Copilot's Meter Turns On by Default December 1
New Copilot Business licenses bought through a reseller will come with pay-as-you-go billing already switched on. Here is what that means and the cap to set first.
By John Martines · November 2, 2026 · 6 min
From December 1, 2026, new Microsoft 365 Copilot Business licenses bought through Microsoft's reseller program arrive with usage-based billing on and a default limit of 4,000 credits per person per month. Here is how to decide your own limit before the first bill.
The office manager at a 14-person heating and cooling company adds Copilot for the two dispatchers in December. The reseller sends the usual confirmation. Nobody notices one line in it: pay-as-you-go billing is on. In January, one of the dispatchers asks Copilot to pull together a weekly job summary from email, the calendar and a shared folder, every Monday, on its own. It works well. The February invoice has a new charge on it that nobody planned for.
Nothing went wrong there. That is how the new default is designed. Starting December 1, 2026, Microsoft is switching usage-based billing on by default for new Microsoft 365 Copilot Business licenses sold through its reseller program. If you buy Copilot that way, the decision about a usage limit has already been made for you, unless you make it yourself.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business is the Copilot seat for businesses under 300 people. You pay a fixed price per person per month for the seat.
Some Copilot features now cost extra on top of the seat, measured in Copilot Credits. The biggest one is Copilot Cowork, the part of Copilot that takes on a whole job (gather these emails, draft that report, fill in this spreadsheet) instead of answering one question. Each job Cowork runs uses credits. At Microsoft's pay-as-you-go rate, a credit costs one cent, billed at the end of the month for what was used.
Most small businesses buy Microsoft through the Cloud Solution Provider program, which just means through an IT partner or reseller rather than straight from Microsoft. That is where the change lands. In Microsoft's words to its partners, "Pay-as-you-go will be the default billing configuration" for new Copilot Business licenses, standalone or in a bundle, from December 1.
Three details matter:
- There is a default limit. It is 4,000 Copilot Credits per user per month, and an admin can change it. At one cent a credit, that is room for up to $40 per person per month on top of the seat. It is a ceiling, not a charge: you pay for what is used.
- The billing is set up for you. Normally someone had to connect an Azure subscription before the meter could run. Microsoft says new licenses will now include that setup, so the meter is ready from day one.
- It is not everywhere at first. Microsoft says the default will not start in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Italy, Korea, the Netherlands, Poland or Spain. The United States is not on that list.
How it got here:
- June 16, 2026: Copilot Cowork became generally available, billed per task in Copilot Credits on top of a Copilot license.
- October 1, 2026: Microsoft told its partners that usage-based billing would be on by default for new Copilot Business licenses, starting November 2.
- October 14, 2026: Microsoft moved the date to December 1 and published the 4,000-credit default limit.
- December 1, 2026: The default takes effect. The same day, new Copilot Business offers no longer require a qualifying Microsoft 365 base subscription.
For a year, the Copilot question was simple: is the seat worth the monthly price? The seat is a fixed cost. You can put it in a budget and forget it.
Usage billing is different. It behaves like a phone bill with no plan limit you chose yourself. A careful person who uses Copilot for short questions may never touch the meter. A curious person who sets up a recurring job that reads a month of email every morning can use credits every day without thinking about it, because nothing on their screen says "this costs money."
The default limit helps, but it was picked by Microsoft for everyone. For a 10-person office, 4,000 credits each is a ceiling of 40,000 credits, or up to $400 a month across the team, before anyone has decided whether those jobs are worth it. Microsoft's own example to partners is a 100-person customer who "could consume up to 400,000 Copilot Credits per month under the default spending limit."
Microsoft is open about why it wants the meter on. Its partner notice says early usage "can create a natural path to expanded consumption." That is fair from their side. From yours, it means the first conversation about cost should happen before December, not after the first invoice.
We wrote about the general idea in our piece on why [your AI bill now works like a phone bill](/articles/your-ai-bill-is-a-phone-bill). This is the first time the meter arrives switched on.
1. Find out if you are affected. Ask your IT partner one question: "Are we buying any new Copilot Business licenses on or after December 1, and will they have usage-based billing on?" Microsoft's notice covers new purchases. If you are renewing or adding seats around that date, ask whether your order counts as new. Get the answer in writing.
2. Decide your own limit. Pick a number per person that you would be comfortable seeing on a bill if everyone used all of it. For most offices starting out, that is far below 4,000 credits. Some will want zero for everyone except one or two people who have a real job for Cowork.
3. Set it in the admin center. Microsoft's instructions put the controls in the Microsoft 365 admin center under Copilot > Cost Management. You need a Global or Billing administrator to set it up. That is where you set the spending policy and watch credit use. If your IT partner manages your tenant, ask them to set it and send you a screenshot.
4. Name who may use the meter. Write a one-line rule: who may run Cowork jobs, and which jobs. "Office manager and lead estimator only, for the weekly schedule summary and job reports" is enough. Everyone else can still use the regular Copilot chat that comes with the seat.
5. Watch the first two months. Look at credit use after the first week and the first month. If one recurring job is using most of the credits, decide whether it saves enough time to keep. Our [Metered Bill Estimator](/tools/bill-estimator) helps you think through a usage bill before it arrives.
- Do we know which of our Copilot licenses are Business licenses bought through a reseller?
- Has anyone set a spending limit, or are we on Microsoft's default of 4,000 credits per person?
- Who in our business has the admin role to change that limit, and do they know where it is?
- Who gets an alert when credit use climbs, and at what point?
- Does our reseller's invoice show Copilot Credit charges on their own line, so we can see them?
Microsoft is moving more of Copilot to this two-part model: a seat for everyday help, and credits for the bigger jobs. The notice already lists more than Cowork under the meter, including features for developers and connected apps. Expect the list to grow, and expect other AI vendors to keep doing the same.
You do not need to avoid the new features. Some of them will save real hours. You do need to choose the limit yourself, before December 1, so the first surprise on your bill is a good one.
---
Sources (checked November 2, 2026). The December 1 default, the change from November 2, the 4,000-credit default limit and the 100-user example, the included Azure setup, the eleven markets left out at first, the features covered and the "natural path to expanded consumption" line: "Update: Usage-based billing is default on for new Microsoft 365 Copilot Business licenses starting December 1, 2026" (Microsoft Partner Center announcements, posted Oct 1, 2026, updated Oct 14, 2026). New Copilot Business offers without a base subscription from December 1: the reseller promotions notice in Microsoft Partner Center announcements (Oct 29, 2026). Pay-as-you-go price of $0.01 per credit, billed in arrears: "Copilot Credits" (Microsoft Licensing guidance, 2026). Cowork general availability and per-task billing in Copilot Credits: "Copilot Cowork is now generally available" (Microsoft 365 Blog, June 16, 2026). Admin setup under Copilot > Cost Management and the roles needed: "Managing AI experiences enabled by usage-based billing" (Microsoft Learn, 2026).