Understand what is billed, estimate the workload, validate your commercial terms and measure the value delivered.
Select a topic for a short explanation and the relevant resources.
Atlas explains how to use existing resources. The tools and billing guidance linked here are provided by Microsoft; this independent guide is curated by Exchange Anywhere and is not a Microsoft quotation or billing service. Microsoft’s products, estimators and billing models evolve as capabilities mature. Check the current official guidance and your agreement before making a commitment. References reviewed 8 October 2026; this page is not automatically refreshed.
A solution can combine several billing models. Keep their units separate and check what your licence already includes.
Estimate the number of paid licences required, not just the number of active users. Your actual cost depends on the plan, prerequisites, agreement and purchase terms. An unused assigned licence may still incur a charge.
Planning approach: paid licences × applicable unit price for the same billing period. Review included capabilities before adding consumption costs.
For token-priced APIs, input and output can have different rates. Estimate the total tokens across all model calls, including repeated context and retries. Cached input, batch processing, reasoning, audio or images may have separate rules or rates.
Basic text estimate: (input tokens ÷ 1,000,000 × input rate per million) + (output tokens ÷ 1,000,000 × output rate per million). This applies only when your selected service uses those units; provisioned capacity has a different charging basis.
Credit consumption depends on the billable capabilities an agent uses, its activity and applicable entitlements. A conversation or completed task can involve several billable activities. Credits are not interchangeable with tokens and there is no universal tokens-to-credits conversion.
Planning approach: estimate activity with Microsoft’s Copilot Credit Estimator, then validate the purchase model, included capacity and applicable billing rates. The estimator provides guidance, not a guaranteed bill.
Include retrieval/search, embeddings, storage, compute, orchestration, tools, network usage and monitoring where applicable. Keep one-time implementation, data preparation, training and ongoing support visible in the wider business case.
Planning approach: total applicable licence + consumption + supporting-service costs for the same period. Avoid adding items already included in another charge.
Choose a resource based on the service and billing unit you are planning. Confirm any organisation-specific rates with your procurement or commercial team.
Use it to assemble estimates for Azure OpenAI and supporting Azure services. Select the applicable region, deployment, capacity and usage assumptions.
Public estimates are not necessarily your negotiated rates; use your applicable offer and validate the commercial terms.
Open official resourceConfigure expected users, interactions, knowledge and agent features to explore credit consumption.
Microsoft describes this as an informational estimate; it does not guarantee final monthly expense.
Open official resourceReview the current billable activities, rates, entitlements and credit management guidance before using an estimate.
Activity rates and included usage can change; verify the current rules for your scenario.
Open official resourceCheck Microsoft’s current Copilot Studio pricing and available purchasing options for your market.
Validate capacity, commitment terms and charges with your agreement; do not assume one public rate fits every organisation.
Open official resourceReview the current Microsoft 365 Copilot plans and requirements before deciding how many licences to purchase.
Licence entitlements and agent consumption are distinct. Check what is included to avoid double counting.
Open official resourceUse cost analysis, budgets and alerts to monitor supported billing scopes, review trends and allocate costs.
A budget alert is a notification, not a hard spending cap. Access and coverage depend on the billing scope; other invoices may need separate reconciliation.
Open official resourceAn internal support agent might retrieve a document, make two model calls and invoke a workflow before resolving a request. Estimate those applicable activities under the service’s billing rules, then include any separate search, hosting and support costs. Do not price the whole request as one token call or one credit unless the provider’s rules support that assumption.
An estimate supports planning. Your provider’s billing records, contract and invoice determine actual charges. This guide covers selected Microsoft resources, not every AI provider or commercial arrangement.