual overhead, and enhance cost predictability. 

This comprehensive approach ensures that any business can manage the capacity needs of their business without compromising the speed of growth and innovation on the Power Platform. 

Learn more about Dataverse

• Get started with PayGo
• Listen to Low code approach podcast 
• Read Dataverse webpage 
• Read Dataverse documentation 

The post Seamless Capacity Management: PayGo for Overage appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Introducing Easier License Management for Power Apps

Starting in December 2023 we are introducing a set of changes which will make it easier for admins to manage license assignments for Power Apps per-user licenses. We understand the complexities admins face when identifying users in need of Power Apps licenses, and we’re excited to introduce enhancements to license assignment process that will make license management easier.

Currently, admins must determine which users within their organization require Power Apps per-user licenses. Once these users are identified, these licenses are assigned through the Microsoft 365 admin center. In response to feedback from admins about the challenges of determining which users need Power Apps licenses, we recently introduced a feature to automatically assign licenses to users when they are needed.

This feature, called License Auto-claim for Power Apps (see Manage auto-claim policies in the Microsoft 365 admin center | Microsoft Learn), enables admins to establish a policy in the Microsoft 365 admin center which directs Power Apps per-user licenses to be automatically assigned to unlicensed users when they first access a Power App that requires a premium license.

Automatic Creation of Auto-claim Policies

As part of our ongoing commitment to simplifying license management for administrators, we’re automating the creation of auto-claim policies for tenants with managed environments.

Starting December 2023, an auto-claim license policy for Power Apps per-user licenses, named ‘Auto-Created Policy for PowerApps,’ will be created in the Microsoft 365 admin center for tenants currently using managed environments. Under this policy, if a user without a Power Apps per-user license launches an app in a managed environment, they will automatically be assigned a Power Apps per-user license if one is available in your tenant.

By default, this policy will be applied when users launch Power Apps in managed environments. However, admins can choose to extend this policy to apply to Power Apps launches in standard environments as well via a setting in the Power Platform admin center.

Admins remain in control

Admins maintain authority over the default Auto-claim Policy. Global admins have the right to manage the policy in Microsoft 365 admin center and view a report of which users have been assigned licenses via the policy. Similarly in the Power Platform admin center admins can decide whether the policy should apply to managed environments only or to all environments.

In addition, if there is an existing auto-claim policy set up for Power Apps no new policy will be created, and the existing policy will continue to apply to all environments.

Compatibility with existing process for license assignment

For organizations already following a distinct license assignment process, administrators can still benefit from the Auto-claim policy while maintaining their current workflow. Admins will have the ability to review the list of users to whom licenses were assigned through the Auto-claim policy in the M365 admin center. They can then make necessary adjustments, such as unassigning auto-claim-assigned licenses and moving users to designated groups to leverage Entra group-based licensing.

We trust that this update will streamline your licensing procedures and reduce the workload associated with license management for your administrators.

For more details on Auto-claim policies for Power Apps licenses, be sure to check our documentation here:  Auto-claim policies for Power Apps licenses – Power Platform | Microsoft Learn

The post Simplified License Assignment for Power Apps appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

In line with our commitment to streamline license administration and empower customers to ensure compliance while optimizing their product investments, we’re excited to unveil a significant advancement in our strategy. We’re dedicated to automating license management processes, effectively easing the complexity and administrative load associated with license assignment. It is with great pleasure that we introduce the public preview of auto-claim for Power Apps licenses, a feature that empowers administrators to effortlessly set up policies within the Microsoft 365 admin center. These policies enable automatic license assignments to unlicensed users when they engage with Power Apps that require licensing.

This capability extends to Power Apps per user licenses, offering administrators the opportunity to establish auto-claim policies, much like they do for other Microsoft licenses. Once configured, this policy proactively addresses licensing needs for individual Power Apps users within the tenant.

• Users lacking standalone Power Apps licenses who launch premium apps that mandate a premium license will have the license automatically assigned to them.
• Additionally, users accessing apps within a managed environment, without a standalone Power Apps license, will be seamlessly granted a Power Apps per user license.

Set up auto-claim for Power Apps

How to set up auto-claim policy:

Refer to Microsoft Learn documentation on how to create an auto-claim policy for complete instructions.

The introduction of auto-claim for Power Apps licenses not only reduces administrative overhead but also ensures that users have the necessary licenses to fully enjoy the Power Apps experience without interruption. This feature aligns with our continuous effort to enhance customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. Stay tuned for more updates on this feature as we continue to refine and expand its capabilities for other Microsoft Power Platform products. Your feedback is invaluable as we work together to shape the future of license management within the Microsoft ecosystem.

View license consumption for Power Apps and Power Automate

We’re thrilled to announce that the Power Automate licensing experience is now available for public preview in the Power Platform admin center. This exciting development complements the existing Power Apps licensing experience that’s already in public preview. With these enhancements, administrators can now enjoy unprecedented insights and control over license consumption within their organization.

This new feature provides administrators with valuable insights and improved visibility into the consumption of Power Automate licenses. It equips administrators with the necessary tools to effectively track and manage licenses.

It provides answers to critical licensing questions, including:

• Which licenses are used to execute flows in a specific environment?
  With this comprehensive view, administrators can easily identify the licenses actively utilized for running flows in a selected environment. This insight is invaluable for optimizing license allocation and ensuring efficient resource utilization.
• Which flows do not comply with licensing requirements?
  This feature acts as a guardian of compliance, helping administrators identify flows that do not meet the necessary licensing requirements. It highlights any flows that may be running without the appropriate licensing, allowing administrators to take corrective action and ensure compliance with licensing policies.

How to access the experience

Use the Billings (preview) > Licenses (preview) page in the Power Platform admin center to monitor the consumption of your organization’s Power Apps and Power Automate licenses and easily spot environments that might have licensing issues. Get answers to questions like these:

• What types of licenses are being used to launch apps?
• What licenses are being used to execute flows?
• How many users are actively consuming Power Apps or Power Automate licenses in a specific environment?
• Who are the users who are actively consuming Power Apps licenses or Power Automate licenses?
• Are there users in my environment who need standalone Power Apps or Power Automate licenses?
• Which flows are out of compliance?

Incorporating these insights into your licensing strategy can lead to cost savings and more efficient utilization of your Power Apps and Power Automate licenses.

Private preview of Power Apps licensing experience tenant view

Exciting news! We’re also starting the private preview of the Power Apps licensing experience tenant view, which provides Power Apps license consumption details across the entire tenant. This broader view allows you to gain insights into how Power Apps licenses are utilized across your organization.

Sign up for the private preview to be among the first to explore this powerful feature and further enhance your organization’s licensing management.

The introduction of this new licensing consumption view is a significant step forward for administrators managing Power Apps and Power Automate licenses. It empowers them with the data they need to make informed decisions, optimize license allocation, and maintain compliance effortlessly. These features are designed to simplify the complex world of licensing, making it easier than ever to ensure your organization is getting the most value from its investments.

Take control of license consumption

Ready to take control of your license consumption and compliance? Head over to the Power Platform Admin Center, explore the Billings (preview) > Licenses (preview) page, and unlock a new level of visibility and control over your Power Apps and Power Automate licenses.

The post Simplifying license management with auto-claim for Power Apps and licensing insights for Power Automate appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.