The price per person is the first thing anyone asks about Copilot, and it is the easiest number in the decision. Although it is published and the same for everyone of your size, it is rarely what decides whether Copilot pays for itself. The costs around it do that, and most of them land before the first person is switched on.
We are a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Cardonet is Certified in the Claude Partner Network, so we deploy Copilot and the alternatives to it. If you are still choosing between them, Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot covers how.
What Copilot itself costs
These are Microsoft's list prices as published in October 2026, per person per month on an annual commitment, before VAT or sales tax. Prices through a reseller can differ, and Microsoft changes them, so confirm them before you buy.
| Copilot Chat | Microsoft 365 Copilot Business | Microsoft 365 Copilot | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who it is for | Comes with Microsoft 365 business plans | Businesses with up to 300 people on a qualifying Microsoft 365 business plan | Larger businesses |
| Price per person per month, October 2026 | No extra cost | $21 USD or £16.10 GBP | $30 USD or £23.10 GBP |
While Copilot Chat answers from the web and from whatever someone pastes or uploads, it does not search your email, Teams or files. Copilot Chat or Microsoft 365 Copilot covers who needs more. On Copilot Business, paying month to month costs more, and Microsoft has offered a lower first-year rate on new annual commitments during 2026, so ask what applies when you buy.
Agents built in Copilot Studio, and agents that serve people outside your business, can be billed by use through an Azure subscription that sits outside the seat price. Ask what any agent you are planning will consume before it goes live.
For a business putting 50 people on Copilot Business at list price, that comes to $12,600 USD or £9,660 GBP a year before tax. That needs its own budget line, and it is still usually the smaller part of the cost.
What you pay for besides the seat
Permissions, before anyone is switched on
Copilot answers from whatever the signed-in person can open across email, Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive. In most businesses that is wider than anyone intended, because shared folders, open links and leavers' access build up for years.
The work to find and tighten that is the largest cost around the seat, and it depends on the age and state of your estate rather than on how many seats you buy. What Copilot can already see has four checks you can run yourself to size it.
Controls your plan may not include
Some of the controls that keep Copilot away from your most sensitive files, such as labelling documents by sensitivity and applying that labelling automatically, depend on which Microsoft 365 plan you are on. Check what your current plan includes before assuming a control is there, because the gap sometimes means a plan upgrade for some or all of your people. Sensitivity labels before Copilot covers what to label first.
Showing people what it is for
The first month needs time from your people and from whoever shows them: which work Copilot suits, what to check before anything leaves the building and where to stop. Copilot training in the first month sets it out week by week. Without that time, use fades within a quarter, and you are still paying for the remaining months of the commitment.
Seats bought ahead of use
On an annual commitment, a seat bought in month one is paid for in month twelve whether anyone opened it or not. Buying for a first team and widening when the usage report shows they rely on it costs less than buying for everyone and hoping. The Microsoft 365 admin center reports Copilot use per person, so the evidence is there by the first renewal.
Someone who owns it
Copilot changes every month: new features, new agents and settings such as whether Anthropic's Claude models are available inside it. As those arrive, somebody has to decide what gets switched on, keep the tool register current and review use before each renewal. That is a few hours a month from a named person, or part of a managed service, and it is the cost most often left out.
Keeping the bill proportionate
- Start everyone on Copilot Chat, which you already pay for, under a written rule on what may go in.
- Choose a first team whose work lives in Outlook, Teams, Word and Excel, and buy seats for them only.
- Before they are connected, check what that team can reach and tighten it.
- Write down how long their chosen work takes today, so the comparison at the end means something.
- Widen when the team relies on it and the next team's permissions have been checked, and drop unused seats at renewal.
Where this fits
That order is the route we run. Within it, Track agrees the rules and brings a first team into daily use, a permissions review sits between that team and everyone else, and Adopt ends with a test on your people's own work. How this is scoped explains what is fixed price and what is quoted per piece.
If you want a first view of where you stand before talking to anyone, ten questions take about two minutes and send nothing anywhere.