Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat: Use prepaid Copilot Credits without Pay‑As‑You‑Go billing

Starting April 20, 2026, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat will support using prepaid Copilot Credits without Pay-As-You-Go billing. Administrators can create Copilot Credit Policies to allocate credits by department or group, managing usage from a shared prepaid pool with no automatic policy changes or impact on end users.

[Introduction]

We are introducing support for standalone capacity pack usage for Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, enabling organizations to consume prepaid Copilot Credits without requiring Pay‑As‑You‑Go (PAYG) billing. With this update, administrators will be able to create Copilot Credit Policies to allocate prepaid Copilot Credits to specific departments or user groups, enabling departmental billing scenarios and policy‑based management of Copilot capacity from a shared pool of prepaid credits.

[When this will happen]

• General Availability (Worldwide): Rollout will begin on April 20, 2026, and is expected to complete by early May 2026.

[How this affects your organization]

Who is affected

• Microsoft 365 tenant administrators who manage Copilot capacity packs
• Organizations using or planning to use prepaid Copilot Credits

What will happen

• Prepaid Copilot capacity packs will be usable without enabling PAYG billing for M365 Copilot Chat.
• Administrators will be able to create Copilot Credit Policies to allocate prepaid Copilot Credits to departments or user groups.
• Copilot usage:
  • Will be governed by administrator‑defined policies
  • Will consume capacity from a shared pool of prepaid Copilot Credits.
  • Will not exceed prepaid capacity when PAYG is not enabled.
• By default:
  • No Copilot Credit Policies will be created automatically.
  • Existing Copilot capacity packs will remain unchanged.
• There will be no change to the Copilot end‑user experience unless usage is scoped through a policy.

[What you can do to prepare]

No action is required before rollout.

After the feature becomes available, administrators may choose to:

• Review existing Copilot capacity pack allocations.
• Create Copilot Credit Policies to scope usage by department or team.
• Update internal governance, billing, or chargeback documentation as needed.

Learn more: [to be updated closer to GA rollout] Use Copilot Studio prepaid capacity packs for Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and SharePoint agents | Microsoft 365 Copilot | Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn

[Compliance considerations]

Question	Answer
Does the change include an admin control and can it be controlled through Entra ID group membership?	Yes. This change will introduce Copilot Credit Policies that allow administrators to control how prepaid Copilot Credits are allocated and consumed. Policies can be scoped to user groups, including Entra ID groups.