Forum Discussion
Credits usage for Copilot Studio Workflow with agents
If I add an agent(for research and analyze from the JSON provided) in Copilot studio recurring workflow, whose and which credits will be used whenever it runs?
Hi Team,
I have a question regarding licensing and credit consumption in Copilot Studio.
I have created a Copilot Studio agent that performs research and analysis based on a JSON payload. I am planning to invoke this agent from within a Copilot Studio recurring workflow that runs on a schedule.
Could you please clarify the following:
- When the recurring workflow executes and calls the agent, whose credits are consumed?
- The user who created the workflow?
- The owner of the agent?
- The account under which the workflow runs?
- The environment's pooled credits?
- Are there separate credit charges for:
- Workflow execution
- Agent invocation
- Generative AI/research actions performed by the agent
Any guidance or documentation links explaining the credit consumption model for this scenario would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
3 Replies
- mocksterCopper Contributor
Hello,
If your agent was built using the Standard Harness and the end user has a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, usage is generally included and does not consume Copilot Studio message credits, unless the agent uses premium capabilities such as Voice.
If your agent was built using the GitHub Copilot Harness, usage is billed through Copilot Studio message credits based on the operations performed by the agent. For more details, see: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/requirements-messages-management.
Examples of typical consumption:
- Generative AI response: approximately 2 credits per response.
With GitHub Copilot Harness agents, billing is token-based (1 credit = 1,000 tokens). In practice, the first 2,000 tokens consumed correspond to 2 credits, and additional credits are consumed as token usage increases. - Agent Action (for example, calling a Power Automate flow): 5 credits per action.
- Knowledge grounding (retrieving information from connected knowledge sources to generate a response): 10 credits per operation.
Keep in mind that actual credit consumption depends on the agent configuration and the capabilities used during the conversation.
- Ugk1234Copper Contributor
I guess we need to have M365 Copilot with premium add on for use the "included token" feature for CopilotStuido standard harness
- Generative AI response: approximately 2 credits per response.
- Toby-from-VazeCopper Contributor
I build Vaze. For a recurring workflow using the GitHub Copilot harness, Microsoft's documented billing unit is the environment and agent, not the individual maker or end user. I'd check the environment's prepaid allocation, tenant-pool draw and linked pay-as-you-go plan rather than the creator's personal credits.
Workflows consume Copilot Studio capacity for the actions they execute. Agent usage can also consume credits for model tokens, tools and the harness. So I wouldn't budget this as one fixed-price agent call: the work performed inside the run matters.
Microsoft's cost-management and workflow documentation:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/manage-usage-github-copilot-harness
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/workflows-experience/flows-overview
Check the harness before applying this to your setup. A standard-harness agent flow or a Power Automate cloud flow can have different licensing rules. For the GitHub Copilot harness case, a small test run with non-sensitive JSON, followed by the environment and agent consumption reports, should help establish the actual cost before scheduling it regularly.