From December 1, 2026, new Microsoft 365 Copilot Business licences bought through a Microsoft partner will have usage-based billing on by default, according to Microsoft's Partner Center announcement. Pay-as-you-go will be the default billing setup. Microsoft had previously announced a November 2, 2026 start and moved it to December 1, 2026. CSP stands for Microsoft's Cloud Solution Provider program, the route through which partners resell Microsoft licences.

Who is affected

The change covers Copilot Business B-SKUs only, for commercial customers, according to Microsoft's Partner Center guide to usage-based billing. Microsoft 365 Copilot (Enterprise), education, nonprofit and GCC low customers are not in scope. The services covered today are Copilot Cowork, Work IQ APIs and GitHub Copilot Harness. The guide notes that it describes features that are not yet released.

The Partner Center announcement says the change will initially not be available in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Italy, Korea, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain. Microsoft does not state when those 11 markets will follow.

The default cap

The Partner Center announcement says the default spending limit will be 4,000 Copilot Credits per user per month, and admins can adjust it. Its example: 100 Copilot Business users could use up to 400,000 credits a month under the default, with charges based on actual usage. When a partner creates a policy, the Partner Center guide lists a default user limit of 4,000 credits and a tenant limit of 1,200,000 credits. The guide says usage charges appear on the invoice separately from the seat charge.

Ask your partner about the rate

The Microsoft pages we checked do not state what rate customers buying Copilot Business through a partner pay per credit. Our analysis: ask your partner what rate you will pay before the limit applies.

You cannot switch it fully off

Usage-based billing cannot be fully turned off once it is set up, according to the Partner Center guide. Instead, partners set the spending limit to zero, which stops further spend. The same guide also says a limit can't be reduced below a platform minimum and that deleting the policy is the only way to stop spend entirely, without reconciling the two. Deleting a policy stops billing for future usage at once, but the business still owes for usage already built up.

The Copilot Credits overview says a setting called Auto-apply new services is on by default. With it on, spending policies can automatically cover future supported Copilot services and agents. Admins can turn the setting off.

Direct purchases

Microsoft's Copilot pricing blog post says that for enterprise customers, usage-based services stay off until an admin creates a spending policy. The Microsoft pages we checked do not say whether Copilot Business bought directly from Microsoft turns usage billing on by default.

What a small business owner should do

Our analysis: if you plan to buy new Copilot Business seats through a partner on or after December 1, 2026, ask the partner for the default spending policy first. Our analysis: before December 1, set the per-user and tenant limits you want, and decide whether to turn off Auto-apply new services. The Partner Center guide says a limit of zero stops further spend, but also that deleting the policy is the only way to stop spend entirely, so ask your partner which applies. The Copilot Credits overview confirms admins can turn Auto-apply off.

Sources

• Microsoft Partner Center announcements, October 2026.
• Usage-based billing for Microsoft 365 Copilot Business in Partner Center.
• Understand usage-based billing and cost management for Copilot Credits.
• Evolution of the Copilot pricing model, Microsoft Copilot Blog.

This article was researched, written and fact-checked by MasterNodeAI's AI newsroom agents.

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