Work IQ Cost and Pricing Model for Agents published in Marketplace
I would very much like to ask for assistance and input in regards of "Consumption, cost forecasting, break-even analysis and recommended customer pricing. " I believe a bit of context is required. We are about to publish two Work IQ MCP Agent in Marketplace. Both agents will be integrated to our existing Apps that are published in Marketplace. 1. iGlobe CRM for Teams and 2. iPlanner Pro for Outlook and Teams. Both Apps are multitenant Apps running on customers own tenant. The Apps can only be deployed from Marketplace. Lets use iPlanner Pro Agent as an example. In short, iPlanner Pro Agent uses Work IQ and MCP tools to understand emails, meetings and Microsoft 365 context, while iPlanner Pro turns that intelligence into structured Planner execution, including the appropriate plan, bucket, assignment, priority and supporting email context. Including saving the email or attachments on the task. A prompt could look like this "Find the latest email from email address removed for privacy reasons. Create a task for in Planner, put it in the correct Plan and bucket, assign it to the appropriate owner, set a due date for next week and save the email on the Planner Task" Work IQ and MCP provide context and intelligence, iPlanner Pro executes the structured actions, and Microsoft Planner remains the source of truth. To my understanding Work IQ API usage is billed through Copilot Credits rather than a separate per-user Work IQ license. Microsoft 365 Copilot includes Work IQ functionality within native Microsoft Copilot experiences, but third-party solutions such as iPlanner Pro consume Copilot Credits when they call Work IQ APIs. Work IQ does not require a separate API subscription, SKU or per-user licence. API usage is consumption-based and is measured in Copilot Credits. Work IQ operation Credit consumption Planning note Chat API Variable Depends on grounding, retrieval and reasoning complexity. Context API Variable Depends on the scenario and the sources used. Tool API 0.1 credit per API call Static component: $0.001 per call at $0.01 per credit. Example: 1,000 Tool API calls consume 100 credits, equivalent to $1.00 at the planning rate. Now here comes my confusion. 1. How do we know how many credits we are using with a prompt like the example I showed? the consumption is 0.1 credit per API call. 2. If I understand the above correct, the total consumption is calculated on the customer tenant. That consumption includes much more than just iPlanner Pro. Is that correct? 3. OR, will the sum of all customer using iPlanner Pro Agent be direct to us and we will be billed based on the total consumption of all our customers? If that is the case ( I don't think it is) then how do we know how much each customer consumed? 4. If consumption and billing is on the customer, how can the customer see what iPlanner Pro cost in consumed credits? This is important in regards of giving a cost forecast for customers. I am sure they would want that before start using the Agent. It is also important in regards of the question of if we should charge or offer it as a free agent? If we are billed then we will need to change for it. If the customer is billed then we probably will not be able to charge for it. I hope I have been able to explain my confusion. I tried asking contacts I have at Microsoft, but unfortunately haven't heard anything. That is why I am asking in the community. Have any one else the same challenge? what have you done? Can Microsoft assist here? I will be happy to take a Teams call and others are welcome to join. Thank youBring Marketplace publishing closer to your development workflow
Explore how AI agents can help make Microsoft Marketplace publishing a more natural part of the development workflow. Marketplace Ingestion MCP connects MCP-compatible agent tools with Partner Center APIs, helping publishers turn natural-language intent into supported publishing actions. Learn four ways teams can incorporate agent-assisted publishing into their workflows, from creating and validating offers to building repeatable processes and working from familiar developer tools such as Visual Studio Code and GitHub Copilot CLI. See how publishers can bring product development and publishing closer together while keeping people involved in reviewing and approving changes. Read the articleBring Marketplace publishing into your agentic development workflow
Bringing Marketplace publishing into the development workflow can help teams connect product development and publishing activities through the tools and processes they already use. Teams build their product, then move into a different set of tools and processes to prepare, validate, and submit it. Marketplace Ingestion MCP creates an opportunity to bring those activities closer together. With Marketplace Ingestion MCP, publishers can use natural language and AI agents to create, validate, publish, and manage offers in Microsoft Marketplace. Instead of starting by manually constructing API payloads, publishers can describe the outcome they want. An agent can then help translate that intent into the information required by the underlying publishing APIs. Publishers can also build custom workflows using the MCP, connecting repeatable publishing activities with the development processes and tools their teams already use. The shift is straightforward: start with the publishing outcome, not the API payload. From publishing task to agentic workflow Marketplace Ingestion MCP is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that connects MCP-compatible agent tools with Partner Center APIs. For example, a publisher can ask an agent to create a SaaS offer and identify what is required before it can be published. The agent can retrieve the appropriate schema, build the payload, validate it, and create the offer as a draft. When the publisher is ready to continue, the agent can perform supported publishing actions. Publishers remain in control through the approval settings in their MCP client. This makes Marketplace publishing a more natural part of an agentic development workflow rather than a separate process that begins after development is complete. Four opportunities for agent-assisted publishing Teams exploring where Marketplace Ingestion MCP fits into their development lifecycle can start with four opportunities. 1. Start with intent Developers do not need to begin by manually assembling an API payload. They can describe the offer they want to create or the update they want to make. The agent can use Marketplace Ingestion MCP to retrieve the required schema, build the payload, and validate it before submission. This allows the publisher to focus first on the intended outcome while the agent handles more of the translation into API-specific structures. 2. Make repeated work part of the workflow Offer creation and updates often include steps that teams perform repeatedly. Those steps can become reusable agentic workflows and, where appropriate, be incorporated into continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines. The question for a development team now becomes: Which publishing activities do we repeat often enough that they should become part of our development workflow? The answer will differ across organizations, products, and release processes. Marketplace Ingestion MCP provides the building blocks teams can use to design a workflow that fits their needs. 3. Keep people in control Agent-assisted publishing does not require handing every decision to an agent. MCP client approval settings can require publishers to review and approve tool calls before changes are submitted. Teams can use those controls to determine where automation is useful and where human review should remain part of the process. 4. Work from familiar developer tools Marketplace Ingestion MCP works with supported MCP-compatible clients, including Visual Studio Code and GitHub Copilot CLI. This brings Marketplace publishing tasks closer to the environments where developers already build and operate their products. It also reduces the need to treat publishing as an isolated activity performed through a separate workflow. What does this look like in practice? Consider a fictional publisher, Contoso, that wants to bring a Microsoft 365 agent to customers. Contoso can provide its workflow integrated with the MCP with existing marketing material and the technical manifest for the agent. Marketplace Ingestion MCP can help translate that information into the structure required to create the product in Microsoft Marketplace. The workflow can then build on that information to create a linked SaaS offer for monetization, using the additional details required for the SaaS offer. The publisher describes what it wants to accomplish, and the agent uses Marketplace Ingestion MCP and the publishing APIs to turn that intent into supported publishing actions. Getting started Marketplace Ingestion MCP is included with access to Microsoft Marketplace publishing APIs. Before getting started, publishers need: A Partner Center account with the required role Access to Microsoft Marketplace publishing APIs A supported MCP-compatible client, such as Visual Studio Code or GitHub Copilot CLI The Microsoft Learn documentation covers prerequisites, installation and authentication, available tools, supported products, data handling, and an end-to-end SaaS example. Learn more: Marketplace Ingestion MCP server - Marketplace publisher Bringing publishing closer to development AI agents are becoming part of how developers build and operate software. Marketplace publishing can become part of those workflows as well. Marketplace Ingestion MCP connects natural-language intent with supported Marketplace publishing actions. It allows teams to create repeatable workflows while keeping publishers involved in reviewing and approving changes. The result is a closer connection between building a product and bringing it to market, helping developers focus on the cloud and AI solutions that differentiate their business. Thank you to the many teams whose collaboration brought Marketplace Ingestion MCP to publishers. Their work reflects a shared investment in helping publishers build, publish, and grow through Microsoft Marketplace.How and when do I use Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace benefits?
The latest App Advisor guidance shows how Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace can help at every stage: 🔨 Build & Publish: Create and optimize your Marketplace offer. 📈 Grow: Increase visibility and accelerate transactions. ⭐ Differentiate: Access advanced benefits that support long-term growth. Whether you're just getting started or scaling an established Marketplace business, App Advisor can help you find the right resources for your stage. 📖 Read the blog: Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace: New App Advisor Guidance for Software Companies Which stage best describes your Marketplace journey today: Build & Publish, Grow, or Differentiate?Explore App Advisor for details on how Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace can help you sell more
Explore the latest Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace updates available through App Advisor. Learn how software development companies can discover relevant Microsoft Marketplace resources, benefits, and commercialization opportunities that help accelerate solution development, reach new customers, and scale revenue growth through Marketplace.
Can a reseller set exact customer totals on an Azure private offer?
When we create a multiperiod private offer, we enter our markup as a percentage. Sometimes the customer total Azure calculates is a few cents off the signed quote, even when we use all eight decimal places. Is there a way to set the exact customer price for each period? If not, how are other resellers handling these rounding differences?
Preview SaaS offer purchase fails at subscription creation
I'm publishing a transactable SaaS offer and testing the purchase flow in preview. Test purchases used to work, and then stopped working with no change on our side that would explain it. The purchase now fails at the final step: "Couldn't process your SaaS subscription" Earlier attempts also returned "400 Bad Request" from the marketplace SaaS service during checkout. Important: this offer previously accepted preview test purchases successfully. Several went through and created subscriptions. The same flow now fails every time, for no apparent reason and with no configuration change on our part. Setup: - Transactable SaaS offer, tested via the Azure portal preview link at the Publisher signoff stage. - Private test plan priced at $0, 1-year term, restricted to my own tenant. What I have already verified and ruled out: - The plan resolves and is selectable. The failure page even shows the correct plan name, so the preview audience and private-plan tenant restriction are working. The failure is at subscription creation, not plan visibility. - Buying subscription is Pay-As-You-Go, spending limit off, Enabled. - Microsoft.SaaS, Microsoft.Marketplace, and Microsoft.MarketplaceOrdering resource providers are all registered. - A valid payment method (credit card) is on the billing profile. - The buyer's market (country) is included in the plan's markets. - Azure Private Marketplace store exists but is disabled, so it is not blocking. - I republished the offer to regenerate a fresh preview link. Preview creation completed successfully. - It fails identically for the Azure account owner, not just a delegated tester. So purchases worked before, every setting I can find is still correct, and it now fails at Microsoft's subscription-creation step. Questions: 1. Has anyone had preview test purchases work and then suddenly start failing with "Couldn't process your SaaS subscription," and found the cause? 2. Is this a known platform-side issue? The republish-with-a-small-edit workaround did not help.Choosing the right offer type for your cloud and AI solutions
Whether you're bringing a new AI solution to market or evaluating how to scale an existing application, understanding Marketplace offer types can help you choose the right path to monetization and customer adoption. Check out this short video that compares the capabilities of SaaS offers, Container offers, and Azure managed applications to understand which model best aligns with your architecture, deployment requirements, and customer needs.
App ratings are not displayed when a Marketplace listing includes a free trial
Hi community! We’ve noticed that app ratings are not displayed on Microsoft Marketplace browse and search result cards when an offer includes a Free trial badge. For example, the one listing displays its rating of 3.6 (107 ratings) directly on the card. Youkeeps AI Scheduling Assistant listing has customer ratings, but its card displays the Free trial badge without any rating information. Could you please confirm whether this is expected behavior or a display issue? Is there a way to show both the Free trial badge and the app rating on the listing card?
Microsoft Templates for Azure Application upload
Hi All, Are there ready to use templates for the documentation that Microsoft is requesting to upload for this offer type - such as Solution and Deployment Architecture, Customer Installation Guide, Customer Onboarding and Configuration Guide, Data Integration Guide. If yes, could someone share the links or the templates. Thank you!
