Copilot Cowork
Cost Calculator
Cowork is the agentic side of Microsoft Copilot. Instead of answering one prompt at a time, it works through entire tasks on its own and delivers finished output. That autonomy is billed by consumption, which changes how you budget for it.
Usage-Based Billing
Cowork bills for the Copilot Credits your team consumes, not a flat per-seat license.
Hard to Spec
Credit burn varies by team and task, so spend is difficult to predict before you deploy.
Microsoft's Own Math
This calculator runs the exact logic from Microsoft's official Cowork planning estimator.
customnetworks.com/copilot-cowork-calculator
Cowork Cost Calculator
Rev 07.2026
01
Your team
Count the people who will actually use Cowork. Skip any group that doesn't apply.
02
Usage assumptions
How often each group runs light, medium, and heavy tasks, and what each task costs in credits.
Using Microsoft Frontier averages. Most organizations should leave these as-is until they have real usage data.
Prompts per user, per month
| Worker type | Light | Medium | Heavy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate | |||
| Customer-facing | |||
| Technical | |||
| Managers |
Credits per prompt
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cr
cr
A
Common questions
Cowork is Microsoft's agentic AI capability inside Copilot. Instead of answering one prompt at a time, Cowork works through multi-step tasks on your behalf, using frontier models such as Anthropic Opus 4.8. Usage is metered in Copilot Credits rather than a flat per-seat license.
Copilot Credits are the consumption currency for Cowork. Each task consumes credits based on its complexity: roughly 125 for a light task, 500 for a medium task, and 1,200 for a heavy task. At list pricing, 100 credits cost $1.00.
The default usage assumptions come from aggregated Microsoft Frontier program customer data published in Microsoft's official CustomerCoworkEstimator workbook (May 2026). Treat the output as a directional budgeting estimate, not a quote. Actual consumption varies by organization, which is why every assumption on this page is editable.
1 Default prompt counts and credit costs are derived from aggregated, anonymized data collected from customers in Microsoft's Cowork Frontier program, as published in Microsoft's CustomerCoworkEstimator.xlsx (5/27/2026). This data is intended for illustrative purposes only and may not reflect the experience of all customers. Estimates assume Anthropic Opus 4.8.
2 This calculator is designed to help inform budgeting considerations for potential Cowork purchases. Figures are generalized estimates and may vary based on individual scenarios. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information. Custom Networks, Inc. provides this tool as a free community resource and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft.
Budget is step one. Adoption is everything else.
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